Mental Inputs

• There are two significant mental inputs which impact productivity levels:

  • Employee motivation

  • Corporate knowledge

Employee motivation:

• There’s no precise formula to determine the impact of improving employee motivation on productivity levels

• Hence one is left with the following broad relationship:

                         Productivity = Ability x Motivation 

•  Ability is what a team can do:

  • It depends on the physical and/ or mental strengths of team members

  • It can be improved by careful selection and good training of each team member, and cross-pollination of ideas and experience between them

•  Motivation is what a team will do:

  • It depends on many factors concerning job design and the working environment

  • It’s also contagious – team members pass it on to others, and new members soon pick up ‘the vibes’ – this applies to both high and low motivation levels

•  Empirical evidence suggests their combined effect on productivity can be dramatic – for example:

  • More availability of staff – up to 50% less ‘sickies’

  • More staff efficiency – up to 60% more output from the same workers

Corporate Knowledge:

• There’s even less known about the cause & effect relationship between corporate knowledge levels and productivity outcomes

• Have too little and it seems obvious that performance levels will suffer

• But have too much and some in a team may become overwhelmed, others bored, so performance levels may again suffer

Conclusion:

• Employee motivation and knowledge levels undoubtedly have a significant impact on productivity levels, even if they cannot be quantified exactly

• They also interact

• Therefore, both should be assessed simultaneously – and managers take action if either is found lacking