{"id":51527,"date":"2021-11-12T03:23:54","date_gmt":"2021-11-12T07:23:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=51527"},"modified":"2021-11-21T10:13:09","modified_gmt":"2021-11-21T14:13:09","slug":"increase-labor-productivity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/increase-labor-productivity\/","title":{"rendered":"Verne Harnish: How to Increase Labor Productivity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What are some ways to increase labor productivity? What difference does labor productivity make to your bottom line?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Once your business is up and running, you should look for ways to keep growing. Increasing labor productivity is one difference you can make.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Continue reading to learn ways to increase labor productivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Increasing Labor Productivity<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In <em>Scaling Up<\/em>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/verne-harnish\/\">Verne Harnish<\/a> writes that a key to successful implementation of your business strategy is tracking your labor productivity. In other words, how much in revenue comes back for each dollar spent on labor? By measuring your gross margin (revenue minus non-direct <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-cost-of-labor\/\">labor costs<\/a>), he writes that you\u2019ll be able to find greater efficiencies and opportunities for each dollar you spend on labor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Harnish contends that when your company is running smoothly with high labor efficiency, you should be able to achieve 15% profit as a percentage of net revenue (the maximum in most mature markets). Once you reach this point, this is your signal to invest in new productive labor. If you don\u2019t reinvest in labor, he warns, your existing talent pool will become stagnant (skilled employees retire or leave or old skills become obsolete) and you will lose <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/business-competitive-advantage\/\">competitive advantage<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Harnish recommends increasing labor productivity overall by:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Offering raises to top performers<\/li><li>Hiring new talent<\/li><li>Getting rid of ineffective or underperforming labor<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Although, as Harnish writes, there are some things that individual firms can do to increase labor productivity, output-per-worker or output-per-labor-hour is often determined by global macroeconomic forces that are too large to manipulate at the enterprise level. For example, in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/app\/book\/basic-economics\/1-page-summary\"><em>Basic Economics<\/em><\/a>, Thomas Sowell notes that much is said about how American goods can\u2019t compete with goods produced by low-wage workers in poorer countries. But in reality, he notes, American workers produce more per worker-hour than poorer workers elsewhere. In other words, American workers are more efficient per <em>unit <\/em>of output. The efficiency may arise from better machinery, more capital investment, greater average levels of education, or greater <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/advantages-of-economies-of-scale\/\">economies of scale<\/a>. For example, Sowell observes that, in India, average labor productivity is 15% of that in the U.S. This means that hiring an Indian worker at even 20% of a U.S. worker\u2019s cost would be more expensive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Once you increase labor productivity, you will see a boost in the overall growth of your business.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What are some ways to increase labor productivity? What difference does labor productivity make to your bottom line? Once your business is up and running, you should look for ways to keep growing. Increasing labor productivity is one difference you can make. Continue reading to learn ways to increase labor productivity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":39066,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,14],"tags":[515],"class_list":["post-51527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-management","tag-scaling-up","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Verne Harnish: How to Increase Labor Productivity - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"How can you keep your business growing? Increasing labor productivity is one difference you can make. 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