11 Mar 2019

Botswana National Productivity Centre (BNPC) acting chief executive officer, Mr Teedzani Majaule says a dedicated workforce can take the country to greater heights.

Mr Majaule said BNPC has observed through studies that the country was in short supply of good performers, something he said had led to poor service delivery.

Mr Majaule shared his sentiments on Friday evening when officiating at Mahalapye sub district council employees performance awards.

He said poor service delivery was a serious outcry in the country.

“The more we identify and reward good performers through such events, the more we must strive to keep them and ultimately do more for the country in terms of quality service delivery,” he said.

Mr Majaule has also noted that poor work ethic was another issue of serious concern, for instance, he said “this event was scheduled to start at 1800 hours, but we start an hour late.”

Work ethic, he said was all about how things are done, but the way Batswana carry out business was disappointing.

Mr Majaule said BNPC in collaboration with World Economic Forum has conducted a study which discovered that for the past 12 years, poor work ethics as a primary hindrance for potential investors in the country.

"The way we do things has proved to be a hindrance in the growth of industrialisation and establishment of businesses by foreign investors with the potential of growing and diversifying the economy," he said.

He said another study looking at business competitiveness conducted at 140 countries globally, Botswana inclusive has ranked the country lower in terms of work ethics.

Some companies were forced to shut down due to high production costs, he said.

“Production costs sky rocketed to a point where it was never possible to do business.For us to be more competitive we must to an absolute turn around in mindset towards work,” he said.

Leadership was also identified as an important recipe towards improving service delivery saying that a leader must also have the right competencies.

“If you need employees to come to the party and perform as per expectations, a leader must attend to conditions of service of employees, their skills and competencies and resources,” he said.

He added that research has revealed that 80 per cent of an organisation’s challenges were a result of poor leadership.

“They only know 29 per cent of what is actually happening in an organisation and do not know how and what it takes to get the relevant information.

Therefore, Mr Majaule has challenged Mahalapye sub council authorities to assess their mandate in order to guide the local authority into the right direction andto serve the people accordingly.

Regarding the awards ceremony, Mr Majaule applauded the rewards recipients for being patriotic to the organisation and devoting their energy to producing quality service.

“They have applied themselves to their work and an organisation cannot achieve quality service without dedicated employees,” he added.

Mr Majaule said that a fair and transparent system was used in identifying the recipients.

“If you are not careful rewards can achieve the opposite, unless conducted through a fair and transparent system, they must recognise the importance of team,” he said.

He said that behaviour and attitude that prioritise customer service, always willing to go an extra mile in servicing customers should be rewarded.

Mr Majaule appealed to the awards recipients to be motivated and improve their attitudes towards work. ENDS