国产探花

I want to discuss productivity and the workforce across a broad arc from the macro policy settings which impinge on productivity to cultural shifts in the workplace.

For the last two decades, the Productivity agenda has been the black hole of Australian economic policy reform

As they say productivity may not be everything but it is almost everything and yet for some considerable time now our productivity has been either flat or declining

Productivity lies at the intersection of public policy, workplace practices and social change so fixing it is far from straightforward.聽 But fix it we must because it will be the key determinant of our future prosperity as a nation and the standard of living of individual Australians.聽 Neither a nation nor an organisation can afford to stray far from a productivity focus.

At the public policy level, successive Australian governments have struggled with a reform agenda which puts productivity at its heart.聽 This is symptomatic of something bigger which is happening across the west: democratic governments seem to have lost the art of aligning good policy with good politics. 聽Indeed the reverse seems to now apply.聽 We live in a populist age and the defining feature of populism is that bad policy becomes good politics.

So productivity enhancing reforms such as tax policy, reducing regulation,and 聽more flexible labour markets find themselves stuck in the too hard basket.

There are no doubt a myriad of complex reasons why this is so.聽 It is so much harder today, compared with say the Hawke/Keating/Howard years to navigate the background noise to find the true centre of gravity of community opinion and to stick with it.聽 But unless our political leaders can find a way to again align good policy and good politics we will not dig our way out of the productivity rut.

It is not that we don鈥檛 know what needs to be done. 聽There are decades of fine reports from the Productivity Commission which sets out productivity enhancing reforms across both the private and public sectors.

The optimist in me believes that things can and will change.聽 Democracies are self correcting in the long term and we will eventually find political leaders who can navigate the static and distractions of social media and populist slogans while still delivering serious public policy.

Workplace practices are obviously another key driver of productivity.聽 In recent years enterprise bargains have lost some of their productivity focus.聽 At a time of high inflation and living costs pressures this is understandable but higher wages and better conditions must ultimately be anchored in productivity gains.聽 They are not otherwise sustainable.

Post Covid we are also seeing significant cultural shifts in attitudes to work.聽 There is a much bigger focus on work/life balance.聽 My generation talked a lot about it but did very little.聽 Younger Australians seem determined not to make the same mistake.

Work/life balance may well be a rich country problem but that does not make it any less real.聽 And I do worry that it is emerging as a profound cultural shift at a time when economies are slowing.聽 This makes productivity improvements even more important.

We need much more reliable data on the impact on productivity of Work From Home (WFH).聽 Assertions of costs and benefits need to be backed up.聽 Nor can we ignore how WFH will affect the cohesion and sense of belonging in the workplace.聽 Or what it means for induction programs, or learning by observing or the insights generated by accidental interactions or the career prospects of those who may be less visible to managers, especially women who are more likely to work from home 聽.聽 These all have productivity implications.

Beyond these questions of public policy, workplace practices and cultural change, the productivity of the economy will also be determined by the broader geopolitical and economic trends which will shape our future prosperity.

We are moving into an era where the crossovers between the geopolitical and the economic are on the rise.聽 Some of this is pushing economic policy in the wrong direction such as: increasing state intervention in the economy, narrowing trade to the strategically like-minded, rising protectionism and placing less emphasis on comparative advantage as a driver of economic policy.

These are potentially disastrous policies for Australia which has always done best when its economy is the most open.聽 We will pay a productivity price for some of these policies.聽 Indeed the direction in which we are heading is eerily reminiscent of the period between the first and second world wars when globalisation slowed, tariffs rose, begger thy neighbour policies flourished and it all ended in tears.

Productivity is also closely linked to our skills and education systems. Clearly we must ensure that our education system is equipping those entering the workforce with the right skills.

Skills forecasting is a tricky thing, especially at a time when technologies such as AI may profoundly disrupt the way we do things. The premium is likely to be on critical thinking skills as well as a deeper understanding of the basics of digital literacy. And without the strong fundamentals of literacy and numeracy no education system can deliver what the workplace needs.

Universities will need to find the right balance between vocational and professional skills and basic and applied research. Innovation and productivity go hand in hand.

Technology has always been a workforce disrupter. But historically technology has created more jobs than it has made redundant.聽 Will AI pass the same test?

Productivity flows from macro factors over which boards have no direct control. But it is also a result of workplace practices which are squarely within the responsibility of governing boards.聽

In all of this it is a combination of systems and people which lie at the heart of productivity in the workplace. Good Governance is about good systems. People also need to be backed up by good systems. And recruiting for cognitive diversity is crucial.

Unleashing the creativity and ideas of middle management is also important. Giving them headroom and backing them up if they calculate risk but still make mistakes can pay productivity dividends.

Producivity is also shaped by cultural shifts to which boards need to respond.聽 Balancing the needs of the business with a greater focus on work/life balance will not be straightforward. The pendulum may need to swing back but it is very unlikely to swing all the way back to pre Covid days.

Ultimately our productivity performance will be determined by our nimbleness. We cannot predict the contours of change but we can ensure we understand the first principles which shape how we respond to change, that we understand the linkages across issues and we have the critical thinking skills to determine what is peripheral and what is fundamental.