It is an age old management dilemma - how to get your workforce to do more without paying more, particularly when most of them are probably keen to figure out a way of getting paid more to do less. It is a particularly fraught topic in the present climate, when most managers and workers already believe that they are operating at maximum velocity.

Nonetheless, two reports published this week suggest that the British workforce could do better. The Global Productivity Report published today shows that the UK was one of only two countries to increase its productivity last year (the other was Australia) - only 26 per cent of the working week is spent on unproductive activities. The global average is 34.3 per cent (Australian workers spend only 22.9 per cent of their time being unproductive).

It is impossible to be productive all of the time. Nicholas Crafts, Professor of Economics at Warwick University, believes that efficient businesses should aim for 85 per cent of workers’ time being productive, leaving 15 per cent slack. Unproductive time is defined as anything that is not contributing to the goals or objectives of the company.

Samuel Zusmann, the global vice-president of marketing for Proudfoot Consulting, which published the report, said that the causes of “unproductivity” worldwide included poor management operating systems (including both poor measurements of performance and spending so much time measuring that there isn’t enough time to do anything with the data), poor frontline supervision, communication problems and a lack of workforce or management skills. In the UK the key barriers to solving these problems were cited as poor-quality supervisors or middle-managers and internal communication problems. “The data suggests that managers in the UK are not performing to the potential they could,” Mr Zusmann said. British bosses tended to lack people management skills, which was a shame given that Britons were rated as the most motivated workforce, he said.

The Management Consultancies Association (MCA) has published a report - Getting More From The Same - which is a managers’ guide to delivering productivity improvements. The MCA report, out yesterday, outlines six “critical success factors for improving productivity by changing employee behaviour”. These are: get support from senior management; involve frontline managers; measure the correct things; communicate the business case; give managers the skills they need; and appreciate that it will take time.

The MCA found that British businesses were failing to change the behaviour of frontline managers. The report’s authors said that almost half of British businesses have identified their failure to engage and motivate employees as the main reason for a lack of productivity improvement.

Brendan Cahill, chief executive of Trinity Horne, the consultants who sponsored the report, says: “Without doubt, if you want to achieve sustained improvement it’s all about frontline and strategic management.”

Both he and Mr Zusmann point out that in Britain people are being promoted because they possess good technical skills but are not then routinely taught people management skills.

Mr Cahill says that managers should aim to spend 60 to 70 per cent of their time actively managing staff, giving coaching, guidance, support and assistance, and only 15 to 30 per cent on administration and meetings. Studies have shown that we are more productive if we receive attention and feedback from the boss. Sadly, many managers spend more time sitting in front of a PC rather than rallying the troops - a mistake because, as Mr Zusmann says, “more time spent on active supervision correlates with an increase in worker productivity”.

“In the context of what’s going on with the economy, there is a lot of uncertainty about and people respond in times of uncertainty to confident, purposeful leaders. Whether it is Gordon Brown, Barack Obama or your line supervisor, it is confident, focused leadership which will inspire people.”

Cynical Britons will probably try to resist such notions, but Mr Cahill says that managers should not shy away from asking their workers to up the ante. “If we are not asking people to go above and beyond what is reasonable and we are being supportive, what is wrong with asking people to do a good job? It will make their jobs more secure in the long term because the most successful companies are those that are the most productive.”

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