The Workplace Productivity Challenge - Summary - Department of ...

28
summary of the report of the workplace productivity working group
2. Diagnostic Tools
The Working Group notes that diagnostic tools can assist firms in identifying how effectively they
are performing and where they may need to improve. These can measure performance individually
against any of the seven drivers of workplace productivity, although the diagnostic process will be
more effective where it examines performance against a combination of these drivers (reflecting the
complementarities among different business practices).
Our recommendations to improve awareness of workplace productivity issues focus on the need to
review the availability and effectiveness of existing tools for the drivers of workplace productivity,
and to develop new tools, information and frameworks to address gaps. New tools should utilise
international best practice, but be relevant to New Zealand industry.
3. Implementation
To achieve the potential productivity gains outlined in the Working Group’s report, firms will need
assistance and support to implement specific strategies, including the availability of information and
expertise about specific actions and how to put these in place.
Based on feedback from the workshop, firms have indicated they want to be able to access information
and expertise in a simple, user-friendly and streamlined way.
Our recommendations to assist firms in implementing productivity improvements focus primarily
on the need to improve the relevance, co-ordination, responsiveness and accessibility of government
support for the drivers of workplace productivity.
This would include facilitating linkages and collaboration among industry, government and employee
organisations to improve workplace productivity and is particularly important in the areas of
employment relations, skills development and innovation.
We also recommend a review of how government currently supports skills investment by firms,
including the mechanisms for supporting firms to identify skills needs and training solutions. In
developing these forms of assistance, the Working Group notes the need to consider the role of ITOs
as a delivery mechanism.
In its full recommendations, the Working Group proposes that further work is undertaken to address
the needs of existing workers with low foundation skills. This will require a substantial increase in
government funding in this area and alignment of foundation skills training with wider industry
training to ensure broad skills develop aligned to industry requirements. The Working Group would
also like to see greater adoption of management and commercialisation courses as part of the tertiary
engineering and science curriculum.
We recommend assessing existing quality standards for the drivers of workplace productivity and
developing these further as necessary.
4. Research and Evaluation
Research and evaluation are useful for identifying progress and areas for improvement that can help
focus efforts to continuously lift New Zealand’s productivity performance.
The WPWG is keen to see more research undertaken into the following areas:
• The incentives for firms to invest in the drivers of workplace productivity, including
particularly the returns on that investment.