Benchmarking HRM and the benchmarking of benchmarking: Best practices from outside the square in the Australian finance industry

Organisations with low absenteeism and low turnover can be distinguished from organisations with high absenteeism and turnover through the identification and implementation of sophisticated and strategic best practices such as benchmarking relative cost position, developing a corporate ethic, valuing the negotiation of an enterprise agreement, and not having a written OH&S policy. Several of the remaining 16 practices identified in the literature as best practices, including benchmarking customer service, having a policy addressing recruitment, selection and promotion, were shown to be standard industry practice in the AFI. The findings suggest that benchmarking allows organisations to identify and replicate the innovations of competitors, but competitive advantage requires innovation rather than replication.