Diversity, Equality and Inclusion policy can lead us to become a more productive nation

Not everyone is on board with the diversity, equity and inclusion mission of modern businesses and institutions, but look closely -there’s something in its uptake we can learn from.

There is a concern about an apparent slowing of the rate of growth in Australian productivity, writes Bernard Salt

In the classic Australian bush ballad Click Go the Shears (1891) the chorus includes the line “The ringer looks around and is beaten by a blow”, which loosely translates as “the fastest shearer is beaten by a single stroke of the shears”. This is a song about workers competing for the prestige of being the fastest shearer.

But it is more than that. It is a story of labour productivity, which at the time meant that, since shearers are paid per fleece, the fastest – the ringer – also earnt the most. Seems fair enough, although I am sure there was plenty of ongoing tension about the price per fleece and working conditions.

Today there is concern about an apparent slowing of the rate of growth in Australian productivity. This issue has been talked about for 20 years, although it seems to have reached a crescendo in the post-pandemic era – especially with the advent of new work habits, like work from home (WFH).

At the 2021 census, 21 per cent of the Australian workforce worked from home, up from 5 per cent at every census for the previous 20 years. The jury is still out with regard to the impact of WFH on productivity, although by my observation, there has been no diminution in output by private sector knowledge workers.

Productivity is important, because it goes to the issue of how much we can pay ourselves and therefore to the quality of life (including public services) we enjoy – not just as workers, and as individuals, but as a community.

How can we accelerate the rate of growth in labour productivity? I’m not sure we want to be working as hard, physically, as the old ringers. But maybe we can create a culture that seeks out, celebrates and rewards the myriad steps that make a difference to overall efficiency.

Is it possible to mobilise and/or incentivise a workforce – a nation – to adopt a culture of finding ways of making businesses and government departments a little bit more efficient every day? Is there a way of making every meeting, Zoom call and report explicitly and celebratorily inclusive of a culture of productivity?

There is, and, what’s more, it’s already been done. Not everyone is on board with the ascendant culture of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), which is now a component of businesses and institutions. However, many Australians are supportive of and sympathetic to the “fair-go” objectives of DEI.

Let’s reproduce the DEI business model and build another cultural piston to drive and lift Australian prosperity and quality of life. Let’s build – from grassroots to big business to big government – a culture of productivity, enterprise and initiative (PEI). Let’s task individuals with the job of finding ways to improve output relative to costs. Let’s monitor this kind of efficiency on a business-by-business basis. Let’s create a culture that upskills workers, finetunes management and invests in technology to deliver better productivity.

We want to see our nation prosper and thrive to the extent that we are in a position to deliver more services to those in need.

Click Go the Shears is a great example of productivity; we nicked the tune from a US Civil War song and repurposed it as an Aussie ballad. Now that is perfect PEI thinking!