Smartphones are a blessing and a productivity curse and GM is doing everything it can to reduce the latter.
In a company that has 180,000 plus employees which, to put into comparison, is about a third the population size of Wyoming, small changes made on a CEO level can largely affect a company’s productivity. As per Fast Company on their highlight of GM CEO Mary Barra’s initiative they posted about earlier today ( Sept. 24, 2018) but was implemented way earlier in 2017, all GM employees are barred (no pun intended) from using their cellphones while on the move. That means no employee, even CFO Dhivya Suryadevara can be on their cellphone too and from where they’re walking.
GM already has hundreds of rules in place on the factory level to protect and serve its workers on the line but, as the article mentions, those rules don’t apply to corporate level jobs where a lot of work takes place.
Although safety is at the heart of this new rule where no cell phones should be in use while your feet are in motion, it’s slightly more about productivity. Smartphones are ubiquitous in the workplace, oftentimes necessary to get business done at a moment’s notice as is the norm for corporate culture. But, a large number of hours are spent unproductively on social media, games, and other time-wasting apps that “zap productivity.
I’m sure Barra is touting this “draconian” rule in the name of safety, but at the end of the day, a more productive company towards the top of the corporate pyramid means an overall more profitable company.
Traditional management methods, although largely proven and successful, must adapt to changing times. Who knew that smartphones, despite the name, would end up costing corporations millions of dollars in wasted productivity.
Perhaps all companies should take a second look at their safety policy, and, in the name of productivity, curb smartphone use at some level. For safety, of course.
