Abstract
The aim of this article is to determine the impact that employee diversity attributes have on labour productivity in the South African workplace. Given the perceived general low levels of labour productivity in the South African economy, this particular research aims to serve as a further contribution to our understanding of the labour productivity debate when a broad range of employee attributes at firm and individual levels are considered. A firm-based model is used for the estimation of the link between the employee group demographic characteristics and labour productivity, and an employee remuneration model is used to estimate the link between individual employee diversity demographics and labour productivity. The main conclusions of the estimation results are that a less age-diverse workforce, higher education/training levels, greater levels of gender diversity and a more racially diverse workforce are pre-requisites for higher real remuneration and labour productivity benefits.
Highlights
The aim of this article is to determine the impact that employee diversity attributes have on labour productivity in the South African workplace
In terms of firm characteristics, the OLS estimates for the standard deviation of average age, education/training and race are all positive, but negative for the standard deviation of the share of females. These results indicate that i) a more age-diverse workforce is positively linked to individual remuneration levels and to labour productivity, ii) a less diverse workforce in terms of education and training creates positive spill-over effects that are positively linked to individual real remuneration levels and higher labour productivity levels, iii) greater levels of racial diversity have a positive impact on individual remuneration rates and labour productivity, and iv) lower levels of gender diversity increase the individual remuneration gap for females, resulting in lower levels of labour productivity
The aim of the article was to determine the impact that employee diversity attributes have on labour productivity in the South African workplace
Summary
The aim of this article is to determine the impact that employee diversity attributes have on labour productivity in the South African workplace. Labour economic estimation results for the South African workforce have been published on the labour productivity impact of some aspects of labour diversity such as age and skill levels (Van Zyl, 2013) and education and training levels (Van Zyl, 2013). In these two studies the research on the impact of age, skill levels and education and training on labour productivity was not viewed in the context of employee diversity per se. Given the diversity of the South African labour force and the on-going debate on the low levels of labour productivity, it is deemed necessary to estimate the impact that employee diversity attributes might have on labour productivity
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