One of the critical success factors for any individual or nation is optimum productivity. It is simply a measure of efficiency of production of a product or a service and it is a subject matter that must be treated with all seriousness.
Economic and policy experts have asserted that productivity determines the wealth of nations. If Nigeria, therefore, intends to be wealthy, she has to improve on her productivity levels across board.
In economic context, productivity usually denotes the ratio of economic output to any or all associated inputs, i.e. output per unit of productive input. The result of a global review on the impact of labour productivity on growth showed that increase in labour productivity within economic sectors provides the main thrust for economic growth.
It, therefore, behoves individuals, entrepreneurs, business executives, economists, policy makers, politicians, etc. to continuously look for ways of achieving optimum productivity of the work force, regardless of its demographic components.
Japan is reported to have an ageing labour force while Nigeria has a young working population. Whatever the case, the challenge of optimising productivity holds true for every nation against the backdrop of the inevitability and ubiquity of technology in this 21st century.
Technology is an enabler that ensures that things are done in a quicker, simpler, more refined way to achieve a goal. It is against that background that one wonders what extent labour productivity can be optimised in a constantly changing world where technology is advancing at a rate, faster than virtually everyone can keep up with.
Of course, there are as many answers as there are opinions, but the unmistakable aspiration of business owners and managers is how to deal with the challenges of managing employee productivity.
Amidst the harsh economic recession, organisations and enterprises are making concerted efforts to stay afloat by extracting every ounce of productivity out of their operations. One of such efforts is the use of tech-based tools in the form of hardware and software to help employees work at peak proficiency with the goal of saving time, money and other resources.
Employers, however, realise that to use those technologies at all, staff must be present at duty posts and must use their time productively.
To achieve this, employers have gone a step further by deploying intelligent and nimble technologies in the form of human resource information systems otherwise called human resource management systems.
They have been described as an intersection of human resources and information technology software that allows practically every human resource activity to occur electronically.
Accordingly, operational requirements like employee database, attendance logs, payroll remittances, performance management and related processes have been seamlessly automated. — Finish Reading on the Punch
