It’s time we cracked the productivity code once and for all

London, 26 January 2023: UK productivity data published by the Office for National Statistics today showed that output was only marginally higher than before the COVID-19 pandemic.

The data, which focused on the period July to September 2022, revealed that output per worker was 1.6% higher than the average level in 2019.

Responding to these figures, Anthony Impey, CEO of Be the Business, an organisation that champions small business productivity, said:

“It’s time we cracked the productivity code once and for all. As a nation, we have everything we need to make the shift towards a more productive economy. Getting more businesses to measure their performance is critical to this approach. Yet, in Be the Business’ latest Productive Business Index, we found that just 48 per cent of business leaders could accurately measure their productivity and identify where improvements were needed.

“We need to remind ourselves that what gets measured, gets done. Business leaders must be able to identify what’s driving performance – whether that’s margin per plate in restaurants or number of units produced per hour in a manufacturing environment – if we are even to begin to measure up.”

Notes to editors

Productive Business Index Edition 5 Q3 2022 can be found at https://www.bethebusiness.com/our-thinking/be-the-business-productive-business-index-edition-five-q3-2022/

The data is derived from a large-scale survey of 1,506 directors and above working in companies of 2 - 249 employees conducted by Opinium between 01/09/22 and 08/09/2022.

Be the Business worked with Oxford Economics to develop a model for tracking Business Tendencies and Business Capabilities, exploring business sentiment, their key capabilities, and actions taken to improve capabilities, driving sustainable and productive growth.