Dive Brief:
- Despite major advances in technology promising to boost productivity, productivity has remained flat, with 4 in 10 companies across the globe reporting negative growth, according to research released Oct. 29 by professional services firm Accenture.
- To close the gap, Accenture recommends organizations adopt behaviors that productivity leaders practice, such as: Redefining productivity beyond traditional cost measures, focusing instead on value creation through innovation and knowledge; investing in technology strategies that empower — not replace — the workforce; and cultivating a culture of continuous learning across behavioral, functional and technical dimensions.
- “Leaders of high production companies recognize the need for a coherent strategy that not only identifies and tackles each challenge individually, but also views them as intertwined components of a broader system,” the firm noted.
Dive Insight:
The bottom line: “Continuous change is the new reality,” Accenture said. Its research found that 80% of organizations cite change as part of their long-term vision.
Still, barriers — such as resistance to cultural shifts, misalignment between workforce capabilities and new technologies, and inadequate training — are keeping many organizations from feeling confident about their ability to change, the research showed.
Inadequate training — one of the main factors responsible for the skills gap — is an ongoing concern, studies consistently find.
Employers and employees both see the need for skills development and both recognize that investing in learning and development leads to higher retention and productivity, according to a July report from D2L, a learning technology company. Even so, continuous upskilling isn’t the norm for most workers, the report showed.
A report by Multiverse released in August backs this and Accenture’s findings. It revealed that due to widespread data skills gaps, businesses are experiencing significant productivity loss — adding up to an average of roughly 25 working days per employee per year.
But there are solutions, Accenture said. Organizations can work through factors exacerbating training challenges — including time, money and a lack of motivation — in two ways, it suggested.
First, organizations should understand that “relying on poor generative AI setups may result in unreliable or subpar outcomes,” the firm pointed out. Instead, to make the most of generative AI’s ability to impact productivity, businesses can either: build a strong digital core across all functions; partner with AI experts; or follow a set of responsible guidelines to unlock more value, Accenture recommended.
Second, it helps to understand how generative AI works best. That is, “tasks with potentially high time savings require less human involvement [while] tasks with potential high quality improvement require much more human involvement,” Accenture’s research showed.
Toxic work cultures may be another obstacle to productivity and may be driving nearly 40% of C-suite executives and managers to fake work-related activity, according to a recent survey by Workhuman.
This aligns with Accenture’s finding that companies expect culture and mindset — in particular, resistance to change, ineffective use of feedback and ineffective performance metrics — to pose productivity barriers for the next 3 years.
And that leads to one of Accenture’s main points: To move forward during what has been dubbed the “digital transformation,” organizations need to be human-centric and holistic in how they navigate the change.
In other words, “Companies that simultaneously strengthen data, technology and people stand to gain a premium on top-line productivity, compared to when data and tech solutions are implemented alone,” the report states.
“The critical difference? Putting people at the center,” Accenture emphasized.
