Quality matters most for businesses

The quality of goods and services was the most important driver behind business strategies, Statistics New Zealand said today. More businesses rated quality as very important to them, narrowly ahead of price and delivery of goods and services. This is just one of the results from the 2009 Business Operations Survey, which covers businesses of six or more employees.

The survey also collects information on a range of the staffing practices of businesses, such as training, performance management, and health and safety. Almost 90 percent of businesses trained their staff, and the most common type of training was for professional or technical, and trade-related skills.  Over half assess employees' satisfaction, and over one-third offered pay-for-performance schemes. One-third of businesses did not have formal performance reviews.

The survey collects a wide range of information that sheds light on business practices.  While some of this information may be collected elsewhere, this survey offers the advantage of the information being collected for a common set of businesses, making it easy to compare results.

Business Operations Survey: 2009 Tables includes all information collected in the Business Operations Survey 2009, supplementing the Hot Off the Press release published  on 23 April 2010 (available from www.stats.govt.nz).  More detailed analysis will be available in the report, Innovation in New Zealand: 2009, to be released on 30 June 2010.