Leaping Forward with Productivity

If you think Singaporean workers are a productive lot, think again. According to the Economic Strategies Committee's (ESC) report released early this year Singapore's productivity level is only 60 to 70 percent of its full capability. In fact Productivity has been identified as the key growth strategy in moving Singapore towards an advanced economy in the next decade.

But aren't we working hard already?

The message put forth by ESC is not about working harder, but working smarter. The economy envisioned for the next decade will be defined by three qualities - superior skills, quality jobs and higher income levels. And the only way to achieve these is if companies find innovative ways of doing business and creating value in the marketplace. The next leap of growth towards 2020 will have to be based on quality efforts and not just tapping into more manpower and more resources. As a country we have to achieve a productivity growth of 2 to 3 percent a year over the next decade just to maintain an economic growth of 3 to 5 percent a year. This, according to our government, is the only way to increase the average wage of Singaporeans.

Organisations have to now start reassessing their processes and be open to new ways of doing business. But they are not left to walk the Productivity path unguided. The government has launched initiatives to support the phase shift. As a start, a new portal called Productivity@Work was launched on 1st June by SPRING Singapore for businesses to access information and resources that can help them boost productivity. It is meant to be a self-help tool for businesses to pick up information on how to manage their productivity in a systematic manner, all presented in an easy to understand manner. The portal even has a productivity calculator that will help businesses benchmark themselves against their industry levels. It also contains links to government assistance programmes and consultants that companies can tap into.

For businesses, especially SMEs, that are already worried that all these translates into an increased expenditure in training their workforce, they will be glad to know that help is at hand. SPRING Singapore and Workforce Development Agency (WDA) have come together to offer the SME Productivity Roadmap (SME_PRO) that supports SMEs in their training efforts towards improving productivity in a three step approach: Be Aware, Get Trained, Take Action. SMEs are set to get 70 per cent funding when they send their personnel to some of the WDA supported courses. In contrast, large companies are only eligible for 50 percent funding.

With $5.5 billion commitment from the government over the next five years we can expect many more productivity related initiatives to be introduced. With the emergence of a new post crisis economic landscape it is critical that businesses of all sizes jump on the progress bandwagon and rally behind this effort.

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