Employee Productivity in the Service Industry: Does Human Resource Quality Matters?

Abstract

AbstractRelying on quantitative perspectives to determine employee productivity is highly subjective and is regarded as a bias for the service industry. The conventional employee productivity measure, which is derived from an economic position based on the output and input relation, is no longer feasible for the service industry. The human component plays a much larger role in this sector's operations. This is due to the fact that the service process is highly dependent on the quality of the workforce, which also has a propensity to be more customer intensive. Employee productivity is not a new concept but there is still a huge gap in addressing the importance of human resource quality (HRQ) as a measure of employee or labour productivity and the significance of placing a value on human resources has been the subject of much debate in the existing literature. In this paper, we focused on the significance of HRQ and the reasons why it is relevant to the service business. Within the scope of this paper, a conceptual framework of human resource quality as an important component for the measurement of employee productivity in the service sector is proposed.KeywordsHuman resource qualityEmployee productivityQualitative productivity measure