Working Conditions as a Factor of Productivity in SMEs

The theoretical framework by Diamond, Mortensen and Pissarides (Nobel Award in Economic Sciences, 2010) shows us how generous wages can determine the success in filling job vacancies. The empirical evidence is convincing: larger and more profitable enterprises pay higher wages. Nowadays, large leader companies are investing not only in paying efficient wages to prevent shirking, but also in the improvement of working conditions and even taking a rigorous analytical approach to etiquette. It is a common fact that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) cannot compete in the same way with these high standards. However, recent examples have shown that a suitable work environment, techniques for reducing the stress factors, strategies to create workplaces with a more ethnical diversity and profound benefits for women, as well as the efforts in making the workers feel more liable to their jobs are possible in SMEs and have real benefits for their growth and productivity. At the same time, these approaches could be beneficial for developing countries in a large scale since SMEs play a major role in most of these economies. In this paper, we will conduct a study from the most popular current standards that the best companies promote and suggest some alternatives for SMEs in order to improve these factors.