Productivity Awareness Week |12 February 2014

Productivity plan

The term productivity is used to measure the efficiency of a person, system, machine, factory in turning inputs into outputs. Productivity is calculated by dividing the average output for a particular period by the total cost incurred or the total amount of resources used.

In order to improve productivity as well as efficiency, a productivity plan is sometimes introduced. A productivity plan, which may be designed by an individual worker, supervisor or manager, is a system which outlines the tasks or actions that a worker has to perform over a period of time which can be on a daily, weekly, monthly or yearly basis. It also aims to tackle areas that may affect productivity.

There are three main components which are touched upon in an organisation’s productivity plan and they include:

1.    Operational planning which addresses who does what and when they need to complete the work. It is important to assess how all these individuals interact with one another in order to improve efficiency and productivity.


2.    Tactical planning is concerned with ensuring that objectives are met and that plans which are implemented are in line with the organisations’ strategic goals.


3.    Strategic planning allows managers to conduct a SWOT analysis to identify the organisations strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Policies and procedures can then be designed and implemented to take advantage of the strengths and opportunities and work towards eliminating or minimising the weaknesses and threats.


It is however important to set realistic timeframes in the productivity plan to allow workers to complete their tasks in a timely manner. As and when activities are completed, they should be crossed off the plan. This will help to boost worker’s morale and provide a greater sense of accomplishment as more and more tasks are finished. It will also help supervisors to gauge workers’ overall progress and productivity.