productivity – Workforce

March 18, 2025March 18, 2025

Workplace Productivity Statistics and Trends You Need to Know

Summary

Productivity in the US increased in the past year, which can indicate that businesses are adapting to disruptions following the largest decline experienced in 2022.
Employee engagement goes hand-in-hand with workplace productivity. Low engagement levels are expected to cost US$8.9 trillion or 9% of the global GDP.
All-in-one payroll, HR, and workforce management software can help boost productivity through features like labor forecasting and communication platforms.

Productivity is a key measure of efficiency in any organization, but how it’s defined and measured varies widely. For hourly teams, productivity is often measured in real-time, like how efficiently shifts are managed, how well teams keep up with demand, and how businesses balance labor costs with performance.

Understanding the direction of workplace productivity is essential, especially as wages rise, new technologies emerge, and workforce expectations evolve. Trends in efficiency, labor costs, employee engagement, and automation have a direct impact on hourly teams. Staying informed about the latest developments in these areas helps businesses stay ahead and adapt to changing workforce dynamics.

Let’s take a look at how productivity is evolving on a national scale and what organizations can do to keep pace with these changes.

Productivity rates and its impact on quality of life

Generally speaking, productivity has seen some peaks and valleys over the years. And it has a direct correlation with quality of life.

During a TED talk, Yves Morieux, managing director and senior partner at Boston Consulting Group, explained how a 3% increase in productivity per year leads to a doubling of the standard of living for every subsequent generation. If that growth is reduced to 1%, it will take three generations to double the standard of living – leading to every generation being less well-off than their parents. Sound familiar?

“They will have less of everything: smaller roofs, or perhaps no roof at all, less access to education, to vitamins, to antibiotics, to vaccination – to everything. Think of all the problems that we’re facing at the moment. Chances are that they are rooted in the productivity crisis,” shares Yves Morieux.

In 2022, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported the sharpest decline in productivity since 1947. Nonfarm productivity landed at 7.5% in the first quarter of 2022, the lowest since the third quarter of 1947. This reflects pandemic-related disruptions, supply chain issues, and labor shortages.

The BLS defines labor productivity (or output per hour) as the division of “an index of real output by an index of hours worked.” They calculate the productivity of “all persons.” This includes employees, business owners, and unpaid family workers.

However, productivity has since recovered, and the BLS saw a 1.2% increase in labor productivity in nonfarm sectors. Productivity growth can indicate that businesses have adapted to automation, training, and better labor allocation.

Information from the BLS reflects economic trends, which can indicate changes in the labor market, wages, and overall productivity. It’s vital to stay abreast of these broader numbers and assess them with your own internal data so you can make better decisions and strategies for your team.

Hourly wage trends and impact on business costs

Hourly compensation continued to rise in the fourth quarter of 2024, with BLS reporting a 4.2% growth. Labor unit costs also grew by 3%.

Additionally, minimum wage increases took effect in over 20 states in 2025. Some states and cities implemented higher minimum wages at the start of the year, while others are scheduled to have increases later in the year.

As wages rise, businesses may face higher operational costs, which can lead to price adjustments for products and services. Labor forecasting becomes even more essential as employers balance staffing levels to maintain productivity without the risks of over- or understaffing.

Automation is also vital, especially for managers, in optimizing workforce management. Tools like time and attendance tracking, employee scheduling, performance management platforms, and payroll software can eliminate administrative burdens, allowing managers to focus on running a productive operation. With the right technology, managers can spend less time on routine tasks and more time analyzing data and making informed decisions to improve productivity.

Disengaged employees can cause lower productivity

Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace 2024 report shows that 62% of workers surveyed are disengaged, and low engagement is estimated to cost the global economy US$8.9 trillion or 9% of the global GDP.

The study also examined daily stress, finding that 41% of respondents experienced stress the previous day. While it’s important to note that the survey didn’t directly ask if the stress was experienced at work, consider that time spent in the workplace is also a significant factor in daily experiences and emotions.

Employee engagement is strongly linked to better business outcomes and employee retention. The study’s findings reiterate just how crucial it is for human resources professionals to prioritize employees’ mental health and maintain a good work environment to retain top talent, achieve higher productivity, and maintain healthier profits.

Automation and AI in hourly workforces

The adoption of AI and automation will continue in HR, and they’re expected to still play a major role in streamlining administrative processes such as hiring, onboarding, time tracking, labor forecasting, and payroll processing.

Also read: HR Trends for Hourly Workforces in 2025

However, while AI is often associated with productivity gains, its impact is not always straightforward. A study found that 77% of workers using AI disclosed that it added to their workload, presenting unexpected challenges in achieving the efficiency improvements employers anticipate. Furthermore, 47% of employees using AI admitted they were unsure how to meet their employers’ productivity expectations despite the technology’s implementation.

Clearly, technology is only as effective as its implementation. While AI has the potential to drive efficiency and profitability, its success depends on how well it integrates into workflows and supports employees rather than burdening them. Leadership plays a crucial role in ensuring AI adoption leads to practical, measurable improvements rather than becoming a source of frustration or inefficiency. Business leaders that introduce AI without a clear, well-structured strategy risk making work more complicated, which can result in lost productivity.

AI adoption should go beyond industry trends and buzzwords. It should be a strategic investment that delivers tangible benefits for both businesses and their employees.

Flexibility and job satisfaction beyond remote employees

For office workers, flexibility and work-life balance is typically to remote work or hybrid work arrangements, where they have greater control over their schedules and can work from home. However, for hourly teams, flexibility takes on a different meaning—one that is just as critical to job satisfaction and overall employee experience.

For hourly employees, flexibility isn’t about location but about having clear work hours in advance. Since their roles typically require them to be on-site, knowing their schedules ahead of time allows them to plan for personal commitments, reduce stress, and maintain a healthier work-life balance. This level of predictability on their work times keeps employees engaged, while minimizing issues like absenteeism and productivity losses.

If you’re managing an hourly workforce, ensuring employees receive their schedules well in advance is one of the most effective ways to enhance job satisfaction, improve employee experience, and maintain a more reliable and efficient team.

Potential shifts with workweek structures

There’s a current push for a 32-hour workweek, and its potential benefits for salaried, white-collar workers are clear. Many can complete the same amount of work in a shorter period. But what about businesses that rely on non-exempt, hourly employees?

For hourly workers, wages are directly tied to time worked, meaning a reduction from a 40-hour to a 32-hour schedule could significantly impact take-home pay unless accompanied by an increase in hourly wages. For businesses, especially those operating 24/7, transitioning to a shorter workweek presents operational challenges, from scheduling to maintaining productivity levels.

While it is still not in effect, businesses should monitor developments closely and consider how changes could affect operations and employee compensation.

Boost productivity with Workforce.com

Frontline teams looking to boost productivity turn to Workforce.com for solutions like scheduling, labor forecasting, employee communications, recruitment, performance management, and payroll. Having all of these functionalities housed in a single, powerful system helps simplify work models and drive better results. Here are some of the ways Workforce.com can help you do exactly that:

Automating administrative processes

Cut time spent filling shift schedules with Workforce.com’s scheduling system. Instead of manually building schedules with spreadsheets, managers can create and populate shifts in minutes and ensure employees only do work they are qualified for. This helps prevent burnout among your team and safeguards employee well-being.

Managers can also automatically approve and amend timesheets in bulk with Workforce.com’s time and attendance software. Once timesheets are finalized and approved, they can be exported to payroll, where wages, overtime, deductions, withholdings, and incentives are calculated automatically, ensuring accurate and timely pay for employees.

By eliminating manual processes, businesses can significantly reduce administrative workload, allowing teams to focus on higher-value activities to increase revenue and improve employee experience.

Optimize Scheduling with AI-Powered Labor Forecasting

Workforce.com’s labor forecasting system employs AI to predict staffing needs based on historical sales, economic trends, booked appointments, ongoing events, weather, and practically any metric that’s relevant to your operations.

Webinar: How to Forecast Your Schedule

With data-driven insights, you can determine exactly how many staff you need, where they need to be, and when they need to be there, all while avoiding the unnecessary costs of over or understaffing.

Improve team communication

Better communication leads to higher employee engagement and productivity. Workforce.com’s employee app fosters more open and transparent processes across your company.

Management and human resources can inform their team of upcoming shifts, scheduling conflicts, and shift changes instantly and across the board. While scheduling, managers can add important notes and reminders to shifts for specific employees. Important announcements can also be sent out by team or location.

Optimize manager duties

Workforce.com empowers managers with real-time insights into frontline operations. With time and attendance software, managers are instantly alerted when employees are running late or absent, approaching overtime, or missing scheduled breaks. In addition, managers can also offer up vacant shifts to qualified and available staff in case of no-shows or last-minute absences.

Workforce.com facilitates two-way shift feedback with staff members. Management can provide staff members with feedback on their performance per shift, and staff can also provide management with on-the-ground insights through feedback on staffing levels, communication, and teamwork.

Workforce.com has a proven track record of improving work productivity and employee satisfaction in various industries worldwide. Check out these client success stories or book a demo today to see the platform in action.

August 31, 2020June 29, 2023

Workforce tracking solutions do not always track with company culture

Workforce tracking solutions for employers continues to grow, especially as remote work has become more commonplace in 2020.

One reason for this is that organizations worry that employees aren’t as productive when they’re working remotely and that managers can’t peek around the office to see who’s working and who’s online shopping, said Matt Stevenson, partner and leader of Mercer’s Workforce Strategy and Analytics practice.

Additionally, now there’s just more data as more people work online. For example, with more health care delivered through telehealth now, he said, there’s much more data on patient interactions that used to just be recorded in doctors’ notes. And it’s possible to connect this data with actual patient outcomes.

Also read: Labor analytics add power to workforce management tools

In health care and beyond, organizations are beginning to invest more in this technology, Stevenson said. As workforce tracking becomes more commonplace, there are some key considerations employers must keep in mind to use it correctly.

Track productivity, not activity

There is a lot of metadata that organizations and vendors can track, like how many clicks per day or meetings per day an employee has. Either party can tap into this data and interpret it, but one important consideration is they are tracking the right thing, said Matt Stevenson, partner and leader of Mercer’s Workforce Strategy and Analytics practice.

“if your’e just tracking activity and micromanaging activity, that probably won’t end well. But if you have a way of seeing whether activity is a leading indicator of productivity, that’s fantastic,” Stevenson said.

He gave the example of judging athletes’ “productivity” by how much time they spent on the field rather than how many goals they scored. There is a big distinction between activity and productivity, and it can be a difficult distinction to make in the workplace.

Also read: Monitor Responsibly: How Employers Are Using Workplace Surveillance Devices

Consider how much you trust who you’ve hired

John Lacy, chief operating officer at Idea Grove, said that at his organization, they do not believe in workforce tracking. Rather, there should be a culture of trust.

“We don’t believe monitoring tools of that nature are necessary to ensure people are doing their jobs. It comes down to the culture we’re building. When we looked at going fully remote, that question came up as not so much ‘What technology do we need to track them?’ but ‘How will we know work is getting done?’ and ‘How will we know we’re still meeting client needs?’ ” he said.

“It came back to that level of trust,” he added. “If we don’t trust [employees] to do what they need to do — whether they’re working at the office or from a remote location — we believe we’ve hired the wrong person.”

To ensure that people are getting work done, Idea Grove instead uses a series of tech tools that help with project management. Team members track their progress on projects with the project tracking tool Teamwork. They communicate with each other via Slack. And the organization regularly gets employee feedback about how employees are feeling about the office culture through the culture tracking tool Officevibe.

Lacy also said that the organization uses The Great Game of Business to help educate employees on how to run a business, how their work contributes to the organization and how exactly their successes can lead to rewards and bonuses.

“A philosophy I truly believe in is that everyone can understand business. It’s not that hard,” he said. “A lot of companies hide that from their employees, but we want to empower employees with that knowledge so that they understand that if they want long-term employment with the company, we have to make sure we have a company that is healthy, profitable and engaging, and they can participate in that directly.”

Avoid micromanaging

A real risk of workforce tracking is the presence of micromanaging, Stevenson said. He suggested “nudging” as a solution to micromanaging.

For example, perhaps a company found out that employees’ sending emails after 10 p.m. led to burnout and lower productivity. If a manager finds out through workforce tracking that an employee is regularly sending emails at this time, the solution wouldn’t be to have a stern discussion with the employee and tell them to stop. Rather, the employee could receive “nudges” through pop-ups on their computer that encourage them to sign off at a certain time.

Also read: Employee performance shines bright with valuable, continuous shift feedback

There’s a good deal of research supporting that nudges help with behavior change rather than direct orders. Stevenson said.

With this logic, what organizations should do first is find that link between activity and productivity. Once they’ve figured out that link, they could use that insight to create nudges rather than try to directly guide employee behavior, he added.

“It’s a two-fold problem,” he explained. “What predicts the things you care about, and if you have those predictions, what do you do about it without making things worse?”

The conversation about micromanaging ultimately comes back to trust, Lacy said.

“Everything starts with culture,” he said. “If you’re in an environment where trust is not the baseline, I could see a more command-and-control type manager having trouble with not knowing if everyone’s doing what they need to do.”

“My advice to them is to take an inward look,” he added. “What is it about your internal self that is not trusting your team to get its work done?”

How to calm employee’s concerns

Some employees may have concerns about workforce tracking, which comes down to is company culture and how employee data is being used, Stevenson said. Some cultures may breed more suspicion in employees while others are more trusting.

Also read: Give managers the time they need to sharpen up their all-around skills

Things get tougher in organizations where there is a more adversarial relationship between employees and employer. “And, in my personal opinion, that’s where you may see more labor organizations showing up,” Stevenson said.

He gave the historical example of Henry Ford and the creation of assembly lines. Strikes would often happen when factory operators sped up production. A similar trend happened with coal miners, who were paid by their output of coal every hour. They would strike when the number was supposed to go up, if they were concerned it was unsafe for them to do so.

Using “speeding up the assembly line” as a metaphor for “increasing productivity” in the 21st century, Stevenson said that when organizations attempt to “speed it up” by tracking emails or whatever other metric, people notice.

“If you’re the sort of organization that will take this data to speed up the assembly line, you’ll get pushback,” he said. “If you’re on the sort that will use this data to make the product on the assembly line better then you won’t get push back.”

Further, he added, sometimes it’s legitimate to speed up the assembly line and look for higher productivity. What’s key here is how an organization shares the benefit of increased productivity. If it speeds up productivity and shares the profits with employees, those employees may very well be satisfied. But if profits mostly go somewhere else, like to shareholders or executives, then there will be less of a positive reaction, he said.

April 8, 2020June 29, 2023

Remote workers aren’t lazy. They’re humans responding to a crisis

If remote employees aren’t living up to productivity expectations right now, employers shouldn’t immediately jump to “slacking off” as the reason.

Not only is this skewed worldview insulting to employees, but this degree of virtual micromanagement is insensitive to remote workers during the coronavirus pandemic.

Also read: Remote Work is About Trust, Not Rules

In fact, studies show that employees are usually more productive at home than in the office. One survey of 1,004 full-time employees across the United States found that on average, remote employees worked 1.4 more days every month, or 16.8 more days every year, than those who worked in an office setting. Nicholas Bloom, an economics professor at Stanford University, found similar results in his two-year study about working from home. Remote working made employees more productive and less likely to quit, according to his study.

Yet there are some paranoid managers who envision their remote workers lying on the couch, shirking work and watching trashy daytime TV. This isn’t the reality for most workers in normal times, let alone during a pandemic.

Remote workers aren’t on vacation right now. They’re dealing with the very real consequences of a deadly global outbreak. Most people are quarantining at home (if their job allows), avoiding people as much as they can, staying as safe as possible at the grocery store and home-schooling their children on top of their work and home responsibilities.

Meanwhile, as more companies turn to layoffs and furloughs, even employed people have financial worries. What happens if they lose their job and employer-provided health insurance? What about workers who live paycheck to paycheck and worry about affording rent and food if they get laid off? The vast majority of employees won’t use working from home as an excuse to do less. Instead they’ll do what they can to stay relevant to their employer and not lose their job and their health care.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought further responsibilities to many employee populations, like caregivers of children or sick family members. These people don’t have more freedom and free time due to their work-from-home status. According to a survey of 4,293 working parents that was conducted from March 28 through March 30, only 46.23 percent of men and 25.14 percent of women responded that they are able to juggle work and watching children. Even considering this “unequal divide of household labor” and how mothers are impacted most, most fathers are struggling, as well.

Meanwhile, even if someone doesn’t take care of a child or sick family member, they still need to care for themselves. Maintaining one’s mental health is important during a pandemic, whether you simply feel more stressed than usual or have a mental illness that requires treatment and attention.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people who may respond more strongly to the stress of the COVID-19 crisis include those who are especially vulnerable to the virus (older people and those with chronic diseases), children and teens, people with mental health or substance abuse issues and caregivers and health care providers who are helping others deal with health issues.

Months before COVID-19 spread to its first victim, I wrote a story for Workforce about presenteeism, and recently on LinkedIn Jude Smith Rachele, co-founder and CEO at management consulting company Abundant Sun Ltd, commented on the story. She made an astute observation concerning COVID-19 and presenteeism.

“[It] seems the world has gone bonkers about sick leave and time off from work. I’m hoping despite what we are facing that many people STILL have paid vacation leave due to them. This work at home thing — and this even more ever-present ‘digital presenteeism at work’ — may make us forget that we can take time off even if we or those around us are not ill. Remember? We are supposed to take holidays [and] vacations to refresh,” she wrote.

This is a great comment, and not something I’ve seen a lot from employers. I understand that businesses as well as individuals are suffering right now. I’m not suggesting that companies should shift all focus from operations to comforting employees. But there needs to be a balance.

Rather than expecting employees to be 100 percent productive all the time and expecting them to not take any time off unless it’s for the “right reasons,” employers also need to show sympathy to their workforces right now. People aren’t robots. They respond to the world around them. What we’re going through now with COVID-19 is anxiety-provoking at best and life-destroying at worst.

Several months ago I interviewed Morgan Young, vice president of client services, employee benefits at Holmes Murphy, and what she said about productivity expectations is especially relevant now.

“You can acknowledge that fact that people are going to have struggles in their life and nobody is going to be at peak performance 100 percent of the time, and that’s OK. Employers can have a healthy conversation about that and know that, ‘If I can get [employees] through the valleys they have and back to their peak, we’re doing great,’ ” she said.

February 28, 2020June 29, 2023

Mental health in low-wage workers

employers mental health; Millennials and mental health

Mental illness impacts people from every demographic — be it age group, race, job type, socioeconomic group or gender. Still, despite these similarities, low-wage workers face unique challenges to addressing their mental health concerns.

The Midwest Business Group on Health held a one-day conference on mental health access and stigma in the workplace last week, and one theme that came up in a few presentations was addressing mental health in low-wage workers.

Also read: Mental illness cuts across the workplace hierarchy

Bruce Sherman — chief medical officer at the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions, longtime researcher of health issues, and medical director, population health management at Conduent HR Services — did a presentation called “Do wages buy happiness?” He confirmed that, yes, wages are important in the sense that in the past 15 to 20 years, low-wage workers have gotten the smallest pay increases in relation to their income and high-wage workers have gotten the largest pay increases in relation to their income.

Needless to say, wages do matter.

The conversation goes past that, though. Sherman is currently working on a research project on this topic whose results are not public yet, but he also provided a high level overview of some the issues low-wage workers may face with mental health care and access.

Worsening income inequality is one reason these workers may face trouble. Another major reason is productivity demands, Sherman said.

Rising productivity expectations is not a surprise to me. Research for a few recent stories have led me to data points or findings that support this. For example, according to the 2018 European Agency for Safety and Health at Work report, “Managing Performance Enhancing Drugs in the Workplace: An Occupational Safety and Health Perspective,” workers in low-paid jobs that are not protected under standard labor laws may feel increased pressure to hit certain productivity levels, especially since they are increasingly being monitored by their employers. Not wanting to lose a job they rely on, they may turn to smart drugs. “Electronic means of monitoring employees are likely to be accompanied by an increase in the stresses on workers,” the article noted.

Also read: The workplace is not immune to the impact of social determinants of health

Sherman also informed the audience at MBGH’s event that the perception of mental health stigma may vary by socioeconomic status. There are two types of stigma — public stigma refers to discrimination or stereotyping from other people and private stigma refers to people internalizing stigma in a way that eats away at their self-worth. Low-wage workers often have a greater sense of personal stigma with behavioral health disorders, Sherman said.

This type of personal barrier also exists among cost issues and broader, structural barriers, like the lack of available psychiatrists in their insurance network or the the lack of nearby mental health care based on where they live.

Sherman suggested a few types of ways employers can address these issues. Through benefits design, they can consider eliminating mental health copays for employees so they can access behavioral health services. Ocean Spray is an example of a company who has done this, as of July 2019.

In an article Workforce published last March, Sherman gave more suggestions for changes in benefits design to address mental health in low-wage workers:

“Some employers offer hourly employees a half day every year specifically to see their doctor for preventive care services, he said. Other employers offer paid sick leave to all employees, including hourly workers. And other employers have ditched ‘just-in-time’ scheduling practices and opted for fixed work hours for all employees — a perk for hourly employees since variable scheduling limits predictable income for employees living paycheck to paycheck.”

Organizations can also leverage community social services that employees could take advantage of, Sherman said. Further, they can consider what workplace contributors may add to behavioral health problems and address those workplace issues.

Also read: Business group releases employer guide for managing diabetes in low-wage employees

One final suggestion to address mental health in low-wage workers relates to mental health stigma, and I found it rather interesting. Diversity programs could include information that addresses the negative stereotypes associated with mental health problems. I don’t know of any diversity programs doing this, but I’d be interested in hearing from anyone who is involved with a program like that!

Final takeaways from the MBGH conference:

1. Jeremy Nobel — the founder of The Unlonely Project who currently serves on the faculty of the Harvard Medical School in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine — spoke about the negative impact of loneliness on people. He mentioned that LGBTQ+ employees, minorities and people with major illnesses or disabilities are especially susceptible to isolation, and mentioned some activities to help them feel connected.

This was interesting and valuable in its own way, but what I found was missing from his presentation was what external factors might make some of these groups of people feel isolated at work. These are groups of people that are likely to be discriminated against in the workplace compared to straight people, white people or people without disabilities. If your organization is pushing for these deeper connections between people but not addressing the reality that even casual discrimatation or harassment will stifle these connections, can it really address this issue?

2. What’s the actual definition of a crisis? Any time I attend a health-related conference, most every public health issue is deemed a crisis. While I understand some of this mentality, I also wonder how we as individuals, governments or organizations are supposed to pay attention to so many health crises at the same time and give them all the proper attention.

3. I wrote a little about generational stereotypes about mental health last week. My overall argument was that both older and younger employees have health issues, and only paying attention to how millennials or Generation Z “can’t handle stress” or whatever can be infantilizing. Also, it leaves older people out of a very important discussion about finally getting help for mental health issues.

I want to add one more thought. Business/health conferences tend to have an older crowd. That makes sense; they’re professionals who have a deep history in the industry. But where’s the voice of these “young people” who apparently have so many more mental health issues than generations before them?

What I think would be interesting is if there was a way for teenagers or young 20-somethings to share their perspective on the mental health of their generation versus older ones. It could be an opportunity for people in different generations to share their stories. For every “Kids these days get all their self-esteem from social media and that destroys their mental health!” from a 40-something parent, maybe a 16-year-old could clarify how common or uncommon that actually is. It could be an opportunity to address certain generational stereotypes head-on.

October 4, 2019June 29, 2023

By the Numbers: Mental Health in the Workplace

Mental illness is an obstacle that impacts many individuals, communities and places of work. The Human Capital Media research department gathered national and international data to explore how prevalent mental illness is, how often people get help and how much mental illness impacts the global economy.

Also in By the Numbers: Diversity in the Workplace