This is a flavour of some of the article and possibly sensationalist reports which you will see in the media.
The Express writes "Half a million public sector jobs in Britain could be slashed without any impact on services because two-thirds of staff time is wasted, research reveals.
Minute-by-minute studies of working patterns show that staff productivity is 30 per cent less than in the private sector.
Results indicate that almost 70 per cent of the working day of junior staff in local government is “lost” while the level of “active” management of staff is extremely low, averaging just three per cent each day.
Managers and supervisors in local government were found to spend less than 15 minutes a day engaged in “active” management compared with 25 minutes in the private sector.
The study of 173 local government offices reveals that if efficiency rates were to match those in the private sector, the same work at a 30,000-person county council could be done by just 22,000.
This equates to more than 500,000 workers across the UK’s 410 local authorities.
Campaigners last night said the results were “staggering” and provided further evidence that Britain’s bloated public sector is a multi-billion-pound drain on taxpayers.
Paul Weekes, of management consultants Knox D’Arcy, who carried out the study, said: “Staff, in the UK private sector, are productive on average 44 per cent of the time.
“While this is pretty low compared with the better performing countries or the best UK businesses, it is still much higher than the 32 per cent we observed in local government.
“Put simply, by matching average private sector staff utilisation levels, local government could increase its productivity by roughly a third.
“This sort of dramatic rise would help offset significantly the cuts that are on the agenda as part of the Government’s austerity package.”
My observation is that these reports are quite sensationalist and if acted upon, downright dangerous. Managing in these times will require strong purpose and sensitivity.
It is true that there are issues about public sector workers lacking productivity, but the danger is that that the morale of public sectors will be further reduced and this will have an added impact on productivity. Effectively the negative cycle continues.
Some principles for management(and tax papyers) to consider are:
1 Survivors of downsizing often suffer as much as those who are laid off.
2 The managers of downsizing, like the employee survivors also suffer. Their supposedly privileged position is compounded by the dilemma of their role - axe wielding warrior or caring leader?
3. The downsized organisation suffers if survivors are not managed effectively. Healing organisations to be downsized takes careful planning for survivors wellbeing. It cannot be an afterthought.
Slash and burn media reports do not help.
Justin Patten, Principal at Human Law Mediation