The productivity unit within the employment department in the Ministry of Employment and Social Affairs, yesterday ran another workers’ education programme to promote productivity in the work place.

This took place at the Club 55, the Seychelles Trading Company’s (STC) social centre on Latanier Road. The three-day training is reserved for STC staff under the theme ‘Productivity concepts’.

The aim of these training sessions is to educate employers and employees on positive work attitudes and on how to give maximum productivity in the work place.

Thirty STC staff, divided into two groups made up of regular workers, supervisors and line managers, attended the first of the three-day training being held in the morning and afternoon. Run by the head of the productivity unit, Maryvonne Francis, the workers learn and share knowledge on the definition of productivity, the importance of productivity, customer service, service delivery, work ethics, workers’ roles, work attitudes, discipline, rights and obligations, among other related topics.

Ms Francis said that in Seychelles today, there is still a need to continuously educate the working population in order for them to adopt the best practice to help the level of productivity in the work place, especially in this time of the pandemic and economic situation.

“While we acknowledge that the majority of workers are doing their best, there is still a small group that is lagging behind and they are the ones who need to be brought on par with the others,” said Ms Francis who also noted that bad behaviour and negative attitudes do affect productivity in the work place.

Doreen Agricole, training and development manager at STC, said as productivity is the core priority of STC as a business company, the training is very important given the size of the company and the number of staff who interact with members of the public on a daily basis.

“With regards to changes in how we do business, especially in this time of the pandemic, this three-day training will boost up our delivery capacity to serve our clients and also get us to make useful contributions to the company. We have to give our best or else the business will fail and we will lose our jobs,” said Ms Agricole.

The training session continues today and will end tomorrow.

Mrs Francis said that the productivity unit has noticed a sudden interest among organisations and companies to run such training sessions.

Patrick Joubert