Improving workers' productivity
Sunday, 26 April 2009
Dewan Md Uzair
BANGLADESHI entrepreneurs need to increase the 'productivity' of their workers to retain their market share in the fiercely competitive international market. Quality output from trained workers translates into more competitiveness.
The significance of this crucial factor must be adequately valued by Bangladeshi entrepreneurs specially in the readymade garments (RMG) sector, the country's biggest foreign currency earner. Surveys show that workers in India and China, in some cases, produce more in less time and produce better quality apparels compared to their counterparts in Bangladesh. Thus, the garments industries in those countries have become more competitive, producing more and better quality goods in less time. This has been possible because the industry operators in these countries took pains to improve the productivity per worker.
The entrepreneurs in Bangladesh, in general -- as it seems -- do not take interest in training workers adequately to increase their productivity. Not that all the industries in Bangladesh neglect this key issues. Some of the enterprises in Bangladesh, owned by both locals and foreigners, are beginning to take interest to increase workers' productivity. This practice should be followed by all in the country.
It should be explained to the workers how their efficiency and productivity can make Bangladesh competitive. It would benefit the workers as well as the industry. Following the participatory framework, the management should train the workers systematically to improve their productivity and efficiency to make the industry competitive. The government, on its part, ought to set up more skill development centres to train the workers for free or at nominal charges. In many countries, the governments train people to create the work-force for national gain.
BANGLADESHI entrepreneurs need to increase the 'productivity' of their workers to retain their market share in the fiercely competitive international market. Quality output from trained workers translates into more competitiveness.
The significance of this crucial factor must be adequately valued by Bangladeshi entrepreneurs specially in the readymade garments (RMG) sector, the country's biggest foreign currency earner. Surveys show that workers in India and China, in some cases, produce more in less time and produce better quality apparels compared to their counterparts in Bangladesh. Thus, the garments industries in those countries have become more competitive, producing more and better quality goods in less time. This has been possible because the industry operators in these countries took pains to improve the productivity per worker.
The entrepreneurs in Bangladesh, in general -- as it seems -- do not take interest in training workers adequately to increase their productivity. Not that all the industries in Bangladesh neglect this key issues. Some of the enterprises in Bangladesh, owned by both locals and foreigners, are beginning to take interest to increase workers' productivity. This practice should be followed by all in the country.
It should be explained to the workers how their efficiency and productivity can make Bangladesh competitive. It would benefit the workers as well as the industry. Following the participatory framework, the management should train the workers systematically to improve their productivity and efficiency to make the industry competitive. The government, on its part, ought to set up more skill development centres to train the workers for free or at nominal charges. In many countries, the governments train people to create the work-force for national gain.