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Why would anybody want to invest here when we have one of the most unproductive workforces in the world?
Sri Lanka’s labour force is one of the most unproductive in the world. One global ranking of 137 countries placed Sri Lanka at 131 (Global Competitiveness Index), indeed a terrible position. Why would any investor want to waste his money in such a place on such unproductive employees?
China’s Ambassador to Sri Lanka, in a frank assessment of Sri Lanka’s investment possibilities at a global forum with the participation of 80 countries, noted that among the many positives, there is much work to be done in order to make the country competitive. He was right. It is more than time for the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) to take concrete measures to put Sri Lanka’s house in order, or all the port cities in the world will not bring in investors.
Today, we take a look at one very disturbing aspect of Sri Lanka’s lack of global competitiveness: The low productivity of our workforce, in particular the quality of work and the number of hours that our people actually work in comparison to our competitors and global standards.
Sri Lanka is famous for having an enormous number of holidays – so let’s not even get into that. However, in addition, there are a number of key issues that drastically reduce the productivity of our workforce, which in turn makes our country very unattractive to foreign investors.
GoSL needs to expand its skill base, but the lack of opening of trade undermines its product market efficiency, and the labour market is characterised by a lack of protection for workers’ rights, poorly designed active labour market policies, and a significantly low level of women’s participation.
Poor work ethics
What that means is to prevent employment so that a person is prepared to seriously affect productivity, attention, responsibility, and/or standard of living to stay employed. All an employee does in the workplace are professional standards. These standards should be high and should apply to all aspects of an employee’s job activities. This includes how they communicate with teams, how they do their business, and how they deal with employees and customers.
Acts of nepotism: Nepotism is common in the workplace and by default Sri Lankans accept it. It is a prevalent kind of corruption occurring at work. An employee who worked hard for years while affecting corporate growth could be put out to promote him or herself because of another employee who is family, a friend, or a friend of his family. Such things impair the morale of employees or perhaps drive talented employees from disengagement.
Corruption and favouritism in recruitment: During an organisation's employment process, certain obvious reasons for corruption can be identified. Typically, they ask people to send their resumé and ask them to attend interviews, but they are only employed by those with the same political affiliation. This is also common in organisations that request contractors to submit a project, but staff only distribute it to their pals who are not allowed to even submit an offer.
Misuse of time and logistics: Companies give employees lunch breaks and people use these breaks to accomplish other things outside office jobs such as meeting with friends (loitering) or even working on their side business. However, these lunch breaks are used by employees and extended beyond time. It’s common to see employees have side businesses to earn extra income. There are a few companies that are opposed to employees that work outside hours of employment. However, during office hours, some employees continue to do non-office-related stuff. Also, workers with side businesses may utilise company or government logistics.
Three laws lay down the working hours, relaxation, and various vacation types. They are:
- Wages Board Ordinance of 1941
- Factories Ordinance of 1950
- Shop and Office Employees’ Act of 1954
Labour productivity in Sri Lanka declined by 3.18% in December 2020 compared to a 3.71% increase in the last quarter. The quarterly growth data from June 2013 to December 2020, which are on average 1,95%, are updated. In December 2014, the figures achieved an all-time high of 9.55% and a record high of -14.07% in June 2020. CEIC calculates the growth in labour productivity from real GDP quarterly and employment quarterly. 21.92 million people were reached in Sri Lanka. In December 2020, the unemployment rate decreased to 5.20%. The participation rate of the labour force in December 2020 fell to 50.10%.
Malaysia had a 5.37 1-7 (best) rating in 2019, making it one of the top 10% of the indicator “GCI 4.0: population’s digital abilities”. Singapore has the highest indicator of 5.58 1-7 (best) among the selected countries, while Bangladesh has the lowest indicator of 3.55 1-7 (best).
[caption id="attachment_142758" align="aligncenter" width="705"]
GCI 4.0: Digital skills among population, 1-7 (Best)[/caption]
Sri Lanka’s agriculture productivity
Agriculture is a sector in which state or political interventions are the most visible, with subsidies and state subsistence agriculture being encouraged on tiny plots of land given without freehold following a reduction in diminishing forest cover in the country. Price assistance was also given to promote low quality and poor productivity, restrictions on crop type to be planted, limits on the use of land for alternative purposes, including urbanisation and extensive land expropriation.
Most such programmes in Sri Lanka have been followed by laissez faire economics, which promotes agriculture as part of a broader rural nationalist ideology in eastern Europe. This has proven to be ineffective.
Causes of low productivity – organisation aspect
Ownership
The fact that they believe that they do not belong to the company they belong to could be an essential explanation of low employee production. It is crucial to ensure that every leader or senior management welcomes new personnel and does not make them feel undervalued in their business environment. Before you hire, you should first express your company’s principles and beliefs so that everyone can share them and follow them in the future. Otherwise your new personnel will be less productive than the rest, merely because you feel they’re not at the correct position.
There are too many meetings
Meetings are part and parcel of any firm since that is what generates business growth ideas, assesses alternative projections, and discusses and evaluates team performance. However, in many circumstances, corporations choose to plan employee meetings even in minor circumstances. This is a needless practice which takes much of your employees’ time and renders them unproductive.
Poor management style
Managers in organisations are still numerous and tend to supervise their teammates and to take the form of bosses whose sole duty is to demand more and more. This strategy no longer works in today’s environment. Organisations don’t need bosses now, but leaders who drive change and carry forward their companies. To enhance the productivity of your worker, the best you can do is get out of hierarchies, including your ego, and create a team that appreciates everyone and works to achieve one goal.
Complex org. structure
All too often, there are situations when there is a lack of consistency throughout departments, especially in larger organisations. All the individual components of one firm must strive to attain the same objective. Although there is no confusion as to who is responsible, there is a large increase in the likelihood of low production at the job. Synchronisation is a response to this problem. Everyone in your team should be aware of what the others are working on and how the tasks are progressing.
Way forward
- Appoint a panel of private sector professionals to rationalise the holiday system for public, bank, and mercantile sectors.
- The above panel should have sub-panels to look into the length of a working day and thus the work week. Should we have 12 hours a day for four days a week? This must necessarily differ from industry to industry.
- Create a mass public transport system of highways, roads, flyovers, and railways, together with sufficient buses and trains, to get people to work much faster. This will increase quality time at home and efficiency at work.
- Chambers of Commerce and Industries need to lead the way in changing the work culture. Move away from this “long tea break” culture to one where productivity is measured and treasured.
- Quality over quantity. Stress productivity and not long hours.
- What is the purpose of each person at work each day? Set proper targets.
- Get rid of this half day on Saturday nonsense.