If there is one thing I’ve always dreaded about as one of the many active participants in the workforce, it’s the corporate focus on KPIs. So many businesses are intent on meeting impossible target numbers at the expense of worker morale or work/life dynamics. Even governments are not immune to this, as directors and assistant secretaries are pressured by ministers to crank out statistics that sound impressive. All in the hope that they can use it in the next bout of elections, so that they can remain in office. It is one of the many issues of living in a capitalist society – where goods and services are considered paramount to maintaining the bottom line (hence why I wanted this blog post to come right after I finished The Outer Worlds. Alas, that did not happen and the connection is a little strained).

I can’t be sure where I read or heard it, but it has been my view that if you require your employees to consistently work overtime in order to deal with the amount of work, you either have set your targets much too high or you need to hire more workers. It’s a simple matter of mathematics. And yet, so many big companies are intent to ensure maximum output with the minimum number of staff to ensure that profits are in the black.

In the long run, such a business model is unfeasible. Something will give. And it will all come tumbling down. Perhaps, yes, if you use robots to replace human workers, you will be able to pump out more product for sale. But if one hopes to have their goods sold, you need to ensure that consumers are able to buy it. Price it too high and only the very rich will be able to afford it. If this is something essential to survival, then you’ll have revolts. 

Despite interest rates plummeting, people have still been reluctant to spend what little money they have on things they do not need. With wage stagnation and inflation, the cost of living has risen. And if it isn’t necessary for survival, then it is often left on the wayside. Is it any wonder that it feels like Australia is finally reaching the point of no return when it comes to a possible recession?

Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World dystopia managed to maintain society by mixing eugenics into the creation of humans while also giving roles to the Alphas, Betas, Deltas, Gammas and Epsilons. What then, was the need for AI, if there is a rigid caste system and people were satisfied with their lot in life, despite the conditions? The conditioning that was also central to civilisation also ensured people were able to constantly consume. Tailor-made humans for tailor-made jobs that they were well-suited for. Of course, to live in such a world also sounds terrifying to our current sensibilities. Where is the self-determinism that underpins our perception of what it means to be human?

Humans, however, have always found it difficult to look towards the long-term. It is why we have climate crisis is so severe. We only tend to solve the problems on our immediate doorstep. As such, current societies find it difficult to balance the demands of the business with the requirements of a fulfilling life. Often, it feels like CEOs are merely trying to increase their immediate bonuses rather than ensuring the livelihood of their employees. If some of them were willing to sacrifice just a little of their livelihood, or if the Board of Directors 

Chasing numbers in the workforce only serves to churn out sub-par performances. In fact, it wastes even more money to go back and fix the mistakes made by the demands of meeting KPIs. This is particularly true for business that cannot afford mistakes such as in shipping and freight forwarding. A delay in goods being delivered could mean thousands in lost sales. It could mean additional detention fees. In other areas, it means managers and supervisors are forced to step in. This means labour is lost for clean-up duty.

That is not to say that having set goals is a bad thing. They can motivate workers by providing a target to reach. But pouring too much focus on numbers rather than the well-being of your employees means that they burn-out quicker and negatively impacts output. Things such as crunch in the gaming industry are never truly positive. Rather, they are detrimental both to the quality of the game, and the people that are pouring their hearts and souls into these mediums of entertainment.

Statistics have their place in the workplace, true, but it should not be central to how the workplace is run. Here’s hoping that we can finally see quality of life improvements with companies recognising that workers all have their strengths and weakness. One slight dip in the first quarter might equate to bigger profits later down the track. Happy workers, rather than sad, desolate workers are the best means of ensuring quality and efficiency.