It’s a general assumption that people who are engaged in their work and have meaningful jobs are likely to be the most productive. But there is very little research that proves this.
There is no common measure of productivity between employers so comparison is difficult. At national level there is an economic measure of output per employee hour worked and this is often used to show that the UK is well down the league table. But the UK economy seems to be flourishing despite this in comparison to to other more ‘productive’ countries.
So it’s good to see that the RSA and the Carnegie UK Trust have joined forces to try to get to the bottom of this. (https://www.thersa.org/discover/publications-and-articles/rsa-blogs/2019/04/productivity). They will be asking questions such as “what impact do issues such as pay, perceptions of pay, job security, progression opportunities, use of skills, supportive colleagues, the quality of line management and employee engagement have on productivity at firm level?”.
I’m looking forward to the report in the autumn which will hopefully shed more light on this fascinating topic.