Suggestions To Overcome Low Productivity Management Essay

Productivity is measured of the efficiency of production. Productivity is defined as total output per unit of a total input.

Low productivity in the workplace can have a dramatic effect on the company but the moment managers see the signs there are immediate change they make to help turn the situation around.

Example:

Toyota — low productivity

The 350 laid off workers from the Toyota plant in altona, was leave with the stigma of being a low productivity worker or a slacker.

According to the reports, the high dollars and following export were the main reason for the retrenchment, but 350 were selected specifically on the basis of low productivity after a process workplace assignment.

The main reason was low paid, precarious work.

Causes for low productivity

Poor management: the main cause of low productivity is poor management. The manager does not take steps to implement the most productive way of doing the things. If the employee feels that their work is not recognised by their supervisior they will not give their 100 percent.

Outdated system: if the company is using outdated machine or methods, it will lead to lower productivity.

Employee dissatisfaction: dissatisfied employee are unproductive ones, as compared to productive employees who are passionate about their work. If there is wrong person in the job or right person in the wrong job leads to dissatisfaction towards work.

Employee personal problem: if employee is facing personal problem it lead to low productivity. Stress and poor health also lead to low productivity.

Bureaucracy: a common cause for low productivity in company is excessive bureaucracy. Where employee are distracted from their work by the need to fill out irrelevant paperwork they will lose their productivity

Competition: if there is absence of competition. It will affect the motivation of employees and the employees become lazy.

Lack of training: if there is lack of training and employees are untrained, they are not able to perform better.

All time tae time: if the employees are not focussing on their work and enjoy gossiping, backbiting. It will lead to bad work environment which affect their performance.

Effects of low productivity

Disorganisation: low productivity lead to disorganisation among worker who fail to complete their task. Communication between employees is delay, and deadline end up lost.

Employee conflict: in low productivity environment employee start fight among themselves. If the employee does not complete their work on time it will lead to frustration, stress and high temper.

High employee turnover rates: low productivity creates high turnover rates. Soon or later the employee is going to leave the job.

Lack of flexibility: all time rigid schedule, deadline creates a negative impact on the mind of employee which lead to low productivity.

Decline of business: if the employees are not able to complete their goals efficiently and effectively this will lead to declining of business. It results into , loss of customer services not rendered on time, delays etc.

Stress: if there is low productivity at workplace it will create stress and pressure among employees.

Happiness at work is productivity

Low motivation: low productivity has a negative impact on the morale of employees

Suggestions to overcome low productivity:

Human approach: all employees should be treated as valued human being. The contribution of each individual should be recognised. Trustful and cooperative relationship should be created.

Worker participation in management: management should allow worker to take active part in the activities this will help to enhance the morale of employees.

Job enrichment: job enrichment help to avoid monotony, fatigue and interest among employees.

Interviews: proper meetings and interviews with employees help to know their problems. Proper action should be taken to overcome these problems.

Building high morale: it is generally assumed that morale and productivity go hand in hand. There is direct and positive correlation between them.

High productivity

High morale low morale

High productivity high productivity

High morale low morale

High morale low morale

Low productivity low productivity

Low productivity

High productivity goes with high morale when the workers are well trained. This is the ideal state of affair and lead to optimum utilisation of human resource. An exactly reserve situation is that of low morale and low productivity.

High morale is associated with low productivity when the employees are happy but are not properly motivated. Low morale may be associated with high productivity when management uses strict supervision, punishment against low productivity and better techniques.

Training and development: proper training should be provided to the employees result into higher productivity and reduce low productivity. Training helps the employees to achieve their goal effectively and efficiently. It reduces the cost and lower productivity. Proper training and development enhance the motivation of the employees.

Job rotation: job rotation jhelps to avoid boredom.

Absenteeism

Absenteeism is habitual or pattern of absence from the duty. Absenteeism is viewed as indicator of poor individual performance, or poor employee morale.

Features of Absenteeism

The rate of absenteeism is lowest on pay day it increase considerably the days following payment of wages.

Absenteeism is generally higher in young workers below the age of 25 to 28. The young employees spend more of their time with family and friends.

Percent of absenteeism is high in night shift as compared to day shift.

Measurement of absenteeism

It is necessary to measure absenteeism following are the methods:

Loss time rate

Numbering of working days lost

X 100

total number of working days

II .individual frequency:

Number of absent employees

X 100

Average number of employees

For example:

Average number of employees 100

Number of available during working period 20

Total number of available work days (axb) 2000

Total number of loss days due to absence

Absenteeism % (d/c x100) 4.65%

Since absenteeism is a major barometer of employees morale, absenteeism above 5% has to be consider very serious.

Types of absenteeism:

There are 2 types of absenteeism which are as follows:

Innocent absenteeism: Innocent absenteeism refers refer to employees who are absent for reason beyond their control., like sickness and injury.

Culpable absenteeism: Culpable absenteeism refers to employees who are absent without authorization for reasons which are within their control. For example if an employee is on sick leave even though he or she is not sick and if it is proved it is culpable absenteeism.

Causes of absenteeism

Maladjustment with factory: in factory worker find themselves caught within the factory wall. Which result into stress.

Unhealthy working condition: irritable working conditions like heat, house, bad lighting, uncomfortable sitting, dust fumes etc lead to absenteeism.

Lack of welfare activity: like clean drinking water, canteen, rest room, medical room, wash room etc.

Alcoholism: some of the regular drunkards speed their whole salary in the first week for drinking purpose. Therefore 2 or 3 weeks after getting their salary absent themselves from their work.

Personal problem: if the person is facing some personal problem, he or she not able to concentrate on their work. For example, women face problem in allocating their time between family and workplace leads to absenteeism

Work pressure: if employee is facing high workload. It would create stress and pressure.

How to overcome absenteeism:

Adoption of well defined recruitment: the selection of employees on the basis of linguistic, commands, family consideration should be avoided. The manager should look attitude and ability in the employees.

Provision for hygienic working conditions: the workers should be provided with proper working condition like clean drinking water, rest rooms, canteens, clean wash rooms, medical room etc.

Provision for reasonable wages and job security: the management should pay reasonable wages to the workers.

Proper communication: there should be two way communications. Employee should be informed about what expected from them. Instead of giving to many notices we can put a single notice on the board in a particular area which is mostly visited by the employees.

Safety and accident prevention: safety at work should be maintained. Management should remove ungraded machine and explosive, defective equipments. Safety instructions should be taught.

Cordinal relations between supervisor and worker: cordinal relation between the supervisor and worker are essential without them discipline cannot increase.

Bradford factor and absenteeism

It is a HR tool used by many organisation to measure absenteeism. The theory is that short, frequent and unplanned are more disruptive than larger absence.

The formula for Bradford factors are:

E x E x D= Bradford factor

E= number of episode of absence

D=total number of day absent in rolling 52 week period

So, for employee with a total of 10 days absence in one fear, the Bradford factor score can vary enormously depending on number of episode.

Example

One absence episode of 10 days is to point (i.e., 1x1x10)

Five absence absence episodes of 2 days is 250 point (i.e. 5x5x10)

Ten absence episode of one day= 1000point (i.e. 10x10x10)