Opinion: Narayan Murthy’s statement is for whom? Is it really needed? Can something be done to enable it?

Excerpt: Narayan Murthy has sparked a debate by saying “India’s productivity is low, and youth must consider working 70 hours a week to increase productivity.” I agree with his opinion but argue that it is not applicable to everyone.

To support my arguments, I will pick two phrases from the statement: 1) productivity is low and 2) working 70 hours a week.

It is a well-accepted fact that:

·?????? The productivity of the workforce must be increased if any individual, corporate, or country wishes to achieve its financial targets.

·?????? Working longer hours does not always result in higher productivity. Rest and socialization are crucial for the human body to rejuvenate and stay healthy.

Thus, applying the MECE principle, I would divide the workforce based on intention and action into four categories and clinically analyze each on what can be done to improve productivity.

Before we deep dive, kindly note that the four categories are for the purposes of argument and analysis; they are subjective and an individual may lie under one or the other categories depending on the time, place, and situation. Moreover, for the sake of clarity, I would like to define longer hours as more than 40-45 hours a week, which is the benchmark prescribed in most corporates and labor laws.

1.???? Type 1: Who want to work longer hours, and do work longer hours

2.???? Type 2: Who do not want to work longer hours, but work longer hours

3.???? Type 3: Who want to work longer hours, but cannot work longer hours

4.???? Type 4: Who do not want to work longer hours, and do not work longer hours

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Type 1 and Type 2: Narayan Murthy's statement practically does not apply to the workforce in Types 1 and 2.

Mosty individuals work more than 12 hours a day, including business owners, entrepreneurs, shopkeepers, doctors and healthcare workers, security personnel, police force, artists, executive leaders, and government and essential workers.

Workers in Type 1 category are self-motivated and work for longer hours by choice. They continually aspire to improve productivity to achieve their objectives (financial, reputational, etc.). On the other hand, workers in Type 2 category are forced to work for longer hours.

Suggestion to enable: In order to increase productivity, business leaders and HR managers should identify the workforce under Type 1 and Type 2. They should develop strategies and policies to continually provide motivation and rewards to enable employees to work for longer hours. Strategies may include offering overtime financial and non-financial rewards (such as vacation leaves, family support, skill set development). They should not assume that overtime rewards will be misused.

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Type 3 “Who want to work longer hours, but cannot” can be further divided into two subcategories. I believe Narayan Murthy’s comments are most appropriate for motivating the workforce in this category.

a)???? Want to work, know what to do, but cannot work longer due to reasons beyond their control

Even if someone wants to boost productivity and work longer, they cannot because of unavoidable circumstances and reasons beyond their control. These include an individual’s physical or mental ability, family responsibilities (taking care of the elderly or children), long commuting hours, or policy restrictions (such as labor laws, moonlighting).

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Suggestion to enable: If possible, and on a case-by-case basis, corporates could try to share responsibility, reduce commuting hours, enable working from home policy, or relax policy restrictions.

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b)???? Want to work, but don’t know what to do

I believe that most of the workforce fall under this category, i.e., individuals who are motivated, have aspirations, want to improve their productivity, earn extra income, and are willing to work longer hours. However, they don’t know what they to do during those longer hours.

Suggestion to enable: This is an area where real magic is needed to improve India’s overall productivity. Corporate and political leaders, policymakers, education institutions, motivational speakers, business consultants, and government policies like “Skill India Mission” can help people understand what they should do in the longer hours to increase productivity.

This is also an opportunity for entrepreneurs to develop business models that will allow individuals to work part-time while commuting, doing household chores, entertaining oneself, or even while resting, if possible.

Entrepreneurs should consider innovating on secure trading platforms, online games, community work, elderly/child/disabled care services, hospitality and tourism services, education services, coding, etc., through which individuals can earn extra income with existing skills.

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Type 4:

Commenting on individuals’ idea of “don’t want to work” is a subjective and debatable field. I will try to carefully divide it further in two categories:

a)???? Don’t want to work because they don’t know what to work on and/or how to work?

This category is different from 3b because additional motivation efforts are needed before preparing such individuals for work.

This type of workforce might be skilled, but does not have definite goals, keeps shifting its goals, prefers to depend on others, and/or does not stick to a particular job.

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Strong motivation and guidance are required to first enable them to work. Once they get motivated, the same steps as for 3b will be needed to boost their productivity.

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b)???? Don’t want to work because of reasons beyond their control: I will categorize specially abled citizens (physically or mentally) under this category.

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Conclusion

I believe Narayan Murthy is right in his statement that a nation’s growth is dependent on its citizens. Citizens and workforces in their productive age should be motivated, and their productivity must be incremented continually. However, in my opinion, his thoughts are most appropriate to further motivate the workforce in Type 3 category. It is a call for entrepreneurs to develop innovative business models to enable the motivated workforce to improve productivity and work for longer hours.