A poke in the eye for productivity

18 Sep 09

It was disappointing to read about the somewhat unimaginative approach adopted by Portsmouth to managing the use of social networking sites by its workforce. Why simply ban the sites, when they can be used as a tool for increasing productivity? Clearly the six minutes per person lost is not much but some bright business analyst could re-engineer processes to yield the four full-time equivalents that this represents.

On a more serious note, when is local government going to realise that it should not pay staff at all levels simply to turn up but to actually achieve real outcomes? At a recent CIPFA seminar, I heard the director of a local authority-owned joint venture company explain the benefits of setting up the JV. He said one of the biggest was that its staff now realised that their salaries were being paid by the fees from work that they do for their clients, with productivity and quality increasing as a result.

Outsourcing/insourcing need not always be the answer. But something equally seismic needs to be done to change the predominant culture across our industry.

John Newton
New Networks Limited
Knutsford, Cheshire

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