““Productivity is an economic measure of the efficiency of a workforce. It typically measures the level of output per hour of work, or per worker.
A more productive workforce signals stronger growth and healthier public finances. Productivity gains are vital to economic prosperity because it signals that more is being achieved by workers in less time. Gains are typically achieved through advances in technology and increased skill levels within a workforce.
In the UK, productivity growth has stalled since the financial crisis, putting it behind international rivals. The UK ranks fifth out of G7 leading industrial nations, with Canada and Japan having weaker levels of productivity. Germany is the most productive nation per hour, while the US is top for output per worker.
Weak productivity is problematic because it signals weaker economic growth, therefore eroding the public finances. Without an improvement in productivity, economies miss out on increases in wages and living standards, putting further pressure on the welfare system and depressing tax receipts.
Some industries are more productive than others. In the UK, manufacturing firms are among the most efficient, whereas the services sector operate at below average productivity.” ”
Productivity hampering profits?
There are two main ways to increase profits:
1) Sell more
2) spend less.
Productivity gains can be made by:
3) Being more efficient
If you can do all three, fantastic, well done, hooray. But in the real world things are not always easy.
There is some crossover in these categories. It can be hard to sell more without spending more and becoming more efficient is no good if your costs are the same and there are no extra sales.
“72% of salespeople spend up to an hour a day on data entry and connecting records from different sales tools.
75% of marketers spend up to an hour a day analyzing data and connecting reports from different marketing tools.”
Efficiencies within an organisation can free up people enabling them to market and sell more effectively. Not just marketing, productivity workers in warehouses, outworkers, service engineers all these resources can benefit from having a single unified data source that is multi user, networked and cross platform.
Trading is set to get difficult over the next decade as the UK finds it's way in a new reality.
Don't wait until your company is struggling to keep up before getting a system that actually helps now and improves the key aspects of your business.
"The most difficult time to change is when the company is making a profit and may be muddling through with ad-hoc systems. don't be misled by the business comfort zone. Act now."