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COVER STORY
20
Solving the UK’s
productivity puzzle
The latest international comparisons
of UK productivity released by the
Office for National Statistics suggest
that output per hour worked in the
UK remains below the average for
countries with similarly advanced
economies. Simply recognising the
issue won’t be enough to rectify it.
A quick and convenient rejoinder is
that ‘technology is the answer’. Whether
seeking the reasons behind the UK’s
productivity stall, or the solution, there’s
no doubt that technology has come to be
deeply associated with the issue.
At a recent debate on the future of
Scotland’s health service, for example,
a government advisor observed how
investment in digital technology had in fact
resulted in some tasks taking longer than
they did using paper. This suggests that
technology is part of the problem, rather
than the solution.
Recent research from Sharp supports
this, revealing that ineffectual technology
plays a major role in wasting the country’s
working hours. The average UK office
worker wastes 40 minutes per day because
of slow or inefficient technology, with 17
minutes wasted on printing alone.
This is the equivalent of 168 hours or
four weeks of dead time each year. More
time than the average UK worker spends
on holiday.
Furthermore, over a third (34%) of
workers feel that simple tech issues such
as bad internet connectivity are holding
them back. Documents not being stored in
correct or easy-to-share places was also a
big problem for 33% of those surveyed.
Almost a quarter (24%) of workers
claim to have missed deadlines because of
the technology in their office, which can
often have a domino effect on other tasks
and projects.
More than three out of every five
UK workers (64%) feel they would be
more productive if their office had better
technology, saying that up-to-date tech
would allow them to do better work with
more people.
By comparison, less than half of those
based in Sweden (44%), the Netherlands
(43%), Poland (46%), the Czech Republic
(48%) and Hungary (48%) felt that
they needed better technology to be
more productive. It seems that the UK in
particular struggles due to a lack of parity
between what workers feel they need and
what they actually have.
These numbers clearly show that
something about the technology we use
in the modern workplace is hampering
productivity. But is this the technology
itself or are there other factors at play?
Although more than three quarters
(76%) of UK employees feel that their
How do you solve a problem like productivity? A hot-topic for a
number of years, a lot of time has been spent discussing the so-called
‘productivity crisis’ that seems to be plaguing UK businesses
office’s technology is out of date, the
solution may not be as simple as a
complete equipment overhaul. The survey
of over 6,000 people from nine European
countries also revealed a surprising lack
of knowledge and skills, especially among
millennials.
This lack of tech know-how appears
to exacerbate the problem: 28% of Brits
say their time is wasted by colleagues who
don’t know how to use commonplace
office technology such as printers, while
a fifth (20%) admit to not being able to
follow a remote meeting because they
haven’t been given the requisite training
to do so.
Among those aged 16-34, 45% admit
that they don’t know how to use all of the
technology they’re expected to use as part
of their job, compared with just 27% for
the over 55s. If we break this age group
down further, we see that over half of
16-24 year olds (52%) admit to completely
avoiding workplace technology because it’s
too complicated.
This is even more startling in
comparison with older workers. Though
there is a widespread stereotype that older
generations are not as tech-savvy, among
those aged 55+ far fewer (30%) said they
had avoided technology at work because it
was complicated.
Overall, a worrying 32% of Brits
confessed to pretending that office
equipment was broken just so they
The average
UK office
worker
wastes 40
minutes per
day because
of slow or
inefficient
technology,
with 17
minutes
wasted on
printing alone
