News

Citation

(2012), "News", International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, Vol. 61 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijppm.2012.07961faa.003

News

News

Article Type: News From: International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, Volume 61, Issue 6.

Invest in energy efficiency

Making your business energy-efficient often needs capital expenditure. Increasingly there are firms that will guide companies through the steps of reviewing their energy performance and moving to take the steps necessary to improve, some of these will even help find the funding. This is easier in a growing economy and the International Finance Corps suggests that Brazilian businesses may invest as much as $3 billion in energy-efficiency measures from now to 2020 as banks become more comfortable offering loans that will be repaid mainly through cost savings.

The IFC, a unit of the World Bank, is helping energy-service companies develop 12 pilot projects at hotels throughout the country in preparation for the 2014 Football World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games.

Economists not so sure about US manufacturing productivity

Over the last few decades the number of people employed in manufacturing in the USA has declined markedly. This has always been held up as “a good thing” representing increased productivity. Now, economists are not so sure. Some suggest that the job losses were caused more by the declining global competitiveness of US manufacturers than more efficient factories. The figures show one thing; the analysis can suggest several!

Australians get the message

Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Glenn Stevens has reminded Australians that though Australia's economy has performed well in recent years there is room for improvement.

In his address to the Credit Suisse Asian Investment Conference in Hong Kong earlier this year, Mr Stevens said that while monetary policy could play a role in helping to support demand, only increased productivity could boost economic growth.

“Improving productivity growth is just about the sole source of improving living standards”, Mr Stevens said. “This is increasingly being recognised in public discussion, but it is important we do more than just debate it”.

People matter

A recent study by statistics Canada suggests that exploiting domestic markets is just as important as exporting and that companies who have done this in Canada over the last ten or 15 years have typically had a flexible and decentralised organisational structure including such approaches as flexible job design, information sharing with employees, problem-solving teams, joint labour-management committees and self-directed work groups. They are innovative and adaptable and, as they adapt, they become more innovative!

Confirmation that people – and how you treat them – matter

Flexible working practices have increased employees’ productivity and revenue generation of Indian companies, says a study by workplace provider Regus.

Information and communications technology companies benefited the most from flexi-working, followed by consultancy and services sectors, banking/insurance/finance, manufacturing and production and media and marketing.

Technology not enough

The Telstra Productivity Indicator 2012 report (Australia) highlights the fact that building productivity isn’t just about pumping money into ICT but requires a thorough understanding of how to best utilise the pervasiveness of technology in today's enterprise space.

The report, now in its fourth year, surveyed 700 large Australian organisations across the government and private sectors and illustrates why overturning a decade of declining productivity is no simple task, despite the best intentions of management and having the best technology at hand.

While ICT spending levels remain consistent across the board, the number of organisations recording productivity gains in 2012 has dropped by a quarter, from 32 per cent to 24 per cent, compared to 2011.

According to Telstra's director of strategy and business, Antony de Jong, the trends of mobility, cloud computing and storage and the proliferation of smart devices in the workplace have forced organisations to pay closer attention to their impact on performance.

“There's a big connection between productivity and a greater engagement with the workforce, it's not just about giving them (staff) the new tools, it's also about staff training and performance” says de Jong.

Publish and be praised

Singapore is the best performer in the Asia-Pacific region in terms of publishing the highest number of research articles per capita and per research scientist, according to a top scientific journal publisher.

Singapore also maintained its fifth-place ranking in terms of the output of research articles published in Nature Journals in the Nature Publishing Index 2011 Asia-Pacific, released by the Nature Publishing Group. It comes after Japan, China, Australia and Korea.

Singapore topped the chart, beating the other higher-ranked countries, with its score of 10.39 research articles per million population, and 1.90 articles per 1,000 researchers.

In contrast, Japan, which is ranked first in output of research articles, scored 2.83 research articles per million population and 0.43 research article per 1,000 researchers.

The Agency For Science, Technology And Research (A*STAR) said the high performance of Singaporean scientists was a “testimony to the country's strong commitment to investing in R&D as a critical pillar to develop the country”.

Bring your own

Allowing employees to bring-your-own device (BYOD) leads to happier and more productive employees, which also has a positive effect on staff retention, according to results from a recent Asia-Pacific study.

Commissioned by VMware and conducted by Acorn Marketing & Research Consultants, the “New Way of Work Study” found that 64 per cent of employees in multinational corporations across the region said their efficiency had improved thanks to the use of personal devices to complete work tasks.

Some 63 per cent also said they actively sought web-based software applications to boost their own productivity, revealed the survey, which was carried out between January and February this year. It polled 2,077 employees, aged between 18 and 64 years, working in MNCs from ten Asian countries: Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, India, Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, Japan and South Korea.

According to the survey findings, 78 per cent of respondents said they brought their own devices to work, including laptops, smartphones and tablets.

Among them, South Korea ranked the highest at 96 per cent. The rest of the top five were China, 94 per cent; Thailand, 90 per cent; Hong Kong, 89 per cent; and Singapore, 88 per cent. Japan ranked the lowest at 22 per cent.