Employee productivity reflects how work is designed. It’s up to leaders to build an environment where their people can perform and thrive.
Sara Braun
Editorial Strategist, HR
Workday
Yet despite the steady stream of productivity solutions, organisations still struggle to create the conditions for strong performance. Gallup’s 2026 State of the Global Workplace report found that just 20% of employees worldwide are engaged, with low engagement costing the global economy an estimated $10 trillion in lost productivity.
Quick fixes are appealing because they offer a simple answer to a complex organisational problem. But increased productivity depends on the broader conditions in which people work. Workers need the right information, clear priorities and enough time to focus on work that creates value.
Improving employee productivity requires leaders to look beyond isolated tactics and examine the entire system shaping how work gets done.
Guide
Low engagement costs the global economy an estimated $10 trillion in lost productivity.
Employee productivity measures how effectively employees turn their time, effort and resources into valuable work. Traditionally, it can be expressed as a simple ratio:
Productivity = Output ÷ Input
But output alone provides an incomplete picture; leaders also need to consider the quality of work being produced. Completing more work in less time does not necessarily improve productivity if the work is inaccurate, creates rework or fails to contribute to business goals.
A broader view of the factors that affect employee productivity considers:
These factors are shaped in part by the conditions in which employees work. Gallup’s analysis of more than 183,000 business units found that highly engaged teams achieved 14% higher productivity, illustrating the connection between productive employees, the employee experience and organisational performance.
For leaders, improving productivity therefore requires looking beyond how much work employees complete to how effectively that work creates value.
There is no quick fix or “trick” to increase employee productivity because performance is shaped by multiple, interconnected parts of the employee experience. Organisations focused on increasing employee productivity make meaningful progress by addressing the structural factors that support or obstruct performance.
That process begins with understanding how your staff members actually experience their work. Here are four best practices to ensure your organisation is equipped to boost productivity:
1. Reduce friction in how work gets done
2. Provide employees clarity and skills training
There’s no trick to increase employee productivity because performance is shaped by multiple, interconnected parts of the employee experience.
Productivity friction often appears in small, recurring moments: searching for information, reconciling conflicting data, duplicating work, waiting for unclear handoffs or relying on inconsistent project management practices. Across teams and workflows, these kinds of delays consume substantial time and attention.
To identify sources of friction, ask questions like:
Integrated data, automation and AI can reduce these burdens, but technology alone cannot fix a flawed process. Organisations need to improve workflows alongside technology to give employees a more direct path from effort to impact.
Employee performance improves when people understand company goals, how their work contributes, and what a successful outcome looks like. When people feel clear on priorities and equipped with the right skills, they are better positioned to do valuable work, even as AI and automation reshape daily responsibilities.
While 66% of leaders identify skills training as a top investment priority, only 37% of employees experiencing the highest levels of AI-related rework report increased access to training. Leaders and managers can help close that gap by:
A skills-based approach can help organisations align these efforts with the capabilities the business needs most.
Removing low-value tasks creates the potential for greater productivity. But if every hour saved through automation is immediately filled with additional task volume, employees may complete more work without creating more value.
Workday’s 2025 Global Workforce Report found that leaders most frequently plan to allocate AI productivity gains to strategic work and operational efficiency. Only 29% prioritise reinvesting saved time in employee AI upskilling.
Organisations can instead reinvest some of that capacity in work that strengthens long term performance, including:
Protecting capacity for these activities helps organisations turn efficiency gains into more sustainable productivity.
How organisations measure productivity influences how employees prioritise their time
How organisations measure productivity influences how employees prioritise their time. Activity metrics such as tasks completed or hours saved can show how much work is getting done, but not whether that work creates value. True productivity improvement requires looking beyond activity to evaluate outcomes, quality, efficiency and sustainability.
Instead, leaders can evaluate productivity across several dimensions:
Together, these measures give leaders a clearer view of productivity levels, where work is creating value, and where processes, technology or support may need to change.
Employee productivity cannot be separated from the environment surrounding it. A positive work environment also shapes job satisfaction, employee engagement and retention and the ability to sustain strong performance.
Every workflow, system, priority, skill requirement and performance measure affects how easily employees can turn their effort into meaningful results. When those elements are aligned, people spend less time navigating friction and more time applying their judgment, expertise and creativity where they have the greatest impact.
For leaders, the path forward starts with understanding how work happens across the organisation, then measuring productivity through the quality and value of outcomes, including the rework required to achieve them.
Organisations that take this broader approach can improve workforce productivity sustainably. They create a workforce that’s better equipped to adapt, contribute and deliver value as the nature of work continues to evolve.
Guide
Learn how AI is making work more productive, human and sustainable.