The impact of in-house training on the diversity dimensions of employee productivity in the South Africa workplace

Abstract

The aim of this article is to determine the impact of in-house training (defined as any training provided by firms in the workplace) on employee productivity, employee remuneration and net employee productivity gains when diversity attributes of the workplace are taken into consideration. The manufacturing industry of Gauteng Province of South Africa is used as a case study. Fixed-effect panel data estimations were performed in order to determine the diversity-based employee productivity, remuneration and net productivity differentials of in-house training. The results accentuate the important positive productivity, remuneration and net productivity spill-over effects created by in-house training opportunities. The outcomes of the study also confirm the importance of a workplace that is more gender diverse, racial diverse and in which skilled and older experienced employees are retained if the productivity spill-over effects generated by in-house training opportunities are to be enhanced.

The impact of new production technology on employee productivity in the South African workplace

“…Secondly, the results of this study indicate variable positive employee productivity impacts that an improvement in production technology (through an increase in the functional range of new technology, lower employee effort, improved ergonomic characteristics of new technology, less physical employee control over new technology and higher levels in information processing) has on different employee age groups and skill levels in the workplace. Thirdly, the estimation results again confirm, in general, the higher employee productivity levels generated by the 35-55 employee age group as concluded in previous studies (Van Zyl 2016, 2017. In contrast with the findings of previous studies on other aspects of firm-based employee productivity, the lower-skilled employee segment, in general, generated greater employee productivity levels because of the acquisition and implementation of new production technology.…”

Employee diversity attributes of productivity and real remuneration spillover impacts of employee migration to smaller firms in the South African workplace

“…The employee diversity attributes that are included in the adapted model are gender, race, skill levels and age. To maintain continuity in the broader research agenda on various aspects of firm-based employee productivity in the South African workplace, the same descriptors used for employee diversity attributes in previous publications are applied (Van Zyl 2017). For the gender attribute, a gender distribution of less than 25% female participation and a gender distribution of more than 25% female participation in the workplace are applied; for race, a category in which one specific race group has more than a 60% share and a category where no particular race group has more than a 60% share in the workplace are used; for age, three groups are used, namely employees 35 years of age and younger, employees between 35 and 55 years of age and employees 55 years of age and older, and for skill levels, the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO-88) is used in order to distinguish between more skilled occupations (category A) and less skilled occupations (category B) in the workplace.…”

“…The manufacturing industry of Gauteng Province of South Africa is used as a case study. This article forms part of an extensive ongoing research agenda on various aspects of firm-based employee productivity in the South African workplace such as industry differences on remuneration gap-enhanced labour productivity levels (Van Zyl 2012), the link between different age-skill categories and employee productivity (Van Zyl 2013), the impact of employee diversity on labour productivity (Van Zyl 2014), the impact of incentive schemes on employee productivity (Van Zyl 2015), non-unionised participation platforms and employee productivity (Van Zyl 2016) and the impact of in-house training and employee productivity (Van Zyl 2017).…”