25/11/2010
Following the 'John Lewis model' boosts productivity and efficiency by giving staff a chance to shape the organisation, the Cabinet Office minister said this week.
The announcement came from Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude, who gave a speech about his plans to modernise the public sector in what is being hailed the biggest shake up of public services since the privatisations made in the 1980s.
As reported by The Daily Mail, Mr Maude said that staff from every government department would be given the right to take over the running of the services the department provides, if certain guarantees can be met. However, areas such as defence and security are expected to be exempt from the plans.
Mr Maude described his idea as a 'John Lewis model', in reference the John Lewis Partnership in which employees each own a stake in the company.
Mr Maude said: "When staff are given a stake in shaping services, productivity and efficiency has been shown to improve dramatically."
It's something many business might take to heart, especially in light of news published this week which revealed that John Lewis' sales had jumped by 6.8 per cent when compared with last year. According to Bloomberg, John Lewis has hit a total of 76.9 million in sales.
Any businesses wanting to adopt a similar style, or in fact make any kind of transformational change, can sometimes feel held back because they don't have enough cash to execute the improvements. However, thanks to factoring services and other methods of borrowing, business have access to an easy way of injecting cash into their company. This means that the business won't get left behind when its competitors evolve because they will be able to fund their own improvement and stay ahead of the pack.
Laura Nineham