White Collar Productivity

Now there is a title that you do not hear much conversation about. When we talk productivity, you typically picture the line worker or production staff and the amount of output they create. We remember how in 1970 it took ninety five men five days to unload a ship full of timber and today it is eight men one day thanks to new tools, equipment and techniques. Now that is productivity improvement.



But times have changed. ninety+ per cent of us, even those working in so-called manufacturing companies work at white collar jobs. Over the summer we are going to explore this topic, present other people's opinions and share our own observations on this topic.



Here is idea #1;



If you manage by budgets, you will not notice the problem.



Think about it. If you are measuring success because you are "on budget" and the budget covers a 30% waste in productivity from the white collar positions you will never notice that you have a productivity issue. Take a look around you at work. Do you see any payroll dollars going to zero return on investment?


have you been to meetings where they were not organized and nothing got accomplished? How much payroll was in that room?



Do you have co-workers who are disengaged at work, producing little or no added value? They are really easy to pick out. When they are not there, no one notices that something is not getting done.



Find yourself working a project that were assigned that does not add any value to anyone?



Are you carrying a sales person on your team that consistently does not deliver?



All these things can be going on, but the budget line for payroll says you are on plan. The only time that these numbers get a second look is when the bottom profit number is not on plan. Profit plan hides sins, but it also limits what the potential of that profit can be.

What to figure out what white collar productivty issues are costing your organization? Watch this short video that will walk you through an exercise for you and your CFO to complete.



Looking forward to hearing more about your observations of white collar productivity issues.