Office Productivity: Businesses Continue to Make Workers More Productive

Office workers are five times more productive today than workers in the 1970’s, and productivity is on track to increase by another 22 percent before 2020, according to a report from the UK Center for Economic and Business Research and O2 Business.  The report points to technology as the reason for the increase in productivity.  Technologies like mobile phones, cloud computing, email and business software have made it easier for people to organize and communicate within their businesses.

Colm Sheehy, author of the report, said that “tablet computers are the next step in this evolution. This means going mobile and being able to take your office mobile, and be as productive on the go as are you are in the office. By investing in these technologies in the future we can continue to advance productivity, which means businesses can increase revenues and grow.”

Ben Dowd, O2 Business Director, said that technology investments have allowed businesses “to work smarter, and as a result we are more productive.  For example, employees can now work anywhere they need to – whether that is in the office, from home or even on the move.  They can easily access and edit documents on smart devices, and use connectivity like 4G and wifi to stay in touch wherever they are. This flexibility enables us to get more done during the working day than ever before, so businesses can focus on maintaining growth…  We will continue to see employees’ productivity improve, and as more businesses adopt technology that enables them to be flexible we’re likely to see even greater growth than forecast in the future.  However, increased productivity must not be confused with working harder. Indeed, a lot of the new technologies that are driving productivity today are actually those that are contributing to an improved work-life balance and loyal workforce by allowing us to work more remotely and flexibly.”

Sheehy said that “essentially you’ll be able to get more productivity from the individual within the hours that they’re working.  It will become a personal choice where the barrier is between the office and home life.”

A survey by ZDNet found that many workers still aren’t satisfied with their own productivity — 63 percent are looking for ways to further increase their productivity on the job.

But not everyone thinks that ever more productive workers is a good thing.  Dave Coplin, Microsoft’s chief envisioning officer, for one, said that “technology has become the prison in many cases, it was meant to release us, to liberate us, and somehow it’s just become a constraint on what we do. Many people feel chained to their email when in reality that’s just the process of work, it’s not work itself.”

Carl Honore, author of In Praise Of Slowness, thinks that currently workers are being pushed too hard.  He said that “if you never have a moment of silence to sit back and wonder, then you never get into that richer, more nuanced moment of slow thinking.  All you’re doing if you’re stuck in that technology carousel is you’re always reacting, you’re never reflecting.”