Working harder but not smarter: what employees think about the productivity puzzle

Recent statistics by the ONS show the biggest quarterly fall in productivity since 2008. At the same time, a survey by the Smith Institute shows that 9 out of 10 of us are familiar with the term ‘productivity’ and think it is ‘important’; but half of us say we are as productive or less than we were two years ago. In this ‘productivity puzzle’, writes Dan Holden, employees’ views are a missing piece. Yet it is their views that may actually help us understand and solve the problem