Jamaica Business Development Corporation (JBDC) Senior Project Officer for Data Analysis, Ricardo Edwards, says that increasing employee engagement is crucial in driving higher levels of productivity in organisations.

He noted that Jamaica has one of the lowest levels of labour productivity in the region, and JBDC surveys indicate that one in four employees is disengaged.

“There is strong statistical correlation between engagement and productivity. Where persons scored highly on the productivity scale, they were also highly engaged and vice versa,” Edwards offered at a recent Jamaica Information Service (JIS) Think Tank.

Edwards said the JBDC’s qualitative data indicate that the greatest challenge facing Jamaican organisations is the need to foster a culture in the workplace that is conducive to productivity.

“In many organisations, the culture is characterised by silos — departments acting as if they are organisations to themselves. We also found that there are challenges with communication,” he noted.

He is encouraging employers to attend the JBDC’s upcoming Employee Engagement Conference 2019 to learn strategies that can be implemented to improve engagement and productivity.

“Come prepared with your concerns, as you will receive solutions to fix that problem. One of our objectives for this conference is that you will leave with an assignment; you are going to design a strategy, develop it and you go back to your workplace and you deliver by implementing that strategy,” he said.

The Employee Engagement Conference will be held from October 16-17 at Jamaica Conference Centre in Kingston.