FROM THE EDITOR
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High-performance Workplaces
T
he fact that a happy workplace is a more productive workplace
has been known since the advent of industrialisation. The
most famous early experiments on how to improve workplace
sentiment and hence productivity of workers took place in the late
1920s and early 1930s at Western Electric’s factory in Hawthorne
in the US. It was conducted under the supervision of a sociologist
named Elton Mayo. He used two groups of workers from the factory –
one as the control group and the other on which the experimentation was
conducted. The experiments focussed on changes in working conditions
and environment – by changing the lighting at the workplace, tinkering
with work hours, etc. At the end of the Hawthorne experiments, Mayo
had come to certain conclusions. Among other things, he felt that it
was not the actual working conditions that mattered as the worker’s
perception that someone was interested in their wellbeing and the fact
that they were participants in a decision. Mayo also found that workers
were in general more motivated about the improvement in the group’s
working conditions than just individual needs. In general, group
dynamics had a huge effect on productivity.
Henry Ford’s innovation of the moving assembly line is well known.
Less discussed are his other efforts to improve productivity and reduce
attrition in the workplace. He doubled daily wages (workers were getting
$2.25 a day in other factories, Ford started paying his workers $5 a
day), reduced working hours per shift from 9 to 8, and said that no
worker would be sacked unless he/she proved to be unfaithful or
completely inefficient. These steps might seem commonplace and
obvious for any organisation, but it was a huge innovation in Ford’s era.
He was not being altruistic – he was a hard-nosed businessman who had
figured out that the cost of replacing a worker who had been trained
far outweighed the increased salary bill if his moving assembly line was
to work properly. After those changes, attrition dropped sharply and
production of Model T cars shot up.
Those were historical experiments, but since then HR researchers
and managers have constantly worked on improving the workplace.
Relatively higher salaries compared to peer companies, better working
conditions, opportunity for improving personal skills, open and
collaborative workplaces, flexi-time, work-life balance and other
such issues have been debated and implemented.
In different parts of the world, different things have taken priority.
In Europe, for instance, shorter working hours, and therefore more
opportunities for work-life balance, has been very important. In the
US and in India, limiting working hours has not been as much of a
focus as growth opportunities, higher salaries and opportunities. Also,
work from home and flexitime, along with workplace diversity and a
professional and fair atmosphere at work has been considered very
important by enlightened companies. Those are also what employees
value the most, shows the BT-PeopleStrong survey of Best Companies
to Work for.
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Vol. 27, No. 5, for the fortnight February 26 to March 11, 2018.
Released on February 26, 2018.
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