Local workers’ morale ranks lowest in global survey

Mbongeni Mguni | Monday July 10, 2023 06:00

In the absence of the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) well-known Global Competitiveness Report, a survey by the Swiss-based Institute of Management Development (IMD), has become the world’s go-to review on comparative competitiveness.

Botswana signed up for the IMD’s Competitiveness Yearbook three years ago, allowing the Swiss researchers to gauge the country’s ranking in a list limited to high and middle-income economies. The only other country profiled by the Yearbook in Africa is South Africa.

Local policymakers argue that rather than sitting back and waiting for the WEF to finish working out the kinks in the Global Competitiveness Report, gauging the country’s standing against high and middle-income countries allows Botswana to see the road it needs to take to the Vision 2036 goal of becoming a high-income economy.

The results of that self-reflection were a bitter pill to swallow in the latest Yearbook, released last month, as the country dropped one notch, moving to 59th out of 64 countries.

While on indicators such as investment in telecommunications and total public expenditure on education, the country was ranked amongst the best in the world, there were areas of concern as pointed out by analysts at the Botswana National Productivity Centre (BNPC). These areas include the infrastructure category where overall the country was ranked 61st out of the 64 countries assessed. The infrastructure factor assesses the extent to which tangible and intangible assets available in the economy meet the needs of businesses. Botswana was also ranked last amongst the 64 nations for life expectancy at birth, mobile broadband subscribers, internet speed, and patent applications per capita, the last being an indicator of innovation in the economy.

One curious area and an apparent paradox, was in the area of labour, where Botswana was ranked the worst in the world for worker motivation, but simultaneously, the sixth best in the world for worker compensation. For most workers, pay is the single greatest motivator at work, over and above the other push-pull factors determining performance, and by extension, overall productivity.

The experts at the BNPC told Mmegi how the two results could co-exist. “Pay is one of the things that are linked to motivation but not the only thing,” BNPC research consultant, Letsogile Batsetswe said at a recent debriefing about the Competitiveness Yearbook. “Worker motivation has continued to be a challenge going back even to the WEF report, with issues around attitude and work ethic continuing to plague us.”

Batsetswe appeared to be alluding to the long-running complaints Batswana and visitors have about the country’s level of customer care or service. Pay is clearly an issue as many of those involved in the service industry have invoked the ‘ke lekanya madi le tiro’ refrain, a statement through which the employee suggests two things: firstly, he or she believes their pay is meagre and secondly, they will work to the level of that pay and nothing more.

The BNPC, however, also acknowledges that other factors are at play in the Competitiveness Yearbook’s findings on motivation. BNPC information and research services manager, Zelda Okatch believes one issue could be the use of averages when indicators like compensation are measured.

“Research shows that there’s a direct relationship between productivity and pay and if you pay more, workers are more motivated to perform better,” she told Mmegi at the Yearbook briefing. “But when we look at the pay in the report, it’s an average and Botswana has one of the highest inequalities in pay.

“There are those paid very well and they pull on that average, while there are many more who are paid little.

“Most people are at the minimum wage and can we say they are motivated to work?”

“While the average looks good, how many are actually getting that great pay?”

Okatch has also noted that besides the debate about pay, other attitudes hardwired into many members of the country’s workforce, are linked with low motivation.

“There’s a lack of ownership of work in the country,” she said.

“In Botswana, we pull so well together, like at weddings, where people come together to make it a success, but in the workplace, this type of organisation does not translate.

“People say the company belongs to the owners and going forward, these are the things we have to work on and improve.”

BNPC marketing manager, Matlho Kgosi says while the cost of living in Botswana versus personal incomes is quite bad, worker motivation is not just about remuneration. She believes one of the major issues in worker motivation is poor leadership, spreading across the public and the private sector.

Linked to this is the fact that productivity, one of the by-products of motivation, is not linked to performance in most organisations, she says.

“We have a leadership deficiency, from the public to the private sector.

“We have an issue where people are not being paid for productivity, where there’s no policy for that.

“People are paid for clocking in and out, not what they produce.

“It’s possible to come in for five days and not be able to show what you have produced and we feel bad when we have to part ways with people who are not producing,” she told Mmegi at the Yearbook briefing.

She added: “We have to unpack these issues of worker motivation, customer satisfaction, and they involve workers’ pay, leadership issues and others.

“It’s also an issue of performance management where this is not managed and people are not linking targets to pay.”

Corporates, however, are not just sitting by and watching worker motivation collapse. Leading human capital advisory, Tsa Badiri, reports that it has seen an increase in the popularity of employee engagement surveys in Botswana. Tsa Badiri director, Duduetsang Olsen tells Mmegi that this trend stems from the recognition that engaged employees contribute to a thriving organisation.

According to Olsen, employee engagement surveys are fairly common in the financial services, telecommunications, and mining sectors though other organisations in other industries also periodically conduct them.

“In today’s competitive business landscape and war for talent it simply makes good business sense to provide a platform for employees to express their opinions, concerns, and suggestions, creating a sense of ownership and empowerment,” she said.

“With this engagement, employers are able to make the necessary improvements towards fostering a positive work environment and building trust between employees and management.”

She however added: “What generally reduces the effectiveness of these surveys is lack of trust, inadequate communication, poor survey design or analysis and failure to follow through and address concerns that are raised in the surveys.”

In fact, when the issue of pay is taken out of the equation, it becomes a struggle to get an accurate picture of what employees are unhappy about, largely because the affected workers shy away from expressing their concerns.

Many feel that employee satisfaction surveys are compromised by nosy management who may later want to persecute workers for their opinions. In the worst of organisations, even anonymous satisfaction surveys are not trusted by workers.

“Indeed a common fear amongst employees when participating in employee engagement surveys is the concern of confidentiality and anonymity,” Olsen confirms.

“Employees worry that their responses will not remain confidential, potentially leading to negative consequences or retaliation from management.

“This fear can hinder their willingness to provide honest and open feedback, thus undermining the effectiveness of the survey.”

She however adds: “To mitigate this fear and encourage employee participation, organisations do implement a number of interventions such as ensuring that the surveys are conducted anonymously, through a reputable and independent service provider, and appropriate communication which assures staff members that results will only be reported in aggregate form with no responses being attributed to individuals.”

For many, no employee satisfaction surveys or studies by the BNPC are required to understand the drivers of low motivation. For most workers, their troubles and the solutions to them, start with two words: “more money”.