The Digital Workplace Productivity+ Series: Part 1

Authored by John Brownridge, Steven Yang, Chaydaa Beckett, and Andrea Wilp

Introducing the Productivity+ series

Welcome to our four-part Productivity+ series! In this series we’ll share insights from our recent productivity research, where we surveyed 800 participants across 27 industry sectors to explore how digital tools and advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) and Generative AI (GenAI) can drive productivity. Coming out of this research, we propose the concept of Productivity+ and explore the mutually amplifying relationship between workplace productivity and employee experience.

This is Part 1, where we define Productivity+ and highlight four key trends that are impacting productivity in the workplace.

To continue following along with the series, be sure to check out:

• Part 2, where we’ll challenge traditional productivity measures and offer potential alternatives for measuring productivity in the workplace.
• Part 3, where we’ll explore the nuances of the frontline worker experience in the context of workplace productivity and employee experience.
• Part 4, where we’ll explore industry-specific insights related to workplace productivity.
   

Four Productivity+ trends shaping the workplace

Organizations are operating in a world of rapid disruption with pressure to continue to efficiently drive outcomes. In the context of today’s ever-evolving workplace, traditional measures of productivity, such as outputs and efficiency gains, should be reconsidered. Our research study sought to understand the relationship between employee technologies and AI with experience and productivity. We surveyed 800 participants representing knowledge, hybrid and frontline workers across 27 industry sections in the United States.

We found that 34% of surveyed workers are not satisfied with their workforce experience, with 89% of all surveyed workers subscribing to the belief that being happier and more satisfied at work will allow them to be more productive. Organizations should consider how productivity can have a positive impact on their workforce experience. 

We use "Productivity+" to refer to a wide range of business outcomes that a modern digital workplace enables—including productivity, innovation, inclusion, connection, collaboration, purpose engagement and beyond.

Our research identified four key trends that can elucidate the path to achieving Productivity+:

1. The relationship between productivity and experience
2. The key to driving productivity
3. Designing productivity levers
4. The role of AI and GenAI

Trend 1: Productivity and experience are mutually amplifying

The most important takeaway from the research is that there is a mutually amplifying relationship between worker productivity and their workday experience—employees who are happier at work are more productive, and more productive employees tend to be happier at work. Over 80% of all surveyed workers indicated that further enhancing their work experience would improve productivity. Furthermore, workers who are satisfied with their experience at work are approximately 2 times more productive. These findings underscore the need for organizations to focus on improving three workforce experience components—in employee well-being, the work they do and the place they work at—highlighting the positive correlate between workforce sentiments and productivity.

Trend 2: Managing beyond the “work” is key to productivity

The second trend we uncovered is that the most impactful productivity differentiators are dimensions that surround the “work” itself—how people spend time on work about work,* people and culture, and well-being. Eighty-four percent of surveyed workers indicated that they would be more productive at work if they could structure their workday based on their work style preferences.

Therefore, organizations should consider prioritizing interventions for the following ways:

• Work about work: Leverage AI and GenAI to reduce time spent on ancillary tasks, thereby freeing up time for more substantial work.
• People and culture: Emphasize meaningful relationship building and learning to empower employees through valuable experiences, which in turn, can improve productivity.
• Well-being: Find the right balance of well-being time to maximize productivity and consider worker well-being in the holistic sense (physical, emotional, financial and social).

* We define “work about work” as time spent toggling between apps, communicating about work and looking for information. In essence, it’s time spent not on meaningful or productive work.

Trend 3: Workforce needs and challenges should guide productivity lever design

Productivity levers, or mechanisms that organizations can use to influence productivity, are not universally applicable across organizations and should be tailored through experimentation, piloting and innovation—guided by the evolving needs of the specific workforce. To begin to understand which productivity levers are most applicable within a given organization or across workforce segments, we must first understand the productivity barriers that commonly hamper worker productivity:

• The top productivity barrier across all workforce segments (53% of workers) is interruption.
• Less productive workers are approximately 2 times more likely to encounter poor communication by colleagues and leaders as a primary productivity barrier.
• Moderately productive workers are significantly more likely to experience workplace distractions and inadequate digital tools as productivity barriers.

With this context in mind, it’s important to design productivity levers based on these nuanced barriers:

• The way we work: Implement changes in ways of working, along with AI and GenAI tools, to help reduce interruptions, poor communication about task expectations and excessive meetings.
• The place where we work: Mitigate workplace distractions to facilitate a more satisfied and productive workforce.
• The tools that enable our work: Digital tools and technologies are essential for elevating productivity from “good” to “great,” as even incremental improvements in tools and technologies can yield significant impacts.

Trend 4: AI/GenAI should be used to unleash individual potential

However, implementing digital workplace technologies is merely the starting point for creating a connected workforce experience for employees. To genuinely enhance workplace satisfaction and productivity, organizations should offer a compelling digital user experience, augmented by AI and GenAI. Notably, 64% of surveyed workers indicated that access to these advanced tools will boost their productivity. By strategically orchestrating these technologies to deliver the most meaningful impact, organizations can maximize individual potential. The most impactful use cases for these technologies have some variance by workforce segment. Highly productive workers are more likely to prioritize AI- and GenAI-augmented search and communication tools, whereas less productive workers are more likely to prioritize AI- and GenAI-powered summarization and content generalization capabilities.

Authors:

• John Brownridge
• Steven Yang
• Chaydaa Beckett
• Andrea Wilp