Productivity in the workplace
Some lessons take time to learn. I think we all know that the platinum miners’ strike from January to June 2014 resulted in the miners getting what they were demanding: a minimum wage of R12 000 a month and additional benefits. Further, the wage increase was back-dated to the beginning of the strike.
From the miners’ point of view, the simple lesson is: if you just hold your ground, sooner or later, you get what you want. The more difficult lesson is that the total employment at Lonmin has fallen by about 1 500 people. Further, the Lonmin share price is about 14% of what it was in 2014 when the strike ended.
Thus, anybody who hopes to improve the employment levels at Lonmin is facing a task tougher than trying to skate on a marble floor. Into this world comes Glencore, which has said that it is going to try to improve productivity rather than retrench staff. Only it does not say how.
I recently read an article on how one can improve productivity at the workplace. The article is mostly rubbish. In its 12-step programme, it says the following will work: make employees accountable, follow up on employee targets, do not micromanage, encourage, motivate, reward and recognise, reach out to employees, demand realistic targets, encourage teamwork, break the monotony, send employees on courses, spend less time in meetings, and give employees the best equipment and tools.
I guess one does not have to be a rocket scientist to realise that the only part of the above that will work for rock-drill operators is demanding realistic targets and giving them good equipment.
But I have a story. In fact, I have two stories: the first concerns Lloyd. When we extended our offices, Lloyd was recommended to me as a builder. In our negotiations, Lloyd asked what I would normally pay a builder. So I said, oh, R600 a day (in 2004). He said what about if I do all the work, excluding the roof and finish it in eight days? Would I give him R10 000? I said sure and Lloyd and his gang finished eight days later, working like crazy. The bottom line was they were going to share R10 000 for eight days’ work. Very motivated. So, it is not so much the amount of money that motivates – it is the cash flow.
My other story: my five staff are all engineers or technicians. They have the very smart computer equipment. They have the best instrumentation that you can buy. Nothing in the equipment they have prevents them from working efficiently. Then our working hours are, Monday to Friday, 09:30 to 15:30. Six hours a day. There is a short lunch break but you are not allowed to leave the office in this time. You are also not allowed to leave the office to take the car to the garage, to go to the bank, to go and see the lawyer, et cetera. You are not allowed to be late or leave early. Using social media in the office is a dismissable offence.
My staff produce the goods. The short working hours do not make them less productive. Even better – all the staff are all off for the time of the builders’ break until the third week in January. I have the opinion that the modern way of working is terrible. The employers say that people only work eight hours a day. This is not true. People have to get up normally one hour before they leave for work; they spend three- quarters of an hour in traffic and then, when they go home, another three-quarters of an hour. At work they have half an hour for lunch and half an hour for two tea breaks. Thus, they actually spend about 11 hours involved in work processes. During all this, they actually work about six hours.
Assuming they sleep eight hours a day, there is only six hours’ private time. Not good. My suggestion for productivity is as follows: give them enough time for private things. Pay them to produce in half the time what you currently pay. Narrow it down to time and money.
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