Measuring Productivity in a Service Economy

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Mon Jul 10 13:19:38 PDT 2000


kelley wrote:


>you numbers folks: how exactly *do* they measure productivity?

Dollar value of output, adjusted for inflation, which is a mix of adjusting for pure price increases and for "quality" improvements. The latter can get very fudgy.


> i mean, how do they account for, say, increased spending on
>products/traffic which makes the staff you're operating with appear
>more efficient. e.g., you have one waitress taking care of the
>floor during slow season. same waitress on floor as it picks up but
>isn't quite busy season. waitress is working hard, making the
>bucks, is tired but the wad of bills in her pocket is the reward.
>(productivity numbers are going to look good at that interim point).
>when it gets busier you add one or two more servers, a fourth part
>time for the rush hours. productivity goes down.

Right. What you describe is what drove those productivity figs to such high numbers - the tired, overbusy waitress part of the cycle.

Doug



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