Budget 2017: OPINION
HERMAN SCHOEMAN: A secret 2% growth jab
That twilight zone is our poor productivity, writes Herman Schoeman
The finance minister, like the rest of us, is looking for growth in the economy. But there’s one almost secret space where growth of as much as 2% could be found that he didn’t mention in his budget speech. That twilight zone is our poor productivity. According to the MMI Effective Employee Index, we lose more than 120m days per year (or around 13 days per employee per year) in productive work time. That lost time is estimated at roughly R70bn, or 2% of GDP. And that startling figure does not account for the increasing phenomenon of "presenteeism" — where employees are at work but not operating optimally. Improving productivity should be a key focus for every company or organisation manager, yet too often it takes a back seat to cutting costs. One reason is a perceived inability to measure causality in productivity, while more direct bottom-line measures are highly visible. MMI has filled that gap by building, in consultation with Unisa, a robust model that reveals the drivers of lo...
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