Sensitive touch ups labor productivity

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Sensitive touch ups labor productivity


In the era of rapid changes, manufacturers are given the task of making creative and high quality products at low prices. Many say labor productivity is important, but most only look at the output. While the time spent, machines, facilities and safety are noted, not many seem to value the input of emotions, feelings and happiness of the people who make the products.

Labor productivity can be enhanced through emotional human touch. Interviews with a number of manufacturers showed that the leadership of field workers have absolute influence on productivity. In other research, it was revealed that the workers who enjoy their work make seven times more results than those who work reluctantly and unwillingly.

A company made a major investment in facilities to automate the entire process. But a major client did not trust the quality of products made through the automated process and requested manual work. The company could not fully use the automation. Not just the workers in this particular process but also the ones in the later steps have to work overtime almost every day. If defects are found, they blame each other and avoid responsibility, making the trouble grow bigger.

In this case, the management, managers and field workers should be able to discuss their situations frankly. If they had sincerely listen to other people and propose ways to resolve the problems, the issue wouldn’t have grown so big.

There is a case of making positive changes with another decision. The president of a company called J was struggling with high turnover rate and low productivity. So he offered long-term training for production employees to convey their ideas to fellow workers and to collaborate with other teams.

After offering training for more than two years, the company’s turnover rate and productivity are improving constantly. A retired employee said that he appreciated the leadership training for the field workers so much, as it had positive impact on him not just at work and at home as well.

These days, enormous investments are made to give robots human emotions. Humans already have sensitivity and emotions, and companies should consider offering opportunities to employees to use their human touch. If the workers understand their own strengths and are given the chances to grow and improve, pleasant productivity enhancement can be attained.

by Hong Eu-sook CEO of Incoaching



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