Its Productivity Week

For most (all?) countries, at the moment, that headline could ha de been rewritten as ‘Its Productivity Weak”. Productivity, globally, has been fading as a result of general  economic decline, the COVID pandemic, the war in Ukraine- and the effects on global supply chains.

So what should governments do?

Well, one tactic employed fairly regularly is to nominate a particular day or week s ‘national productivity day’ or ‘national productivity week’..  The aim is  to raise awareness of,  and provide a focus on, productivity in the hope that organisations will recognise the need to address  it - and improve it. 

Such days (for simplicity and brevity we will drop the reference to weeks) generally do no harm - but neither do they generally do much good. This is because the governments that create such days tend not to follow through with other measures that might add some action to the rhetoric.

Focusing on productivity for one day is clearly not enough to have a significant impact.   It can be the start of a real initiative for some organisations but most will require ongoing information, advice and support …. and access to the knowledge and skills that can support a full-throttle initiative.  The organisation needs some fairly quick results - the quick wins that help maintain commitment by the senior team.

So if you are a member of a government - or a government adviser - start planning a structured programme of advice and support that can be launched on national productivity day - and then reviewed and refined in one year’s time when national productivity day rolls around again.

This support can be expensive - but not providing it is a lot  more expensive.

Who Trains Who?

Those managers and executives who have come through the ranks, maintaining their own diaries, typing their own words and creating their own presentations often find it difficult to adjust when they reach the dizzy heights of having their own secretary - or even an executive assistant.

Most secretaries/assistants realise this and, in effect, end up training the manger on how to use this new resource.

Slowly they work out an effective working relationship which works for them both - and, hopefully, for the organisation.

This should be a valuable lesson for the manager/executive.  

• They don’t know everything.
  
  
• More junior staff often know more about their own role than anyone else.
  
  
• Effective relations take time to develop - and need the engagement of all parties.

If they can take those learnings into their future planning and operational activity, they should be more effective - and create a mutual trust with those underneath them in the hierarchy.

This, in turn, makes them more productive, more satisfied and more valuable to the organisation.

The Future of Work?

Is the future of work to be similar to the hybrid forms we have seen emerge from the pandemic - with workers attending the workplace only 2 or 3 days per week (or even less)?

There seems to be some kickback from employers who would like workers in their offices more often - but there is (at least) equal resistance from workers (and their representatives) who want to retain the flexibility they have enjoyed.

To ensure the advantages of post-pandemic remote working exceed the disadvantages, it is important to find innovative ways of promoting knowledge flows and training on both hard and soft skills and to ensure there is a schedule to bring teams together face-to-face on a regular basis.

What about the Workers?

Over the last few decades there has been steady and continual divergence between productivity growth and pay rises,    

Analysis of historical data shows that productivity and compensation for ordinary workers grew in near lockstep from the end of World War II through the 1970s. Since then, however, productivity has grown nearly four times faster than pay for ordinary workers, the difference going to shareholders and the most highly paid workers (think executives).

This has happened through various governments, irrespective of their left or right leanings.

This is a recipe for either mass poverty  or revolution - it is reminiscent of the wealth gap in the middle ages.

Productivity gains have to be shared more equitably.