Individual Productivity: A Sourcing Analysis

Abstract

With increasing frequency, Human Resource functions are called upon to contribute to the enhancement of employee productivity through the design and implementation of selection and job training programs affecting the firm’s factory work force. A quick inventory of the procedural and conceptual tools available to the practitioner to help in this process suggests some strengths and some weaknesses. From a techniques standpoint, the literature on selection and training is quite broad and constitutes an asset. From the standpoint of human resource planning, however, the tool box is less adequately stocked; two general types of deficiencies can be considered:

• 1. Needs analysis in the area of productivity is a particularly complex task. Objective indices of base period or current productivity levels in the classical metric of “output per unit of time” are not often available, particularly on paced or service type factory jobs. Where hard data are available, they are typically confounded by moderating operational factors which mask the effects of individual differences in employee productivity

• 2. The idea of estimating potential productivity gains for use in projecting the “benefits” side of the cost-benefit equation in dollar terms has proved to be an elusive objective in the literature.