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Challenges and opportunities of effectively and efficiently managing productivity and performance to increase profit, alongside a commitment to suitable management of the human resource and with consideration for the sustainability of the planet.

Productivity can be defined as the rate of output per unit of input (KENTON, 2021). Since it can also referred to as efficiency of production inputs such as material, labor, capital, technology etc. to make a given level of output. Competitiveness and economic growth is considered to be one of the results of productivity and it is used as a basic statistical data to measure and identify the country performance and international comparison.

Productivity is a very important aspect in any organization, and it is mostly referred as the amount of work accomplished in a specific period of time. Since the workforce of the company act as a contributor to the organization’s’ productivity. Profit is one of the major goals of any business and to achieve profits the workforce has to utilize their resources productively otherwise this goal will not be achievable. Therefore if the workforce is demotivated and inefficient the overall performance of the company reduces. Even though an organization has best material, technology, infrastructure, good conditions, latest machines and equipment if the workforce do not have knowledge in utilizing them the productivity of the organization reduces (HANNA, 2018).

There are different challenges an organization face when managing productivity in an organization. Employee disengagement is such a challenge, and this happens when employees do not fully engage with their work and operations. It is evident that high rates of employee engagement has resulted in a  21% (Maier, 2021) rise of higher productivity according to a Gallup study. Employees do not get fully engage with work due to different reasons such as not having proper understanding of the work they have to deliver, unwelcoming work environment, lack of training, inappropriate leadership etc.

Lack of Communication (Primalogik, 2021) is another challenge for productivity. Although the employees are skilled and knowledgeable about their professions if the organization fail to communicate what is their job role and what is expected form them, then skills and knowledge will be in vain and it will reduce the productivity. Just talking with employees does not mean communicating. Sometimes employees themselves might not know they have issues in the way they conduct their work. Since these issues might pile up even without the managers knowing and this will be making huge problems to the organization.

Toxic work environment (Maier, 2021) is another challenge organization face. Organizations need to set rules and regulations that maintain ethical and good behavior in the organization which is essential in achieving productivity. For example if bullying happen in the work place those employees who face that bad experience might feel anxious in the work place which will reduce his/ her productivity. Furthermore there are employees who sabotage and manipulate the work environment and some use sneaky ways to get the promotions and climb up the corporate ladder. As well discrimination happens on the grounds of gender, nationality, religion also is a cause for reducing productivity in the workplace.

Companies reduce productivity due to not providing enough training (Maier, 2021) to the employees. Even though there are very skilled people due to one unskilled employee the productivity of the whole organization might get affected. Further when employees lack training they might feel anxious and not confident about their work which will lead to errors which reduces the productivity.

Bad mental health (Maier, 2021) of employees is also a challenge for organization when achieving productivity. Bad mental can be a cause of heavy workload, employee personal problems, workplace problems etc. The organizational culture also becomes a problem to employees if they do not fit in well with the organization. Due to the high work expectations the managers put unnecessary targets on employees which make them more stressed out at work and their health condition might get affected badly. Since this becomes a huge challenge for achieving productivity.

Another challenge for productivity in the organizations is conducting excessive meetings. For as it is the today’s work environment is full of distractions with these inherent distractions excessive meetings add up to that. There will not be benefit in conducting meetings if the productivity of the work place goes down due to meetings. Most of the times the meetings are held with the department heads and their service is essential in the working hours and all the employees in those departments has issues that needs to be solved. Since they will be not be able to handle any of the essential tasks rather than attending to meetings and it becomes a reason for not being able to meet productivity targets.

There are different opportunities that organizations can get through efficiently and effectively managing productivity. The organization gets opportunities such as reducing costs, increasing reputation and the success of the organization will be sustainable. Further with high productivity the employees can get bonuses, salary increments and better working conditions. The customer satisfaction will also be high. Better utilization of resources, reducing waste in the organization, innovation are some other benefits of managing productivity efficiently and effectively. Moreover the companies will get more business opportunities, international expansion opportunities due to maintaining productivity at a higher rate.

When increasing productivity in the hope of increasing profits the organizations also make sure that the sustainability of the planet is protected. Organizations need to reduce the unnecessary consumption of resources when achieving their goals. The environmental impact of the organizational operations should be acknowledged and necessary actions should be taken to stop or reduce the bad impact to environment due to company operations. For example most of the companies has taken actions to reduce the carbon footprint of their company, reduce the amount of waste, efficiently utilize energy consumption, water consumption etc.

Being sustainable makes the organization increase their productivity because organizations find out new methods to reduce their consumption of resources and utilize them more productively. This reduces the costs and efforts the organization has to undergo in their operations and it increases the productivity automatically. Further company will be protected from law suits, unnecessary fines, and goodwill impairments due to sustainability practices.

To increase the productivity of workforce of a company the human resource function of the organization can take following actions. Leaders and managers are responsible in making employees engaged to the work (Maier, 2021) and they need to support and provide necessary information to their employees to feel connected and motivated towards work. Further the organization culture should be designed in a way that the people feel connected and feel connected and belonged to the work place. Further the responsibilities and work scope of every employee should be clearly communicated and any concerns or issues of the employees should be acknowledged by the management. Further the employees should feel comfortable on presenting their issues to their managers without feeling uncomfortable and embarrassed.

The employees need to be given fair performance appraisals, recognition (Maier, 2021) in the workplace and most importantly the promised benefits should be provided to the employees. The management should make them feel that their work is important and has impact on the performance of the company. When people feel they are important and they are appreciated for their work they get mental and physical strength to work for the company.

Having a good communication (Shinnan, 2021) system is also a must in increasing the productivity of a company. The organization should create a communication strategy which refers to how communication is done in the company. This strategy should define who needs to know what information, when they need to know it, and how it will be delivered to the relevant parties. The human resource department should make sure that the employees know this procedure and they use it effectively when conducting their work. Further employees should be provided with constructive feedback which helps them to develop and motivate themselves.

As well implementing a good grievance procedure (Shinnan, 2021) will also help solve employee concerns. Since if those grievances are not taken into consideration by the company those employees might get frustrated and demotivated. Further this method is useful in identifying different problems in the workplace which will be beneficial to the human resource department to understand the weaknesses of the organization and make them correct.

Further the human resource department needs to implement good training program (Shinnan, 2021) to make employees educate about the new trends in their work scope. Further trainings should be conducted to the newly recruited people who do not have the proper knowledge in the work they have to conduct. This will prevent the whole organization get its productivity reduced due to a one unskilled employee.

Productivity cannot be achieved if employees work without rest. Regular breaks (Shinnan, 2021) should be there for any employee to make their work successful. Since if there are no regular intervals due to fatigue the productivity of the employees reduces. Therefore breaks like include short breaks, lunch breaks, and vacations etc. Further the employees need to be encouraged to take time away from their work.

Since as discussed above productivity is very important to any organization and there are different challenges organizations face when effectively and efficiently maintain productivity. There are different methods as above which can be used to overcome those challenges. While increasing Productivity with a focused increase in shareholder value by increasing profits, we must make sure we take the sustainability path in achieving same consciously.

References

1.     Chand, S., 2021. Benefits of Increased Productivity | Productivity Management. [online] Your Article Library. Available at: < https://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/production-management/benefits-of-increased-productivity-productivity-management/26186 > [Accessed 7 July 2021].

2.     HANNA, S., 2018. What is workplace productivity and how can it be measured? [online] Texthelp. Available at: < https://www.texthelp.com/resources/blog/what-is-workplace-productivity/ > [Accessed 6 July 2021].

3.     KENTON, W., 2021. Productivity. [online] Investopedia. Available at: < https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/productivity.asp > [Accessed 7 July 2021].

4.     Maier, S., 2021. Productivity Challenges (and How to Overcome The 5 Biggest Ones). [online] Future of Work. Available at: < https://fowmedia.com/overcoming-productivity-challenges/ > [Accessed 7 July 2021].

5.     Primalogik, 2021. 5 Workplace Issues That Affect Employee Productivity - Primalogik. [online] Primalogik. Available at: < https://primalogik.com/blog/5-workplace-issues-that-affect-employee-productivity/ > [Accessed 7 July 2021].

6.     Shinnan, S., 2021. The Difference between Performance and Productivity - WorkTango Blog. [online] WorkTango Inc. Available at: < https://worktango.com/2019/10/24/performance-productivity/ > [Accessed 7 July 2021].