Ellex has systems in place to monitor and reward employee performance. All employees undergo an annual performance review with their immediate supervisor and a competency review with the training coordinator. Good performance is linked to employee development opportunities and financial remuneration, however, performance is not linked to output. Ellex's wider business model focuses on innovation and quality, as such they seek to reward employee performance that enhances these wider organisational goals.
Skills acquisition, through workplace training, is seen as the key performance indicator for Ellex and most likely to contribute to wider organisational objectives.
There are three overarching reasons why Ellex places great emphasis upon training; first, the technologies used in the production process and the tasks expected of employees require specific skills; second, because of the nature of the product being used in precision eye surgery, quality at each stage of the production process is monitored and is traceable back to an individual employee. Strict regulations mean that the employees are required to have the correct training and fully understand the correct procedures. Finally, having a workforce that is skilled to undertake a range of different roles (cross-trained/multi-skilled) generates greater flexibility within the workforce allowing the company to respond to changes in product demand. Mr Richard Stone, Business Development Manager, Ellex, explained this in more detail:
“We have different product ranges and global demand for products can fluctuate widely, and when we have people who are cross-trained we can move them quickly and efficiently between areas or onto different product ranges … rather than bring in new people and train them up from scratch. It does give us that flexibility to be able to adapt to market demand”.
Ellex employs a dedicated training coordinator who administers an extensive training matrix to ensure multi-discipline training and cross-fertilisation across the workplace.