Recently, I blogged about, How Many HR Staff you should have. Today there is a related article in a United Kingdom publication about efficiency in government workers versus private workers. I should preface these findings by saying that just as is the case in the U.S., the U.K. is facing major cut backs in government budgets. This research essentially says that the public sector lacks the management skills to improve efficiency. Not a popular message, but if you are a proponent of professional management in local government, you will appreciate the emphasis on the importance of involving employees in order to make them more accountable.
Some key findings.
* In the U.K., private businesses generate more personal accountability than the public sector for performance, allowing them to achieve better staff efficiency. Staff utilization rates for private and public differed by 14%. To illustrate the difference, the study offered an example of a 30,000-person county council. If utilization rates were improved from 32% to 44%, the same work could be done by approximately 22,000 staff (8,000 fewer), a staff reduction of 27%.
* Managers and supervisors in local government were found to be spending fewer than 15 minutes per day (only 3% of their time on average) engaged in ‘active’ management such as following up on work assigned to their team. But at 25 minutes per day (5% of the time) the average private sector manager was not much better.
The consultants in the study point out that simply cutting back budgets will only result in reduced services and “chaos”. Far more significant changes are needed, including a change in mindsets, improved management skills and a shift in culture to include more involvement by employees.
The following quote from the researchers illustrates this point:
“For instance, during our observations most managers were found to be uncomfortable confronting the poor performance of staff or even establishing with staff what good performance meant. Many seemed more comfortable spending time doing hands-on work in the mistaken belief that they were ‘helping’, rather than managing people and performance levels. Often they were observed busily carrying out administrative tasks, while outside their office their staff were clearly under-utilized; it is crazy to have well-paid managers spending so much time on administration or doing the work of their people when their greatest value would be to spend more time ensuring their staff’s performance is being optimized.”
Amen.
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Outstanding article.
So true, I have seen it some of what we believe to be the most well run companies. One of the greatest problems we have as a nation is our lack of leadership capabilities, our perception of what it takes to be a leader and how to deliver results, is way out of whack. Most companies could use a dose of basic boy/girl scout type patrol leader training!
Interesting analogy Mark because at root the leader training in scouts is about transfer and development of knowledge and skills and that is key to success today! Perhaps the fear of keeping one’s job heightens the tendency to hold onto tasks instead of developing others.