BEST PRACTICE CASES

Belgium (INRCT/NOVA): Productivity and Working Conditions
Denmark (DTI): Company Flexibility - the Key to Efficiency
Finland: Competitiveness, Quality and Productivity
France: Managing through Competences/Skills
Germany (RKW): Productivity and Employment
Productivity and Employment: Tony Hubert
Hungary (HPC): Productivity & Competition and Quality
Ireland (IPC): Productivity & Partnership
Italy (CPV): Productivity and Innovation and Technology
The Netherlands (TNO Work and Employment): Productivity and Work Organisation and Learning Organisations
Productivity and Environmental Protection: Tony Hubert

Belgium (INRCT/NOVA): Productivity and Working Conditions

The connection

Productivity refers to the ratio of 'value created: resources used'. The conditions under which the resources are combined enhances the maximum value achievable. Working conditions refer to the physical, behavioural and organisational environment of the workplace and the enterprise (organisation) as such.

Over the two centuries since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, legislation has outlawed the worst working practices (child labour, various types of semi-slavery, pensionable age, etc.) and required the improvement of physical working conditions, starting with those causing debilitating occupational illnesses such as silicosis. In the past five decades much of this legislation has been brought in with the argument that its application will also improve productivity. This connection was already clear during the First World War when the reduction of the working week in Britain to 40 hours led to increased, rather than decreased, output.

Since 1945 increasing attention has been given to improving behaviour at the workplace, starting with the 'human relations' school. More recently further interest has stemmed from the rise of the service industry where physical working conditions have tended not to be as unpleasant as in traditional manufacturing industries. To a considerable extent problems have been tackled by the better understanding and application of the 'sciences of work' - work study and then ergonomics. However, legislation has continued to play a significant role.

Thus, in the last decade or so growing importance has been attached to safeguarding the wellbeing of workers who already breathe clean air and work 'decent' hours yet increasingly suffer illness. The 'new' illnesses which have been brought to light include RSI, musculoskeletal diseases, … Moreover, 'stress' has become a syndrome of post-manufacturing society. It is caused essentially by the individual having little control over his/her work and working environment - just-in-time and flexible working contracts and approaches have their productivity downsides, as well as advantages. Today, stress is responsible for more than one third of absentees in Belgian working life (compared with 5% for industrial disputes), especially 'pure' stress which takes a person away from the workplace for upwards of 1 month. And every workday lost means reduced worker productivity.

Finally, growing attention is being paid to a variety of behavioural issues highlighted in the ILO publication 'Violence at Work', such as harassment, mobbing or victimising.

Legislating change?

Legislation on workplace issues has a number of shortcomings: it takes time to formulate and then enact, not to say monitor; and if it is to change particular aspects of rganisational behaviour its constraining elements need to be measurable - which explains why many behavioural problems are simply compensated for by money. On the other hand, it can also authorise approaches and procedures for tackling issues in important, but fuzzy areas. Thus, in 'doubtful' environments workers can increasingly request a 'risk analysis', bringing in outside experts to make an objective study as possible of the issue in question so that the parties concerned then have a more secure basis on which to negotiate change. Encouraging and helping companies and organisations to improve their physical and mental working environments through such procedures not only speeds up the implementation of good practice for the physical and mental well-being of the workers but also increases workers' 'present-ism' and productivity.

One very useful 'risk analysis' tool to enable companies and organisations to better understand their working conditions and climate, and point to where they can be improved for more satisfactory jobs and improved productivity, is the VBBA questionnaire approach (an acronym for the Dutch 'questionnaire on the experience and appraisal of work'). Designed in the Netherlands, and currently applied in Belgium and several other western European countries, the VBBA approach focuses specifically on the work-health relationship, with scaled responses (1-4) measuring mental work strain and stress in four broad areas:

• the salient characteristics of the work - covering such matters as the speed and quantity of work, emotional stress, physical exertion, variation in work, learning opportunities and autonomy at work;
• the organisation of work and relationships at work - covering such matters as relationships with colleagues, relationships with the immediate management, participation;
• working conditions - covering remuneration, career opportunities and other working conditions matters; and
• work stress - covering work satisfaction, involvement in the organisation, needs for recovery, quality of sleep, emotional reactions at work, fatigue at work and worries.

With the same data on significant numbers of workplaces having been collected for different industries, 'data-banks' enable all participating organisations to benchmark their positions and subsequently to draw on the experiences of NOVA staff to indicate where and how improvements can be made.

Good practice examples

1. A large insurance company was concerned about the impact of its working conditions on the performance of the individual employees and the total enterprise. So it had made a VBBA survey of its functioning. The questionnaire response rate was 60%. Comparison brought out the issues in the enterprise concerned which could then be targeted more directly, such as the departments or groups which performed relatively poorly (for instance, relationships with management deteriorated as staff seniority rose). The findings were presented in study days which also had to deliberate actions which needed to be taken.
2. The VBBA questionnaire was administered (with the blessing of the trade union) to the employees of a family-owned meat-processing business, with an extensive retailing chain (400 employees). The results (63% participation rate) clearly brought out the problems, both physical (work in refrigerated areas) and behavioural such as of communication (in the slaughter-house, though not the shops) or the continuously interrupted work of the foremen. It was possible to tackle several of these problems in staff study days for presenting information, brainstorming and planning. The changes introduced, often simple (such as regular Monday morning meetings) did not just make life more pleasant for the workforce but also incrementally increased the efficiency of the workplace, the enterprise and the whole network.
3. An occupational physician made a risk analysis and survey of an IT company's employee well-being, as required under Belgian and European law. This showed that although the results were, overall, positive, there were several areas of tension, particularly staff turnover. Turnover rates were not necessarily higher than in other IT companies; but it was possible to differentiate the external and internal causes of turnover. The analysis showed that three factors were significant in improving the job which could all be positively acted upon by the enterprise: finding work pleasurable (itself determined by variety on the job, problems which the individual could not resolve and tiredness at work); being involved in the organisation (through learning opportunities, co-management, …); and opening up career opportunities. Interestingly, 'remuneration' only cropped up as an underlying issue in the 'career opportunities' area, and even then as a relatively minor issue compared 'learning opportunities'. Simply by focusing on the internal causes, it has been possible to reduce significantly the trend in staff turnover and this raise the organisation's productivity.

Questions and comments by e-mail: sim.moors@nova.inrct.be