Building a productive workforce

Productivity has been in the headlines recently. The government is trying to improve the performance of the country in the league tables and various bodies have come out with reports on how this can be achieved. One of them is ACAS.

Its 50 page report “Building Productivity in the UK” focuses on the workplace as the place where “the elements of productivity come together to deliver goods and services.’  They say “How businesses manage and organise their workforce has a huge influence on delivering the improvements that the country needs.” -very true!

This will be a key theme at the Wisework/Workpond workshop being run in November , “Building a high performance productive workforce”. (More information here).

Here are some more points from the ACAS report:
In 2013, UK productivity was an estimated 17% lower than the G7 average
And…
Ineffective management is estimated to cost UK businesses over £19billion per year on lost working hours
But…
Employees reporting higher levels of control over their work had high levels of job related contentment, enthusiasm and satisfaction
And…
Best practice management development can result in a 23% increase in organisational performance

So it seems that giving people more autonomy over their working practices is likely to improve their productivity. This comes out in numerous case studies and on research into engagement. Since this is what management gurus have been saying for the last 50 years it should come as no surprise.

Making this happen is the challenge.  Getting managers to change their habits from ‘command and control’ to ‘trust and empower’ isn’t always easy. The workshop in November will tackle this by helping the participants build an action plan for their own organisation and they will get follow-on support after the event.

Let’s hope this adds a small contribution to the productivity drive for the UK as a whole.