From a Human Resource Management perspective, productivity refers to the efficiency, effectiveness and output of an organisation’s employees. HR professionals use productivity measures to assess performance strengths and weaknesses.
Employee productivity can be enhanced by
- fostering employee engagement, by providing meaningful work, career advancement opportunities and a positive workplace culture
- training and development opportunities to enhance employee motivation and align their capabilities with organisational goals
- strategic workforce planning to ensure the right talent is in the right place when needed
- recognition of the link between a healthy workforce and sustained productivity
- prioritising employee well-being through wellness programmes and flexible working arrangements etc.
Sub Topics
Peak activity, from an HR management perspective, describes the periods through the day when employees show the highest level of efficiency and effectiveness. Productivity peak activity is a useful HR concept which can inform strategies and initiatives to optimise employee performance whilst giving the employee better job satisfaction and enhanced well-being in their work. This benefits both the employees and the organisation itself and HR professionals need to recognise and maximise productivity peak activity. Some of the factors to note include:
- Performance Optimisation
Peak activity periods are when employees are performing at their best so by understanding when individuals or teams are at their best, HR professionals can create an environment which is conducive to that optimal performance and therefore organisational effectiveness. - Employee Engagement and Motivation
By recognising the peak activity periods, HR management can align employees’ natural rhythms and preferences with the tasks and responsibilities required. Engaged and motivated employees are more likely to feel satisfied and fulfilled with their work when their peak productivity is recognised and acknowledged. - Flexible Work Arrangements
HR professionals can advocate for flexible working arrangements for employees where this is possible. Flexible schedules and remote working can allow employees to structure their workdays in such a way as to capitalise on their peak productivity times which in turn can lead to higher job satisfaction and better retention rates. - Training and Development
HR management can use their knowledge of productivity and peak activity to inform their training and development programmes. Educating employees on the concept and how to recognise their own peak productivity periods allows them to optimise their own work habits and performance. - Workforce Planning and Allocation
HR planning allows critical tasks to be assigned during periods of peak activity. Scheduling important meetings, deadlines and collaborative activities during these times can maximise the efficiency and effectiveness of the workforce. - Well-being and Work-Life Balance
Healthy work environments are conducive to employee well-being, which in turn is good for an organisation’s ability to retain key talent. Promoting well-being and accommodating a healthy personal work-life balance for employees is beneficial to both parties. In a workplace, employee well-being can be supported by encouraging breaks, training for stress management techniques and discouraging excessive unnecessary overtime during non-peak times. - Performance evaluation and Recognition
HR management can utilise their insights into productivity peak activity when evaluating performance. Acknowledging and rewarding an employee’s efforts during their peak productivity times can reinforce positive work behaviours.
Productivity demand is the level of output required to meet business objectives and this affects the staffing needs of an organisation. Factors which may influence productivity demand include:
- Market trends
- Customer expectations
- Operational goals
Understanding the demand for their organisation’s products or services allows HR professionals to determine how many employees are needed as well as the skills and competencies required.
Staffing Plan
Why is a staffing plan important?
The staffing plan is the framework for future success and is an opportunity to systematically review how efficient the organisation’s current staffing structure, from skills supply to resources utilisation, actually is. Staff planning includes:
- Recruitment and retention
- Onboarding
- Training and development
- Performance
- Succession planning
- Compensation and rewards
- Employee engagement and employee experience
- Capacity and utilisation
A staffing plan helps a business to achieve their objectives by ensuring they have the resources in place which are needed for anticipated growth, and to guard against the missed opportunities and customer dissatisfaction caused by not having them in place when needed.
What is a staffing plan?
A staffing plan helps HR professionals to determine the number and type of employees needed to achieve the organisation’s business goals. It is used to assess the existing personnel available and whether they have the skills needed for future success. A well-prepared staffing plan will ensure an organisation has the right people in the right place at the right time. Some questions a staffing plan should address include:
- What work will need to be delivered according to the organisation’s business goals?
- How many people are needed to achieve this? Are there enough existing employees to deliver the work without any idle resources?
- What are the specific skills, experiences and competencies needed?
- Does the existing workforce offer those skills, experiences and competencies?
- If not, how can they be acquired to meet the business’s goals?
Benefits of a staffing plan
A good staffing plan can deliver both operational benefits and financial benefits.
- Operational benefits include meeting or exceeding customer expectations and faster completion times.
- Financial benefits include reduced staff costs
A good staffing plan should:
- Increase productivity by reviewing resource capacity and utilisation
- Reduce staffing costs by optimising staff structure to make full use of capacity and reducing idle resources
- Reduce recruitment costs by creating positive an employee experience to increase satisfaction and improve retention rates.
- Improve customer satisfaction by having the right staff in place to meet customer needs and deliver of client projects on-time and on-budget.
- Allow opportunities to be grasped by having capacity to act upon business opportunities which may arise and without compromising on existing projects.
How to determine staffing needs
There are six steps required to determine the staffing needs an organisation may have.
- What are the company’s objectives for future growth and what are the implications for staffing? Some factors which may be relevant include:
- Merging with, or acquiring other businesses
- New products or services to be introduced
- Geographic expansion
- Technology investments
- Workforce demographics
- How many employees?
- Where are they located in the business?
- Are any nearing retirement age?
- Maternity/paternity leave upcoming?
- Job descriptions reviewed to get an understanding of the skills and competencies staff were recruited for, and this information is updated with any experience gained during their current employment.
- Performance metrics to identify top performers who are ready and eager for promotion, and to identify low performers who may require more training and support.
- Watch out for any top performers who may tempt other employers to headhunt them.
- Watch out for any disaffected employees who may be looking to leave and put in a plan to either motivate them to stay or put a succession plan into place.
- Resource pool –the entirety of the staff your organisation has available to it. In staff planning terms it describes all of the skills available and how they are used.
- Resource calendar and utilisation rates – this is a way of identifying any resource over-booking or under-booking which may create hold ups in project delivery and indicate the level of demand for your resources.
- Workload vs capacity – compare how much work is being carried out compared to the capacity possible. This may allow a reallocation of resources or team restructuring if needed.
- Staffing strategy and planning requires resource managers to have their finger on the pulse of the organisation. This means understanding what people are looking for in their career development, so connecting with employees and hearing their perspectives is an important process.
- Forecasting future staffing needs is not an exact science and requires an amount of educated guesswork. Some tools to assist in this include:
- Trend analysis – look at data which records trends in turnover, retirement levels, maternity/paternity leave etc. Are these trends likely to remain consistent in the future?
- Competitor comparison
- Industry insights and updates
- Productivity ratios
- Expert analysis – known as the Delphi method, a panel of experts submit their ideas to be circulated to others, reviewed and revised.
- Compare your current staffing levels with projected future needs.
- Are extra employees needed, and if so, where?
- Which skills are not present and how can these be filled through training or is recruitment necessary?
- Which staff are critical to organisational health and can how easily can they be retained?
- Are any of your key staff planning to leave and do you have succession plans in place?
- Can any roles or teams be consolidated?
- Do new job roles, or new teams need to be created?
- Recruiting
- Recruitment of permanent staff is an obvious solution to staff and skill shortages which is best suited to addressing consistent and predictable staffing demands.
- Contractors and freelancers are a good solution to cover short-term capacity issues or if staff demand growth is unpredictable
- Outsourcing is another option which may be a more cost-effective way to overcome resource shortfalls
- Retraining and upskilling
- Retraining and upskilling existing staff is an attractive strategy to overcome resource gaps which is usually less expensive than recruitment and onboarding. It has the added benefit of increasing staff loyalty and motivation if they can see a clear path to new skills and responsibilities.
- Promoting staff can be a way of plugging gaps in management which uses employees who are already familiar with the way the organisation works. This should be accompanied by training and mentoring for the promoted individual.
- Restructuring
- Restructuring can help create efficiency in an organisation by removing idle resources and redeploying them where they can be better used. This increases productivity by making sure the right resources are there to perform the needed tasks.
- Unfortunately redundancies are sometimes needed, but retraining and redeployment should always be Plan A.
(Marks, 2023)
You’ve come to the end of this topic, well done! Before moving on to the next section be sure to complete all the exercises. In this topic on Productivity we have looked at these key points:
- From an HR perspective, the term “productivity “ describes the efficiency, effectiveness, and output of an organisation's employees and serves as a metric to assess performance strengths and weaknesses.
- Strategies to enhance employee productivity include fostering engagement through meaningful work and career advancement opportunities, providing training and development to align capabilities with organisational goals, and ensuring strategic workforce planning.
- Recognising the link between a healthy workforce and sustained productivity is crucial. Prioritising employee well-being through wellness programs and flexible working arrangements is recommended.
- Peak activity, indicating the periods of highest efficiency and effectiveness among employees, is essential for optimising performance and enhancing well-being in the workplace.
- HR management can leverage peak activity insights to optimise performance, align employees' preferences with tasks, advocate for flexible work arrangements, tailor training programmes, and strategically plan workforce allocation.
- Understanding productivity demand, influenced by market trends, customer expectations, and operational goals, helps HR professionals determine staffing needs and requisite skills.
- A staffing plan serves as a framework for future success, encompassing recruitment, retention, training, performance evaluation, and capacity utilisation to ensure organisational objectives are met efficiently.
- Determining staffing needs involves defining business goals, analysing the existing staffing environment, considering career goals of staff members, forecasting future needs, performing gap analysis, and making recommendations to address identified gaps through recruitment, retraining, upskilling, or restructuring.
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