What Is the Difference Between Efficiency and Effectiveness in

Business?
by Chris Miksen, Demand Media
Companies often talk about employee effectiveness and efficiency when brainstormin ways to improve business!
While they sound similar, effectiveness means somethin entirely different than efficiency! "n effective employee
produces at a hih level, while an efficient employee produces #uickly and intelliently! By combinin effectiveness
and efficiency, a company produces better products faster and with fewer resources!
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Effectiveness
Effectiveness is the level of results from the actions of employees and manaers! Employees and manaers who
demonstrate effectiveness in the workplace help produce hih.#uality results! /ake, for instance, an employee who
works the sales floor! If he0s effective, he0ll make sales consistently! If he0s ineffective, he0ll strule to persuade
customers to make a purchase! Companies measure effectiveness often by conductinperformance reviews! /he
effectiveness of a workforce has an enormous impact on the #uality of a company0s product or service, which often
dictates a company0s reputation and customer satisfaction!
Efficiency
Efficiency in the workplace is the time it takes to do somethin! Efficient employees and manaers complete tasks in
the least amount of time possible with the least amount of resources possible by utili1in certain time.savin
strateies! Inefficient employees and manaers take the lon road! ,or e2ample, suppose a manaer is attemptin to
communicate more efficiently! 3e can accomplish his oal by usin email rather than sendin letters to each
employee! Efficiency and effectiveness are mutually e2clusive! " manaer or employee who4s efficient isn0t always
effective and vice versa! Efficiency increases productivity and saves both time and money!
Related Reading: Differences Between 5perational Efficiency 6 &trateic 5perations
Improvin Effectiveness
/o improve effectiveness, companies must take the initiative to provide thorouh performance reviews, detailin an
employee0s weakness throuh constructive criticism! Manaers must make it a point to address effectiveness and
e2plain how an employee0s performance affects the company as a whole! /o avoid a workplace full of ineffective
employees, companies must hire hih.performin employees by weedin out candidates at the recruitin level!
Employees are often ineffective because they don0t care about their work or because they don0t possess the skills to
contribute! By interviewin candidates, callin references and conductin tests, companies can brin on employees
with skills better suited for performin at a hih level!
Improvin Efficiency
Employees and manaers are often inefficient because they either don0t know how to be efficient or do not have the
necessary tools to perform tasks efficiently! Ways to improve efficiency include meetin with manaers and
employees to outline ways to implement efficiency in the workplace and askin for opinions on what the workplace
is missin! ,or e2ample, a small business that lacks an employee email system prevents manaers from
communicatin with employees efficiently!
The difference between efficient and effective is that efficiency refers to
how well you do something, whereas effectiveness refers to how useful it is.
For example, if a company is not doing well and they decide to train their
workforce on a new technology. The training goes really well - they train all
their employees in record time and tests show they have absorbed the
training well. But overall productivity doesn't improve. n this case the
company's strategy wasefficient but not effective.
!fficient tends to mean getting something done with the least wasted effort possible. eg, if my car can
drive "## miles on $ gallons of gas, it is more efficient than a car that takes % gallons of gas to go the same
distance.
!ffective, on the other hand, is more about getting the right results. f my car can only turn right, it won't
be effective at getting me where need to go, despite its better gas mileage.
!fficiency means to do things right. !ffectiveness means to do the right things.
Both are positive, &ust not for the same kind of work.
!fficient is to do things in a minimal amount of time. 'seful for production work.
!ffective means with good effects, with intended results. This is more applicable to decision making and
influencing others (good timing, with this weeks podcast topic...). *ou do not strictly want to save time on
these.
+onvoluted example of the distinction, *ou can make and communicate a decision efficiently. -ust tell
everybody you decided like ., and that it will be like that /use role power0. 1uch a decision may not have the
intended effect because people may not take it seriously or start a revolt. n that case it may have been efficient
but it was not effective.
2n example for a knowledge worker /programmer0, someone can code up a bubblesort algorithm at 3# lines-of-
+ per hour. 4ery efficient. t would be much more effective to code up a single call to a good library sorting
routine.
What is k to 12?
2 ma&or change in our country5s educational landscape is about to take place, the 6epartment of !ducation/6ep!d0 is
launching the K-12 curriculum this coming -une.
2ccording to 7resident Benigno 1. 28uino, 9:e need to add two years to our basic education. Those who can afford
pay up to fourteen years of schooling before university. Thus, their children are getting into the best universities and
the best &obs after graduation. want at least "; years for our public school children to give them an even chance at
succeeding.< n line with this, the "=>? 7hilippine +onstitution states that, 9The 1tate shall establish, maintain, and
support a complete, ade8uate, and integrated system of education relevant to the needs of the people and the society.9
1uch mandate gives &ustice to the basic rights of every Filipino child, the right to 8uality education and the right to a
8uality life.
What is K-12?
2ccording to the @ to "; 6eped 7rimer /;#""0, 9@-"; means 9@indergarten and the "; years of elementary
andsecondary education.< @indergarten points to the 3-year old child who undertakes the standardiAed curriculum
for preschoolers. !lementary education refers to B years of primary school /Crades "-B0 while secondary education
means four years of &unior high school /Crades ?-"# or D1 *ear "-%0. n addition to this, two years are now allotted for
senior high school /Crades ""-"; or D1 *ear 3-B0.
Prof. Lorina Calingasan of the +ollege of !ducation in '7 6iliman explains that 9@-"; means extending basic
education by two years, so instead of having a high school graduate at "B /years old0, we will have high schoolers
graduating at ">.<
The 6ep!d discussion paper /;#"#0 on the enhanced @-"; basic education program explains that this new setup
9seeks to provide a 8uality ";-year basic education program that each Filipino is entitled to< /p.30. Furthermore, the
purpose is not simply to add ; more years of education 9but more importantly to enhance the basic education
curriculum< /p.30.

What is the rationale for this program?
There is an urgent need to enhance the 8uality of basic education in our country as seen in the education outcomes of
Filipino students and the comparative disadvantage of the 7hilippines with regard to other countries. The following
data would support this explanation,
2t present, the 7hilippines is the only country in 2sia and among the three remaining countries in the world that uses
a "#-year basic education cycle. 2ccording to a presentation made by the 1outh !ast 2sian Einisters of !ducation
FrganiAation /1!2E!F-GGFT!+D0 on 2dditional *ears in 7hilippine Basic !ducation /;#"#0, the comparative
data on duration of Basic and 7re-'niversity !ducation in 2sia shows that the 7hilippines allots "# years not &ust for
the basic education cycle but also for the pre-university education while all the other countries have either "" or ";
years in their basic education cycle.
2chievement scores highlight our students5 poor performance in national examinations. The Gational 2chievement
Test /G2T0 results for grade B in 1* ;##=-;#"# showed only a B=.;"H passing rate while the G2T results for high
school is at a low %B.$>H. Eoreover, international tests results in ;##$ Trends in nternational Eathematics and
1cience study /TE110 show that the 7hilippines ranked $%th out of $> countries in D1 Eath and %$rd out of %B
countries in D1 1cience. Eoreover, the 7hilippines ranked the lowest in ;##> even with only the science high
schools &oining the 2dvanced Eathematics category.