It’s time to boost productivity
IN THE examination of effects of time management on overall productivity, a distinction must first be made between “time” and the concept of “working time”.
Working time refers to any period during which your workers work and carry out their activities or duties, and any period during which your workers receive “relevant training”. It also includes any additional period treated as working time under a relevant agreement such as travelling (if part of the job) or working lunches.
This distinction is an important one as the concept of working time does not include travelling between home and work, and lunch breaks. Working time essentially belongs to the employer, while legally and contractually mandated breaks, as well as the period before and after work, belong to the employee.
The challenge most businesses face comes about when employee behaviour infringes on working time. This includes arriving late for work, ducking out early or being absent without being sick or without approved leave.
The extent to which your workforce abides by and honours working time is called employee discipline. Business owners greatly underestimate the effect employee discipline – or lack thereof – can have on productivity, efficiency and, of most concern of all, the bottom line.
Once we get to the stage where the effects of a lack in discipline and misuse of company time are visible on a company’s balance sheet, we can conclude that there are several processes that need to be examined, fixed and optimised.
A drop in productivity and failure to meet set goals, targets and deadlines are strong indicators of a lack of employee discipline. Optimal productivity is impossible without employee discipline. If someone is chronically late for work or frequently absent, the rest of the team is missing a part of the overall machine and will either be held up, unable to continue with a task or will function at a lower capacity as they battle to make up for the missing link.
Most business owners are aware of the positive effects of increased productivity but are not aware of how much decreased productivity is costing them.
It’s a no-brainer that efficient businesses do everything possible to maximise output. Improving employee discipline has a direct effect on productivity, which then creates opportunities to optimise efficiency.
If productivity increases without an increase in operational costs, a firm has improved efficiency. This, in turn, improves a business’s competitiveness in the market, unlocks value and results in increased profits.
This is because efficiency, productivity and competitiveness are intrinsically linked.
According to Occupational Care South Africa, absenteeism is costing the South African economy between R12 and R16 billion a year. This equates to approximately 15% of employees being absent from work on any given day, which adds up to hundreds of working days lost.
Additional research shows that South African businesses are losing as much as 17% of their payroll per year to absenteeism. Looking at these statistics it becomes easy to understand why absenteeism is one of the most expensive problems affecting businesses.
While most cases of absenteeism are due to legitimate reasons, habitual absenteeism in a company is caused by a lack of employee discipline. Developing a structured environment enforces a culture of discipline among employees, which will decrease the unwanted habit of employees misusing company time.
Successful businesses are built around systems and processes. An effective time and attendance system is one that companies should build their human resource function on in order to see optimal productivity.