Workplace Productivity
The 7 Drivers of Workplace Productivity
There are 7 key drivers of workplace productivity:
- Building leadership and management capability
- Creating productive workplace cultures
- Encouraging innovation and the use of technology
- Investing in people and skills
- Organising work
- Networking and collaboration
- Measuring what matters.
Productivity improvements can be made using any of these drivers depending on the priorities facing a particular organisation. The 7 drivers are complimentary; changes in practice in one area will generally reinforce changes in another area.
The 7 drivers support the Development Goals for the State Services: Employer of Choice; Networked State Services; Value-for-Money State Services; Coordinated State Services; Accessible State Services and Trusted State Services.
Building leadership and management
Leadership matters and can occur at all levels of an organisation. Leadership is critical for setting the culture and direction of the organisation, which is itself important for productivity.
Leadership is the ability to identify a clear vision of the outcomes for an organisation, identifying strategies to achieve the vision and the ability to inspire others.
Successful organisations enjoy both effective leaders and effective managers. Managers in the State Services need particular skills reflecting New Zealand’s values, how to most effectively meet the objectives of the government of the day and an ability to work with a range of other organisations, including other State Sector organisations, non-governmental agencies and the business community, to achieve desired outcomes.
Creating productive workplace cultures
Workplace culture refers to the formal and informal behaviours that define the way an organisation operates and can have a significant impact on productivity.
A productive workplace culture is one that involves positive and healthy relationships between individuals within the workplace. This in turn motivates people to release their discretionary effort, generates commitment to providing high quality services to New Zealanders and to the government of the day, and supports collegial work to achieve organisational outcomes.
Optimising employee engagement and worker voice are key methods for creating a productive workplace culture. A workplace culture that fosters learning from experience and acknowledges diversity, encourages creativity, independence and variety and supports staff to volunteer information and ideas. This in turn makes work more efficient and enhances productivity.
Encouraging innovation and the use of technology
Most increases in productivity come from advances in knowledge and in improvements in the application of knowledge. New technology and processes can allow people to work in new ways and enable tasks to be undertaken more efficiently.
Research suggests that investment in research and development or new processes, and in complementary physical and human capital, not only improves current productivity, but also creates a platform from which organisations build future success.
Technology is an important tool to improve access to delivery of State Services.
Investing in people and skills
People with the right skills are central to the delivery of high quality public services to New Zealanders. A better workforce skill base can support the introduction and effective use of new technologies, allow the organisation to implement better organisational structures and assist in the assimilation of new knowledge.
Organising work
Workplace organisation is concerned with ensuring that all the activities of the organisation are efficient and effective in adding value. Changes in workplace organisation that increase efficiency and effectiveness can thus contribute to productivity.
Workplace organisation involves the organisation’s overall strategy, its structure and hierarchy, the processes involved in decision making and delivery of services, its employment relationships and reward structures. Workplace organisation is more effective when all these components are reinforcing one another and aligned to the goals of the organisation.
New workplace practices can include, for example, flatter management structures, increased employee involvement in decision making, an emphasis on continuous improvement and more team work. The use of external networks and collaboration and a greater emphasis on performance evaluation can also enhance workplace productivity.
Networking and Collaboration
The performance challenges that State Service agencies face increasingly involve thinking and working across different agencies, sectors and stakeholders. Responding to these challenges requires public servants to forge new ways of working – establishing partnerships, sharing knowledge and information and supporting initiatives to produce sustainable benefits for New Zealanders.
A coordinated State Service is integral in achieving measurable results through the provision of services to New Zealanders. This involves demonstrating improved outcomes, including joint outcomes arising from shared accountabilities across agencies.
Measuring what matters
Outcomes are influenced by many factors, some of which can be controlled, others which cannot. Good information on results, including what is working and what is not helps in decisions about what to start, what to stop, what to continue or expand. State Service agencies need to have a clear vision of why they exist, what they want to achieve and how well they are achieving in relation to their vision and objectives. Measuring, monitoring, reviewing and evaluating allows an organisation to take stock of progress and to support learning from both successes and failures. Measuring the impacts of initiatives and programmes allows an organisation to report publicly on results, promoting transparency to Parliament and the public and providing a basis for dialogue about future decisions.
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