Making Employee Productivity a Slam Dunk

by Dr. Jan Stringer, Ph.D.

If the competition is doing more with less, then employee productivity may be the issue. Low-output workers indicate a serious problem within any organization, forcing companies to adapt innovative techniques to increase employee productivity.

Does March Madness really drive employers crazy? It all depends on what you believe.

The term "lost productivity" is always kicked around this time of year. Are millions of employees checking in on the NCAA Tournament while checking out of their responsibilities at work?

Gauging employee productivity is not an exact science, but anything that gets in the way of workers' ability to produce a quality product or service should concern employers. That is why a recent calculation by consultant John A. Challenger received so much media attention, when he predicted a productivity meltdown during the NCAA Tournament.

Challenger estimated that March Madness, video streamed this year by CBS, will cost employers $3.8 billion or more in lost productivity because workers will watch, gab, bet, and read stories about the NCAA Tournament instead of tending to their responsibilities at work. Challenger put the price tag at $260 million for just the first two days. The $3.8 billion estimate is based on a formula of 58 million viewers whose average wage is $18 an hour, watching 13.5 minutes online on each of the 16 business days of the tournament. That's a lot of madness. But, according to some, so are Challenger's lost productivity numbers.

"I would say that in most cases, this is over blown by the media," said John Henning, Director of a California-based Business Development Group. "I think the actual percentage of professional workers that spend a significant amount of time during their workday paying attention to the Tournament is minimal."

Henning has plenty of company when it comes to detractors.

Slate magazine calls Challenger's lost productivity numbers, "junk economics," that wasted time is built into every workday, and that "NCAA tourney fans merely reallocate to the games the time they ordinarily waste elsewhere."

Wall Street Journal columnist Carl Bialik and Forbes writer Hannah Clark have also challenged Challenger, calling the numbers impacting employee productivity skewed and far-fetched. Clark writes that, "For the first time, most games in the 2006 National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament will be broadcast online for free. That's one reason why consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas has estimated March Madness will cost $3.8 billion in lost productivity. But that estimate should be taken with a boulder of salt."

Whatever the case, the debate over employee productivity costs and March Madness will likely continue to rage since the NCAA Tournament and the workplace will continue to mesh. Nevertheless, what workers do at work remains a central part of any company's successful business plan.

continued on:

5 Factors That Affect Your Employee's Productivity