Tackling the UK’s Productivity Puzzle

Have you heard about TechMarketView’s research theme for 2023?

Every year our theme is designed to sum up in a few words the key trends that we think will impact the tech market in the year ahead, and this year it is Pursuing Productivity.

The UK has had a productivity crisis for the last decade. Over that time, successive Prime Ministers have sought to understand the reason why and to implement policies to ‘get the country moving’.

In other words, productivity is not a new issue. And you’d be well within your rights to question why we think the pursuit of productivity will be such a defining feature of the next 12 months.

In our view, the biggest driver will be the UK’s labour shortage. With the country facing the lowest unemployment rate since 1974, we have already seen the worrying impact. Organisations are starting to cut output and delay investments.

This can only go on so long. Moreover, other factors – such as the enduring hybrid and flexible working model, rising inflation and squeezed finances, and a trend to deglobalisation and reshoring – are pushing organisations to try and better understand workforce performance.

We believe that 2023 will be the year when we start to see leaders look far more deeply at how they can get more out of the graft they are putting in. And, importantly, tech will play a big role in the answer.

We predict that investment in the productivity and resilience of the workforce will fall into two categories: employee-led, e.g., technology that will support mental health and wellbeing, that will allow employees to work smarter and faster, and that will enable them to embark on lifelong learning and training; and employer-led, e.g., technology that will enable better resource management, that will offer a better understanding of workforce performance, and that will provide the ability to make more informed, and faster decisions.

The pursuit of productivity will also extend to the ICT department. The many technologies that can make an ICT team more productive, from no-code/low-code/AI-augmented coding, to automated cybersecurity solutions, to hybrid cloud orchestration and management, will all be in demand.

Importantly, however, the pursuit of productivity will not be solved by technology alone. We must look to Japan and consider why, despite its openness to technology adoption, it has failed to improve its own productivity. The answer is that it has been inflexible in terms of cultural, organisational, and process change; without that, technology adoption has not had the desired effect. The winners in 2023 – as they look to support their clients improve their productivity, will be those that can support a wider transformation.

For a more in-depth look at our Pursuing Productivity research theme and what to expect from TechMarketView's expert analyst team over the months ahead, you can download our report, TechMarketView Research Theme 2023: Pursuing Productivity. You can also watch our short launch video.

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Posted by HotViews Editor at '09:30' - Tagged: 2023