One Response

1. Simple connections
   Hi Rick,

   I don’t have any data on studies in to the link between productivity and competency, and I am not sure what you are after – your request as written suggests to me you are interested just in productivity measures, of whaich there ae many – for example track the ratio between total sales and number of employees, or number of sales people – you get the picture.

   The link between competence and productivity is not a simple one if you are of the Systems Thinking school. What this school of thought suggests is that there are many dynamic aspects that affect productivity, not just competence. For example, motivation, morale, reward systems, sufficient resources, leadership and management style, marketing campaigns, external market conditions, and so on. You may not agree with all of the list, but I am sure you will agree with some. Systems thinking takes the view that pretty much everything is connected to everything else, often weakly, with a large delay factor. It tries to explain why sales in a qttr may suddenyl dip – not because of a new product from a competitor that came out the previous quarter, and not beacuse of a sudden drop in competence of the sales force, but (for example) the xmas bonus was not paid 6 months earlier, and as it takes 7-9 mths (in this scenario) to clinch a sale, the drop in morale has affected the sales force’s productivity. So in identifying the root of the problem here, it is not about training (where many people may have gone for a solution) and it is not about competition – it is about the bonus system from 6 months ago.

   Let me know more about what you are trying to do – a discussion may expose what you are looking for.

   Regards

   Martin Schmalenbach