“Employee-centric flexibility” will boost postal productivity, says think tank paper
A newly-released industry paper has argued that “employee engagement” and “job flexibility” are key to developing productivity in the postal and logistics sector. Published under the auspices of The Work Foundation, a Lancaster University think tank, “The Productivity Imperative, Towards a 21st Century Model of Postal Service Delivery” is authored by Elmar Toime and Adrian King with Steve Bevan of the Foundation.
The report argues that although much progress has been made in recent years through technology deployment and network rationalisation, “future gains from these sources will be smaller and take longer to realise”.
“The core issue now is how to align work flow to paid labour hours and that future success will be met by creative solutions to a range of labour issues,” said Toime. “Postal operations are characterised by high fixed cost structures exacerbated by falling mail volume trends. To add to the problem a high proportion of costs are labour related and these costs are often higher than the market due to the public service heritage of employment conditions. It is harder to bring about change in this environment.”
The authors argue that postal companies should now embrace what they call “employee-centric flexibility”.
Toime explained: “The aim is to match employee needs, skills, and commitment to the tasks at hand. Information has to be open and accessible. The language has to be fair and reasonable and fact-based. It is an inclusive approach. It makes demands on everybody but it respects the circumstances in which people find themselves.”
The authors have announced that they are available to conduct in-house workshops on the topic and the paper is available on the Work Foundation’s website http://www.theworkfoundation.com.
