Productivity is an aspect that allows us to know how a company is doing . Through this indicator, it is possible to know if the organization is going according to what is expected and if there is an adequate distribution of tasks among the members of the company.

From the psychology of work it is known that to increase productivity it is necessary for the organization to provide a set of elements.

It is not only the material aspects that allow the production of goods and services to be achieved more efficiently, but also the well-being of workers and the environment in which they carry out their work.

Today we are going to see what influences the productivity of a company according to the organizational psychology, besides explaining how to calculate this indicator by means of an example.

What influences the productivity of a company?

The psychology of work has demonstrated and helped to understand that companies, their offices, factories, and other workplaces, are more than spaces where the worker performs his or her job.

How these places are physically organized, the relations with other workers, the facilities available when performing their function in the company, among many other aspects, are key to understanding how efficient a company is and how productive it is.

1. The social factor

One aspect that many employers often overlook is the relationship between workers. Human beings are social animals, so they need to interact with other people. The workplace is no exception. A correct relational dynamic may imply that workers are motivated to work , since going to the office or the factory will not only be to work, but also to see their colleagues with whom they can share pleasant moments.

In a workplace where there is a purely working relationship between employees, without even knowing their names, or even hostilities, it can be very detrimental to the organization. This has a negative influence on the productivity of the company, since employees will not offer their best and will even feel fatigued as soon as they enter the office.

2. Psychological/motivational factors

Another factor to take into account is the mood of the employees . A person who is going through a bad situation will not be happy to come to work. This will not only influence the degree of individual productivity, but can also affect the rest of the people, spreading widespread discouragement and pessimism.

The ideal thing for companies, when discovering this type of situation, is to offer the person who is having a bad time to go to a psychologist or take a few days off in case the problem is very serious. This way, they can come back with more energy and a more motivating attitude.

3. Organization and leadership

The productivity of an organization depends largely on how the different types of workers are organized . There are employees who act as leaders, others as dynamizers in the company, others facilitate communication, and many more types. A good distribution of this type of employee, taking into account their degree of training and what they have specialised in, will make it possible to obtain the maximum degree of productivity in the organisation.

For example, you can hire a person who knows a lot about accounting, but if this person lacks leadership skills, it would not be appropriate to place him or her as a manager in the company. Thus, personality is another aspect that influences the good dynamics of production in the organization.

4. Work climate

The work climate is often underestimated, but it turns out to be fundamental in the well-being of the employees . The work climate is understood as the relationship between the physical and emotional environment of the workers. Aspects as simple as the colour of the walls, the temperature of the room, the degree of lighting, among others, can make the difference between a pleasant and pleasant workplace and one in which one is uncomfortable, wanting the working day to end as soon as possible.

How to calculate productivity?

Every company is managed through processes, in which there are inputs and outputs.

By inputs we mean the company’s workforce, the money spent, the resources and machinery used, the energy required, the time used and basically everything that has been invested in the process. By contrast, outputs are the results of the process, that is, the goods obtained, the services offered and the sales.

Productivity, mathematically speaking, is in charge of measuring the relationship between outputs and inputs . Basically, the result is the division between the outputs obtained from the process and the inputs invested to generate those outputs.

Formula for calculating productivity

Labour productivity is the relationship between outputs and human resources, i.e. the personnel involved in the production of the products or the provision of services.

This would basically be the formula:

  • Outputs / inputs = productivity

Being:

  • Entries: units of labour factor used.
  • Outputs: Production obtained.

Examples

To better understand this concept we present the following example .

A dry cleaner has washed 100 suits in a week, paying his employees 10 euros an hour, working 56:

To find out the labour productivity in terms of labour and labour cost, two calculations would be made.

Labor productivity in hours would be:

  • Productivity = 100 suits / 56 hours = 1.78 suit/hour

The value 1.78 refers to the number of suits cleaned per hour in this company, this value being the productivity of labour.

Productivity taking into account the cost of labour would be:

  • 56 hours x $10/hour = $560

  • Productivity = 100 suits / 560 Euros = 0.178 suit/ Euros

This means that for every euro invested in labour, 0.178 suits have been cleaned .

Example with more factors

The previous example only took into account the money invested per worker. Now let’s see one in which more factors are taken into account, which allow us to know more accurately the degree of productivity of the company.

We have a dairy product company, where there are 10 workers who work 8 hours a day. Each of them produces about 20,000 yoghurts a day which they sell at 1.25 each.

There are 40 machines used to make yoghurt and about 10,000 litres of milk are needed as raw material. Workers are paid 10 euros per hour, the machines cost about 20 euros per day for maintenance as a whole and the milk costs 1.50 euros per litre.

To calculate the productivity index in this case, we would make the following formula:

  • Productivity = 20,000 yoghurts x 1.25 euros/yoghurt / (10 workers x (10 euros/hour x 8 hours/ day) + 20 euros maintenance + (10,000×1.50 euros/litre of milk)) = 1.6

The value obtained indicates the productivity. Values above 1 mean that there is positive productivity, and below this number, it is negative.

Bibliographic references:

  • Black, S. E. y Lynch, L. M. (2006). How to Compete: The Impact of Workplace Practices and Information Technology on Productivity. The Review of Economics and Statistics, 83(3), 434-445.
  • Kompier, M. y Cooper, C. (1999). Preventing stress, improving productivity. Estudios de casos europeos en el lugar de trabajo. Londres, Reino Unido: Routledge.