Last year was one of the most challenging years business’ across Australia have ever faced, and part of what made it so tough was how it relentlessly threw challenge after challenge at companies. To recap, 2020 saw many organisations across Australia forced to close for an indefinite time, a myriad of companies changing their operational structure to adapt to a Work From Home environment, companies working to physically alter their office environment to ensure that potential risks are mitigated and that it is regulatory compliant, and a host of other challenges that business’ were required to meet head-on. Many business’ will be hoping that 2021 is not a repeat of last year, and that it will be more productive, positive, and less stressful than 2020.

Preparation is a key ingredient to success, and it is important that companies continue to uphold the same strong business strategies that they practiced throughout 2020. Doing so gives them the best chance of not only reassuring customers, staff, and stakeholders that they are taking active steps to ensure their safety, it also helps safeguard a business against the unexpected. That is, in the event that 2021 throws any more unexpected challenges at companies, the ones with the best chance of meeting them successfully will be the business’ that are already meeting regulatory safety requirements, have a clear process in place for what to do in the event of an incident, and are taking clear, visible steps to demonstrate what they are doing to promote staff and customer safety.

Ensure 2021 is a productive year for your operations

Specifically, there are some clear, easy to follow, steps that business’ should be taking right now to ensure that they have a safe, productive, and profitable 2021 calendar year. Companies looking to make 2021 as productive as possible would benefit from taking these steps:

• Migrating to the International Organization for Standardization’s ISO 45001 OH&S Standards. These guidelines came into effect in 2018 and have quickly become the go-to guide for companies looking to develop a safe and supportive work environment, demonstrate a commitment to safety, and open potential trading doors between other business’. The previous Occupational Health and Safety standards, OHSAS 18001 and AS/NZS 4801, are being phased out and companies certified to one of those standards are required to migrate to ISO 45001 to retain their compliance. By migrating, and certifying, to the ISO 45001 standards, business’ are demonstrating that they have identified potential OH&S risks within their operations, taken active steps to ensure that the risks are minimised, and that they are committed to developing a safe, supportive, and compliant work culture.
• Providing customers, staff, and stakeholders with the peace of mind that comes with knowing that their confidential information stored by the business is safe from potential information security risks, through the implementation of the ISO 27001:2013 Information Security Standards. These standards help companies develop an effective, cohesive Information Security Management System (ISMS) that works to ensure that all the information the business stores is safeguarded from both intentional and unintentional information security threats. These standards distinguish themselves from typical Information Technology security procedures, as they address the information security requirements of a business from a holistic perspective. This means not only addressing its Information Technology security needs, but also addressing non-IT related information security concerns, such as unsecured manual files, how information from business meetings is collected and stored, and so on.
• For companies in the food industry, reassuring your customers, staff, and stakeholders that the food your business works with is hazard and contamination-free across all points of the Food Supply Chain,through the implementation of the ISO 22000 Food Safety Management Standards. These internationally certified standards help companies to develop an effective Food Safety Management System, in accordance with the International Organization for Standardization’s High-Level Structure. By implementing these standards, companies work to control all risks associated with food safety, achieve regulatory compliance, and increase their profit margin by increasing client and stakeholder confidence in their operations.
• Streamlining their entire operations, reduce overheads, and prove to customers and clients that the business is committed to socially sustainable practices by undergoing a Digital Transformation of your entire operations. This process audits the existing operations for inefficiencies, convoluted processes, compatibility between systems across different departments, and so on. Following this, an action plan is developed on how to make the operations smoother, more efficient, and in-line with the current practices expected of business’ within the industry. This process sees companies cut down their physical paper-trails, homogenise their practices between departments to ensure that there is cohesion between them, and show their staff, clients, and customers that they are committed to environmentally friendly business practices. This in turn can increase their profit margins by maximising productivity, minimising downtime, and bringing in new clients, who want to work with companies that have shown a commitment to ethical business practices.

Show that 2021 does not mean 2020 won

Now that many of the operational hardships of 2020 are gradually being phased out, business’ are in the ideal position to ensure that 2021 does not mean 2020 won. That is, they met the challenges head-on, and through effective strategising, quick-thinking, and a positive attitude, they were able to continue to provide customers with safe, efficient service, reassure their stakeholders of their commercial viability, and demonstrate to their staff that they will remain a safe, supportive employer to work for.

This is precisely the kind of winning attitude and ethos that companies should adopt, as it addresses their business practices from three different perspectives: What challenges they have overcome in the past, where there business sits at present, and what goals and objectives they want to work towards achieving in the future. By taking stock of the past challenges that they successfully overcame, business’ will come to understand what kinds of strategies and process worked at getting them to where they are now. Then, by auditing their at-present operations they will be able to identify any existing weak points, inefficiencies, or convoluted processes that could be streamlined for a more effective operation. After doing this, they will be able to build upon their past strategies, procedures, and demonstrably successful processes, to help the business work towards its future operational goals.

The implementation of some of the above standards can help business’ achieve their operational goals, by ensuring that they are working towards achieving them in a proven successful, regulatory compliant, manner, by auditing their operations to identify existing inefficiencies and helping the company minimise their effects in a hassle-free manner, and by providing the business with internationally certified, proven successful, strategies to ensure that their company is a compliant, safe, and supportive, environment.

If you would like to know more about how some of these certified Management Systems and Standards could help your company thrive in a challenging marketplace, then please give Anitech’s consultants a call today on 1300 802 163. By giving them a brief overview of the existing operations and its future goals, they will be able to explain how several of these standards could be applied across the operations to strengthen its existing processes and provide the company with a clear action plan to achieve its objectives. Is there a better way to start off the new year than that?

Please click here to read more about some strategies your business can implement to ensure 2021 is a successful, thriving year.