The government is working with relevant stakeholders to find an innovative mode of linking productivity to salaries of all public and civil servants, Mr Ignatius Baafour Awuah, Minister of Employment and Labour Relations has disclosed.

“Currently I have constituted some experts in that field to advise the Ministry about the possibility and how it can be implemented to ensure that government gets the best output,” he emphasized.

The Minister who made this known at a symposium organised as part of the on-going 69th Annual New Year School and Conference (ANYSC) in Accra admitted that a stronger labour productivity leads to better economic performance because it enables workers to create more wealth.

“As the country adopts new technology, invests in infrastructure and improves the skills of her workforce, we lay the foundations for our enterprises to become more efficient and effective thus, we move into activities with a higher added value per worker,” he added.

On time management, Mr Awuah complained about the poor time attitude of workers and said quality productive time was often lost.

“Often we do not measure the man hours we lose when we attend events late, we report to work late and leave office early before closing time. All this is a form of stealing and does not enhance productivity,” he said.

Mr. William Easmon, Human Resource Manager of Barclays Bank Ghana, noted that most employers preferred prospective workers with rich experience, creativity, team players, cognitive flexibility, complex problem solving and self-motivated to work. He said there was the need to come out with required skills development programmes to expose the jobseekers to work exposure and hands-on-experience through education, training and skills meant to increase productivity.

Mr Easmon said employers also looked at labour productivity and capital productivity, which were of utmost importance and relevance to the policy maker, the academicians and practitioners equipping the entrepreneurs to better their businesses.

Professor William Baah-Boateng, Department of the Economics University of Ghana, Legon, revealed that of all the various academic disciplines, health was one of the highest areas of specialization that had it trainees getting employed after school, while rating humanities and engineering as areas which graduates found it difficult getting employment.

“You hardly find a doctor who is unemployed. After the health the next is education and this is because undertaking practical work is part of their training,” he noted.

Professor Joshua Alabi, Former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Professional Studies who chaired the event, underscored the need for employers to provide good leadership, innovation, and welfare to employees in order to achieve desired productivity.

“Employers should not dwell too much on getting the best out of our workers if they do not provide the necessary direction, support, and tools to work,” he added.

The team for the symposium was: “Enhancing Labour Productivity Through Skills Development For Industry”.