The dictionary defines efficiency as “the state or quality of being efficient, or able to accomplish something with the least waste of time and effort.”
But, what about Employee Efficiency?
How efficient a person is, depends on where the resources and energy are going and how much of them are being used to obtain a certain result.
Efficient employees have a positive attitude and an open mind. They are emotionally stable and have a consistent and efficient working and leadership style. They are quite composed even under pressure. An open mind enhances the learning capabilities of employees and also makes them good problem solvers.
Then what is the Productivity?
Productivity is defined as “the rate at which goods and services having exchange value are brought forth or produced.”
In its essence, it measures how much work (quantity) is being done over a certain period of time. A good example of this would be a car factory.
If we know that productivity is the relationship between output and time, then efficiency and productivity are opposites of each other.
Put in other words, one is related to the quantity and the other is related to quality. As quality goes up, the quantity goes down, and vice-versa. And because employees are not pre-programmed machines that perform tasks as fast as physics allow, they have a maximum level of productivity and efficiency that can be attained.
The ideal situation is to maintain a balance between these two because top quality may be highly efficient but unproductive, although this depends on priorities because lower productivity isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
On the same line, a large amount of work can be “done” (productivity) but be highly inefficient (e.g., someone must waste more time and resources by revisiting what’s been done to correct offending mistakes).
Only a balance can achieve optimal results.
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