Companies are finding new ways to boost productivity to remain competitive in light of the economic uncertainties ahead.

They had the chance to share their best practices at a competition organised by travel association PATA and Workforce Development Agency (WDA).

Hiring the disabled and the disadvantaged, making use of cloud computing and an online tracker – these are some examples of the best productivity practices that six selected companies shared at the “Our Productivity Story” competition.

The finalists are Mandarin Orchard Singapore, Fairmont Singapore, Dynasty Travel International, IPC Tours & Travel, Adrenalin Events & Education, and Vital Shared Services.

As part of the competition, finalists have to present their productivity initiatives to a panel of judges made up of renowned industry players. They will also be producing a short video on their productivity stories and post it online for public voting.

The finalists are short-listed from 170 participants from the tourism industry.

It is one of the sectors identified by the National Productivity and Continuing Education Council to lead the national drive in raising productivity. Other sectors include construction, general manufacturing, food and beverage, and info-communication.

Anil Das, senior director of the Strategic Planning & Policy Office at the WDA, said: “One of the things that the council actually identified is that productivity growth hasn’t quite kept up with growth overall as far as GDP is concerned. So we need to find ways to improve productivity at the sectoral level.

“This is one of the many ways that we are looking at, not only in terms of bringing companies together to learn from each other, but also creating awareness about what needs to be done to improve productivity at the sectoral level.”

The public can vote for the best productivity story from November 14 to 30. Final results of the competition will be announced on December 3.

Source: CNA