Be the Business Productive Business Index – Edition Five Q3 2022

Business leaders are less confident in their capabilities, but fighting to improve productivity levels.

The Productive Business Index focuses on the productivity of micro, small- and medium-sized businesses in the UK. We track changes in the five key areas (management skills, training and HR, innovation, process efficiency and technology adoption) as well as general operating conditions, barriers to growth and expectations for the future.

The data we collect is analysed and combined to produce our index:

• Business performance measures trading conditions and company sentiment

• Business capabilities assesses activity in the five areas that drive productivity improvements

• In both performance and capabilities, we assess the current situation, as well as asking about future expectations and plans for improvements

• We then produce a business performance index and a business capabilities index

• These are combined to produce assessments of the overall current and expected situation

• Finally, these combine to form our overall Productive Business Index figure

Our latest edition finds that:

• Over half (56 per cent) of UK business leaders believe their management teams have the right blend of skills, an eight per cent decrease from Q1 2022.

• However, determination and the drive to improve shine through, with 45 per cent expecting to spend more time on management and leadership activities – a nine per cent increase in only six months

• Just 54 per cent of business leaders believe they have the skills and talent needed to succeed, a ten per cent decrease from Q1 2022

• But four in ten have plans to reassess pay, rewards and incentives to improve employee motivation, an increase of eight per cent on the last PBI

• There has been a significant drop (nine per cent) in the number of business leaders that feel their company fosters innovation and new ideas from employees

• Yet, 41 per cent of business leaders plan to develop new ideas, an increase of seven per cent compared to the beginning of the year