KINDS OF PRODUCTIVITY
Because your future as a supervisor is so dependent on a clear understanding of this principle, the next few pages will be devoted to the facts and theory involved. First, a sound understanding of productivity is important. Productivity is a word dear to the hearts of all managers. And well it should be. Productivity in its broadest meaning is the major purpose of all American business and government organizations and forms the foundation of our profit system. It permits us to compete favorably with other countries and is responsible for all the materials and services we enjoy. Only through the productivity of individuals (and machines operated by individuals) do we achieve our gross national product (GNP), the sum total of all tangible goods and services produced in this country during a given period of time. As a supervisor, however, you are concerned with only two kinds of productivity: individual productivity and departmental productivity.
Individual Productivity
As the term implies, individual productivity is the performance or contribution of one person over a specified period of time. It may mean the amount of materials produced, the ideas contributed, the sales achieved, or the quantity or quality of clerical services rendered. Every job has its own special kind of productivity or contribution. Most jobs, however, will fit into one of the following classifications.
Tangible productivity. The factory worker who operates a machine on an assembly line contributes to the manufacture of the item in a form that can be seen and measured by management, so standards or norms can easily be established. For example, if the average employee produces sixty units per hour, and employee A produces seventy units, then it is easy to measure how far above the standard A's productivity is. In addition to factory work, tangible productivity applies to repairing or altering tangible products.
Sales productivity. A salesperson in a retail store knows how her or his performance compares with that of others because management keeps a record of each person's dollar sales per hour. An individual's productivity can also be compared with a norm. For example, if sales amounting to $90 per hour is the standard for salespeople of a given classification, and one salesperson's sales amount to $100 per hour, her position above the norm is easily measured. However, retail salespeople should not be measured entirely on the basis of dollar sales. Because they must also contribute stock work, housekeeping, and other departmental nonselling functions, their productivity base is larger than selling alone.
Service productivity. Many employees who do not produce tangible goods or generate dollar sales perform vital services that contribute a different form of productivity. Most of these services come under the classification of customer relations. For example, telephone operators do not produce anything you can see, nor do they normally sell to customers, yet the services they perform are basic to the company they represent. The same is true of the services provided by police officers, bank tellers, nurses, supermarket checkers, waiters and waitresses, postal employees, and many others. Although these intangible forms of productivity are sometimes difficult to measure and compare scientifically with norms, they are important to supervisors and the organizations they represent.
The productivity of all individuals is measured to some extent. If an objective measurement is impossible, a subjective measurement is attempted, perhaps comparing one individual with another. The measurement of individuals is vital to good personnel administration and management and must be accepted as part of employment (see Chapter 15). The important thing, of course, is to measure the productivity and not the personality of the individual.
Departmental Productivity
Departmental productivity is the sum total of all productivity (by machines and people) that comes from a department or section within an organization. Like individual productivity it can also be tangible, sales, service, or a combination of these and other forms. Just as one individual is compared with another, so are departments. It is easier, however, to measure the productivity of a department scientifically because it can usually be reduced to figures and accounting data from which management can make its analysis. The important thing to realize is that department productivity becomes your responsibility the moment you become a supervisor. You must live with the figures, reports, and comparisons on a day-to-day basis. If productivity goes up, you are rewarded; if it goes down, you must come up with some explanations. Your reputation in the company will be tied to the productivity record of your department regardless of how much you contribute individually.
Management is defined as planning, organizing, directing, coordinating, and controlling activities to achieve productivity goals. From a human relations point of view, this process boils down to specific things you do to get work done through and with other people. No manager or supervisor can do it all alone, and frequently the more tasks he or she does personally, the lower the total departmental productivity. Working supervisors, those who are expected to produce pieces or render services, often have lower departmental productivity than nonworking supervisors.
Shipping department example. Despite the fact that Woody felt he already had more than he could handle, he was given new duties in addition to running the shipping department at the paint factory where he had been a supervisor for five years. How could he pitch in during high-activity periods to maintain shipping schedules if he had to supervise workers in another section? He decided to lay the cards on the table with his six-person shipping department staff. His basic comment was, “I've been able in the past to help out during peak periods, but I can no longer do it. In the future it will be up to you to maintain schedules without my personal productivity unless there is an emergency. How you do this is up to you. If you can come up with some time-saving procedures, I will go along with them.”
Six weeks later, after the crew had made a number of helpful suggestions, shipping schedules were achieved without personal help from Woody, and when one member of the staff resigned, a replacement was not necessary. Woody learned that his crew had not been working up to their potential because they could rely on him to step in and produce during busy periods.
Banking example. Alice, operations officer for a savings and loan facility, devoted so much time to training a few people to operate computers that other employees felt neglected. She finally turned computer training over to another. Result? Because she was able to improve relationships, efficiency increased to the point where the facility was able to maintain a high level of service with one less employee.
Health care example. Frieda, a registered nurse in a long-term health care operation, decided to delegate a series of duties to her three ward nurses so that she could devote more time to building relationships with the twenty nurses aides under her supervision. Result? The quality of care increased and costs went down.
Please study the chart below for a moment. Notice that each employee has an individual productivity gap. This gap represents the difference between what each employee is currently producing and what could be produced under ideal conditions. Notice, also, a departmental productivity gap between what the department is currently producing and what could be produced.
The goal of the supervisor is to close the departmental productivity gap. Because supervisors have a limited supply of time and energy, their time and energy should be spent helping employees close individual productivity gaps. This goal is accomplished primarily by building better human relationships with employees and creating an environment where they will be motivated to reach their own potentials. The remainder of this book will be devoted to helping you learn how to accomplish this goal.
The new supervisor soon learns that almost always a difference exists between an employee's daily performance and his or her capacity to perform. Whether large or small, a productivity gap of some size is natural and should be expected in all employees. Such gaps are, of course, difficult to measure accurately for two reasons: (1) the true potential capacity of an individual cannot really be determined because it is made up of elusive factors such as mental ability, inner drive, perception, attitude, physical stamina, and emotional stability; and (2) job productivity is difficult to measure. The actual performance of a worker is fluid, moving up and down on an hourly, daily, and weekly basis. At one time an employee can have a wide gap (anybody can have an off day), while at other times it can be narrow. In other words, productivity levels quickly move up and down, depending upon many internal and environmental factors. The supervisor can control some, but not all, of these factors.
It is only natural that supervisors should be sensitive to changes in productivity levels in their employees. When an employee shows progress in closing the gap between the current level of productivity and the potential capacity, the supervisor is happy. When the opposite happens, she or he becomes disturbed. The smaller the gap, the greater the total productivity, and nothing is more important to the supervisor's personal success. Small wonder the supervisor wants to know every technique that will help to close such gaps.
Okay, you may be saying, I get the picture. I see why I must step in and help my people perform in line with their capabilities. But how do I learn to motivate my people to work more closely to their capacities? How can I increase productivity in my department without more equipment or more employees?