Productivity in Czech Republic remains low but comparable to other countries
According to a recent study, more than 40 percent of working time is spent in an unproductive way in Czech economy. At the same time, managers are rather sceptical as to the possibilities of improvement. However, productivity growth potential is estimated at around 30-percent.
According to a recent study of productivity in industry, nearly a half of the total working time is wasted in Czech companies. If we take 225 working days per year, this means 92 days are spent unproductively. The situation is much the same in all the 10 countries across the world included in the survey.
The study, conducted by Czipin & Proudfoot Consulting, showed a minor improvement in work time utilisation in Czech industry from 57 to 59 percent since last year. At the same time, however, Czech managers are more sceptical as to further possibilities of improvement.
The main causes of low productivity are sixfold: insufficient planning, problems in management and control, problems in communication, bad working morale, IT-related issues, and inadequate qualification.
The managing director of Czipin & Proudfoot Consulting in Central Europe, Klaus Harrer, presented the results of the study at a press conference in Prague.
Mr. Harrer believes every business has enormous productivity reserves lying fallow. As he said, productivity is not just about the relationship between the production factors input and the production result, but about the overall picture - productive use of resources throughout a company.
"Not only in Czech companies but Europe-wide these problems persist, that improvement of 1 to 4 percent is quite normal but no one is really stepping ahead 10 or 15 percent. I think this is rather an indication that there is a problem that needs to be solved. In order to achieve productivity improvement of 10 to 15 percent, the whole economy would have to strongly concentrate on productivity improvement, and I think we are very far from this."
An increasing number of Czech companies have been introducing quality management systems in order to obtain the ISO 9000 certification. This concerns all processes within a company and should be connected with productivity. Is there a direct link between implementation of quality management systems and productivity improvement in industry?
"You can have a quality management system or ISO certification for a productive company or for an unproductive company. Having an ISO certificate does not say anything about the productivity of a company, it has nothing to do with each other. Productivity has not so much to do with systems but has more to do with people and has also much to do with managerial planning and control. There has been no reflection between quality management and productivity development."
According to your study, Czech managers on average expect a 2.5-percent improvement in productivity for next year. But yu say the potential is about 30 percent. What do they need to focus on in the first place?
"First of all, I think, if you want to change productivity, you must have a very clear picture of your position and what is the gap you can realistically fulfil. Secondly, you must have a plan lets say for a year, clearly outlining the steps, activities and measures to implement it. And third, you must really implement it, which means not to have it on paper but do it and then compare the plan with the real achievement. This is a very simplistic explanation, in practice, it is a little more difficult."
Did you ask the managers why they were so sceptical?
"No. The reasons for these estimates were not questioned but we assume from the side marks that we got based on the interviews that the general economic recession makes it more realistic to put the expectations down and so on, which means that individual plans react to macroeconomic figures."
Does that mean that managers are not looking into internal processes, finding ways inside the company to improve productivity?
"You can never say that because it is an absolute statement. I would say it is always a question of taking a real balanced approach and going in a clearly set direction. It is not about doing or not doing, it is about credibility achieved by results because nothing is more important than results today."
