The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Publishing Company Ltd, Nana Kwasi Boatey, has disclosed that upon assuming office, the company was grappling with severe overstaffing and widespread skills mismatch—challenges he says were undermining productivity and professionalism at the state-owned enterprise.
Speaking in an interview on Citi Eyewitness News on Thursday, September 25, Boatey revealed that many employees had been hired without relevant training or background in publishing and printing, core functions of the company.
“The truth is that the company was very significantly overstaffed. Not only was it overstaffed, but we had a lot of people working there who were not trained,” he said.
According to him, political or personal interference had led to the appointment of persons with unrelated educational or professional backgrounds.
“You know the thing where they bring you someone and say, ‘find somewhere and put this one for me.’ So, for instance, you have a publishing company, but people trained in agriculture are doing finance, and those trained in carpentry are doing marketing,” Boatey noted.
He described the situation as unsustainable, saying the skills mismatch made on-the-job training difficult and hindered efficient operations.
To address the issue, Boatey said management took immediate steps to realign staff roles based on their qualifications and introduced a new 24-hour shift system.
“What we first did was align staff with their areas of training. Then, as promised in the first three weeks, we introduced the 24-hour shift,” he explained.
The Ghana Publishing Company currently employs about 250 staff. Boatey said that based on operational assessments, only around 150 were needed for the day shift alone—meaning the rest would likely have been laid off under normal restructuring procedures.
However, rather than letting them go, the company introduced a night shift to retain jobs while increasing productivity.
“The rest would have automatically had to go home, but we moved them to a night shift—and that gave us lots and lots of advantages,” he added.
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