Consulting Journal: Methods - Low productivity

Methods: Low productivity

by David Blakey

You may spot low productivity, but should you do anything about it?

[Monday 17 March 2008]

Consultants should recognize that the way in which they work can be very different from the way in which their clients work.

Many managers in client organizations may spend time and effort on appearing to be busy rather than on actually being productive. Several writers on this topic have noted that they have found this behaviour more common in large than in small organizations. I disagree with them. In my experience, people spending their time looking busy are just as common in small businesses.

There can be several reasons for this behaviour.

Not enough work

They may simply not have enough real work to fill their day. Often, people with little to do may drift into organizing social events, competitions and displays. If they cannot do that, they may find that inventing a new spreadsheet and keeping it current may occupy their spare time. Usually, they are the only people who have access to the spreadsheet, so the organization will not be able to obtain any value from these documents, even if they were useful. Sometimes, these documents duplicate data held on the organization's systems: a favourite seems to be recording contacts with customers, which are also recorded in the organization's contact management or CRM systems.

As a consultant, if you observe this behaviour, you might be tempted to ask if these people might not just as well play solitaire on their computers. You should consider how acceptable this behaviour is within the organization, before you point out its existence. Sometimes, this behaviour appears at all levels of the organization. There is work that a consultant can do to remove this behaviour, but you make sure that this work will be accepted by management before you suggest it to them.

Fit with culture

Many organizations reward those who appear to be busy. Two people in one of these organizations may achieve the same amount of work in a day. One may then spend their time reading trade journals and following up ideas through searches on the Internet. The other may appear to be making new sales calls or writing reports. The first person may appear to wasting time; the second may appear more productive, even thought the situation is the reverse.

I have seen no studies that have analyzed how these behaviours change with the introduction of teleworking. It may be that organizations in which this behaviour is embedded in the culture may not use teleworking. Unless they can see their employees working, they may not believe that they are working. I believe that teleworking would reinforce these behaviours. The first worker would continue to do work, invisible to their management. The second would probably keep a stream of email messages going into the office, to give the impression that they were busy throughout the day.

Unable to do work

People who cannot do some of their work may choose to do other tasks. One example of this is a person who cannot use the organization's CRM. Instead of fixing the problem, they record the information in some other way, some way that they are comfortable with. This usually means that the information is available only to them, rather than being stored centrally with common availability. That means that they are not really doing their job, although they appear to be doing it.

Conclusions

Consultants may observe these behaviours and may think that they are not productive and that they are unprofitable. They may be costing client organizations a large amount of money. Given that, there are reasons why you should do nothing.

First, if it is not within your assignment, then it is nothing that need concern you.

Second, if it is part of the client culture, then it may be something that you should avoid unless you know how far up the client hierarchy this behavious exists.

Finally, the client may prefer to run the place like a country club, and accept the situation so that the employees stay happy and stay with the client. The employees may do less work, but they might be loyal and their pay might be low.

Check all this out before you decide what you should do.

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