According to Wikipedia “Productivity growth is a crucial source of growth in living standards. Productivity growth means more value is added in production and this means more income is available to be distributed”. The efficiency of the contribution of citizenry in overall productivity of a country is one of the most important factors for the growth of its Society at large. The General opinion is that whilst the Private sector’s individual productivity is significantly higher, the Public sector is much lower and unsatisfactory, by comparison. Consecutive Governments have attempted to address the productivity issues in Public Service through various institutions formed at various times. However, these attempts have been largely unsuccessful as yet.
The new President, as a key policy, has addressed this vitally important national issue in his manifesto and clearly laid down his vision in order to finally create a happy family. However, a topic missing in his statement is how the existing Government servant can be motivated to contribute to the task. As a private sector employee with over 40 years of service, this writer has experienced the individual efficiency in private sector organizations and the opposite in many State institutions except in a few instances. Although, a National Productivity Secretariat functioning under the Ministry of Public Administration is in place with an attractive “Mission Statement’, it is questionable whether they have done enough on the productivity and efficiency in Government Service. Considering the continuous poor performance of the vast majority of State institutions, a remedy for the low productivity level of Public sector human resources, has become vitally important at this juncture.
Employee performance and productivity is a critical dimension in growth of a nation. In fact, the key factor in this crucial matter is the general attitude of the worker towards employment. The Common man who visits a Government institution rarely comes across a committed and attentive officer who will keenly attend to their respective duty. The long established overall negative attitude in Government offices creates an atmosphere of distrust among the general public. Indeed, there are Government servants with such enthusiasm - occasionally- but, overwhelming the majority are inefficient and unproductive.A majority of the members of the Government service in general are complacent and do not really enjoy their work. Negative workplace attitudes can affect the presence of creativity and enthusiasm, which ultimately lead to decreased productivity. A Lackluster approach to people and dismal outlook with reduced energy levels, provides a dreadful feeling on the whole.
On the contrary, almost every Private Sector organization in Sri Lanka is largely productivity driven. Whilst a vast majority of State Owned Enterprises are making colossal losses, all the private organizations are making (at least) adequate profits. Not a single organization continues business without a profit. These profit making organizations are providing a sizeable contribution to the economic growth of the country and paying wages to over five million plus employees. The key factor in the financial success of the Private sector is largely the magnitude of attention given by the employer to the work place attitudes of the employees. In order to drive enthusiasm of the employee towards the job role, the companies provide the necessary work environment. Also, many private organizations spend time and money on career development, which is a powerful motivational tool.
Hence, it is critically important to address the issue straightaway, without delay, as a Brand New state machinery is in place with a visionary at the helm. The whole public sector requires an attitude shift from top to bottom. It has become a dire necessity to provide definitive guidelines to the attitude in Government offices. Devising a strategy to affect something as vast as workplace culture and worker attitudes is a daunting task. However, not only it is an absolute necessity but also a national requirement and an obligation. When the administration knows how to identify different types of behaviours and attitudes and how they affect the work place, it may be easy to get ahead the issue and steer the workers in the right direction. However, a committed, experienced and a dedicated task force is required to face this gigantic challenge. As in many successful commercial establishments, a properly designed short term training program must be available for all State institutions in order to boost the general work place attitude which is the key to enhanced productivity. Even though the task seems cumbersome, there are numerous methods and also expertise available in Sri Lanka, to get this going full swing.
The new President has made a very productive move by appointing a high profile Committee to select and appoint Chairpersons and Board members to State Owned Enterprises. Already several such appointments were done for strategic institutions selected mainly with experience from the Private Sector. If the rest of these establishments also appoint Chairpersons with senior level private sector experience through the Committee, the eventual result by way of productivity and profits will be certain.
This result will not only provide independent organizations which will not burden the economy but also an improved and satisfying service to the public.
The pillars of productivity are mental energy, physical power and motivation derived from meaningful work. In this challenging era, performance of every adult citizen becomes one of the most important aspects for survival. Therefore, in order to meet expectations, the administration must devise a systematic ‘human resource (HR) management’ mechanism without any delay to support this overreaching need, prevent procrastination and boost public sector productivity. The Government must proactively empower a suitable authority to deal with this dire need of collective productivity in the public sector.