What is productivity? Productivity is far more than a single statistic. While economists, policymakers and the media often reference the average Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per working hour, this aggregate measure tells only part of the story.

At its core, productivity is about how people, firms and places turn finite resources into better outcomes. It’s about smarter working for better growth – using innovation, skills, investment and effective practices to create greater value.

Only when we understand the subtleties of productivity across different contexts can we have an informed national debate on how to improve the UK’s productivity performance for the benefit of all, making it a key driver of inclusive growth.

The Productivity Institute is a UK-wide research organisation dedicated to understanding and addressing the country’s longstanding productivity challenges. Funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), they collaborate with a network of leading universities and industry partners to drive meaningful change.

Their mission is to support a step-change in the quality and quantity of productivity research available in the UK. They provide evidence that directly informs government policies and business strategies, helping to improve productivity outcomes across the nation.

The Productivity Institute's research

The Productivity Institute's mission is to tackle the UK’s persistent productivity challenge by generating robust, actionable research. They unite expertise from economics, management, social sciences, engineering, and data science to understand what drives productivity and how it can be improved.

The Productivity Institute's work is structured around three core areas – People, Firms, and Institutions & the Economy – each addressing the most pressing questions facing the UK’s productivity today. They also produce sector-specific research, which helps to understand the distinctive constraints and opportunities faced by particular industries.

By combining rigorous academic analysis with real-world insights, they aim to inform better decisions for policymakers, businesses and communities.

The Productivity Lab supports this mission by providing advanced data analysis and making complex evidence accessible.

Through an integrated approach, The Productivity Institute seeks to deliver practical solutions that foster sustainable and inclusive productivity growth across the UK.

The Productivity Institute has nine Productivity Forums representing the English regions, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

The Productivity Forums act as regional ambassadors for the importance of productivity while also shaping both local and national policy.

The work of the Forums has been shaped in large part by increasing awareness of the impact of regional inequalities. While each Forum addresses the unique challenges and opportunities of its location, there are common productivity challenges across regions in the United Kingdom. These include the need for targeted investment, skills development, innovation, and collaboration to drive sustainable and inclusive productivity growth.

As part of National Productivity Week 2025, the Forums updated their analysis of the productivity challenges and opportunities facing their regions. Full papers are published on the TPI website, and shorter versions have been included in the Regional Productivity Agenda.

Each Productivity Forum has a Lead, Chair and members, along with a dedicated microsite where you can find out more about regional insights and activities.

Productivity is the core business of firms and organisations across the economy.

Productivity is about how a business transforms its resources – people, capital, materials and other inputs – into products and services that are directly related to business outcomes, such as growth, value creation, competitiveness and profitability.

But business productivity is rarely a key performance indicator for the firm as whole.

Efficiency measures are often used to gauge how to “do more with less” in parts of the production or delivery process. But that’s only half of the story.

“60% of small and medium-sized enterprises do not formally monitor productivity. Complexity and not seeing the relevance of the metric are cited as common reasons.” (K. Penney and J. Pendrill, 2022)

The Productivity Institute helps business leaders to make productivity part of their strategy to create better and more valuable outcomes for their customers and stakeholders.

Productivity is the “business of all leaders” in the firm. When bringing together the operation, employee and customer perspectives, productivity is not an abstract concept, but a practical route to long-term value creation.