In the high-stakes world of water utilities, where service interruptions can make headlines and regulatory fines can break budgets, productivity isn’t just a buzzword—it’s a lifeline. But what does it really mean to be productive in an industry as complex as water? True productivity isn’t about pushing teams to their limits. It’s about unlocking potential through smart strategies and innovative thinking.
During our first productivity webinar, ‘Improving Field Force Productivity: Challenges and Opportunities’, Reson8 Partner Dean Wheeler, along with panellists Matthew Pinder, Head of AMP8 Readiness at Yorkshire Water, and Phil Sweeney, Central Operations Director at United Utilities, shared insights on boosting performance across your operation.
In this article, we’ve distilled their discussions into four key strategies. From empowering frontline managers to leveraging data and technology effectively, these practical approaches will boost productivity without overwhelming complexity.
Key Insights You’ll Gain:
- Empowing Your Frontline Managers as Catalysts for Change
- Ensuring Process Adherence and Compliance are Your Productivity Foundation
- Turning Your Data into Action with Consistent KPI Reporting & Analytics
- Leveraging Tech & Innovation as Strategic Enablers, Not Just Solutions
Rethinking productivity for the modern era
“I think it’s a big challenge for the whole water industry. How do we actually modernise the way we deliver maintenance activity?” [Phil]
Achieving impressive productivity results doesn’t rely on pushing teams to their limits. Instead, success comes from effectively managing and empowering skilled teams with the right tools and strategies. This principle is especially relevant for industries like water utilities, where field-based teams must meet rising expectations with constrained resources.
Below are four key strategies for elevating productivity across your organisation:
- Empowering Your Frontline Managers as Catalysts for Change
Frontline managers are the eyes and ears on the ground, uniquely positioned for spotting and addressing issues as they arise. However, many processes that fuel inefficiencies are rooted deeper in the organisation, often in upstream functions like back-office operations or misaligned workflows, and can’t be resolved locally on the ground.
To empower frontline managers as catalysts for change, it’s essential to separate immediate field problems from these systemic issues. This dual focus ensures that actions lead to deeper, strategic improvements rather than just surface-level fixes.
Frontline managers must lead and be accountable for driving change, while effective systems need to be in place to raise and address systemic issues quickly. This empowerment and focus leads to better engagement, streamlined operations, and increased productivity across the organisation.
- Ensuring Process Adherence and Compliance as Your Productivity Foundation
Process adherence and compliance are the bedrock of all sustainable productivity gains. While it may not be the most glamorous aspect of productivity, strict adherence to processes ensures that operations run smoothly and consistently, reducing variability and waste.
Without a solid foundation of compliance, even the best-laid plans can falter. Maintaining rigorous standards is essential, especially in times of change or stress. This discipline in following processes ensures consistent outcomes and becomes the foundation of continuous improvement.
An example from a recent project illustrates how driving compliance with business processes can deliver significant performance improvements.
- Turning Your Data into Action with Consistent KPI Reporting & Analytics
Data is often compared to the raw materials of the productivity equation. However, without proper processing and application, data remains just that: raw material. KPI reporting and analytics are critical in transforming this data into actionable insights that drive productivity improvements.
“Consistency of KPIs across teams is crucial.” [Matt]
By establishing consistent reporting and analytics processes and measuring KPIs like utilisation, productivity, and job quality uniformly, organisations can uncover hidden opportunities for improvement. Consistency is crucial
The value of these KPIs is only realised when paired with strong process adherence and a commitment to consistent actions based on insights. Aligning reporting with a culture of continuous improvement allows organisations to address inefficiencies and anticipate future challenges, boosting overall productivity.
KPIs drive behaviours and must be carefully designed to drive the right actions to deliver the desired outcomes and realise productivity gains.
- Leveraging Tech & Innovation as Strategic Enablers, Not Just Solutions
While technology can be a powerful enabler, it is not a silver bullet in driving productivity. Technology must be strategically deployed and aligned with the broader operational goals to be effective.
“The technology change always moves faster than the people change…” [Matt]
Technology should be used to enhance process efficiency, reduce administrative burdens, and capture high-quality data that feeds into the productivity improvement cycle. However, the success of these innovations hinges on the willingness and ability of frontline teams to adopt and adhere to them – a point that echoes back to the importance of engagement and process adherence.
We have seen many excellent examples of using video and rich media technology to reduce the ‘admin and travel’ burden of assuring asset installation quality standard compliance through supply chains. The benefits of this kind of technology enablement are only realised when new working methods are embedded and sustainably scaled.
Sustaining Your Momentum Toward Productivity Excellence
As we look ahead to the next productivity webinar on 3rd October at 12PM, the key takeaway we will be building on are clear:
Productivity is not about working harder but working smarter.
By focusing on frontline engagement, process adherence, data-driven decision-making, and strategic use of technology, water companies can sustainably shift the dial on productivity.
We invite you to join our upcoming webinar to continue the conversation and explore how these insights can be applied to your organisation. Let’s work together to build the foundations of a more productive future.
