Assessing factors in improving productivity of craftsmen in north-eastern Nigeria

Motivation of craftsmen in the construction industry has become necessary due to the fact that their productivity in Nigeria have significantly dropped over the years. Political activities also tend to divert attention of youths away from these economically sustainable trade jobs. The aim of the research is to develop strategic ways of improving productivity of craftsmen in construction firms through various motivational techniques with the objective of examining whether the underperformance of craftsmen in construction firms was as a result of lack of motivation. The study randomly sampled 109 respondents across 12 construction firms from four states of Adamawa, Bauchi, Gombe and Taraba in the North–Eastern Nigeria. Structured questionnaire was used to obtain data and the data were analyzed using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS), simple percentage, mean and severity index. The study revealed that demotivation accounted for poor working rate in construction firms. Also the study identified twelve most severe factors that influence the productivity of craftsmen which were; effective supervision, training, overtime, teamwork, love, rewarding, salary increment, good working relationship, effective communication, job security, performance feedback and bonuses. The study recommends that construction firms should adopt motivational factors that had direct impact on craftsmen outputs. It was also recommends that there is need for adopting multidimensional approach on motivating craftsmen by combining two or more motivational factors at a time.