The solution to the productivity puzzle? Building employee resilience

UK productivity growth has stagnated since the 2008 financial crisis, and according to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics, output per hour worked was just 2.5 per cent above its pre-pandemic 2019 average in the third quarter of 2023. This means UK workers are consistently producing less per hour than those in the likes of Germany, US, and France. This is weighing on growth, both at macro and micro levels; GDP is stunted, and British companies cannot succeed while productivity remains in the doldrums.

Solving the puzzle

Many have tried to solve the ‘productivity puzzle’ - more investment in capital and skills,¹ and more business confidence² would surely help. But there is a hidden weapon in the C-suite and HR arsenal which goes untouched; employee resilience.

Research from professional services consultancy Barnett Waddingham identified a group of employees with traits of ‘high resilience’, and compared their outputs and approaches to work with ‘less resilient’ counterparts in the same survey. It found that 65% of resilient individuals were productive more than 60% of the time, compared to just 36% of employees who lacked resilience.

These resilient employees were also three times as likely to ask others for help when struggling, three times more likely to engage in problem solving, and much more likely to get enough sleep and exercise. Just 1% of resilient employees said they had no coping mechanisms - which skyrocketed to 57% of less resilient colleagues.

Those that exhibited low resilience were also less likely to have a support network outside of work for mental health support. Just 44% of those with low resilience didn’t have access to a family or social network for support, significantly contrasting with those with high resilience of whom 81% had these networks. In this respect, businesses will need to consider that many employees see their employer as that source of trust, support and stability when it comes to maintaining their resilience.

So why isn’t resilience already top of the agenda?

Why is resilience overlooked?

No game of boardroom bingo would be complete without the word resilience - but it means far too many things to too many people. C-suites are often focused on business resilience, without considering the day-to-day resilience of their employees. Or resilience is linked solely to mental health, and solved with short-term fixes like wellbeing initiatives. In reality, it is a much richer problem than that.

Contrastingly, for HR directors, the biggest issue is that resilience is difficult to both measure and improve - so it gets ignored. The Barnett Waddingham set used multiple metrics to build a picture of resilience, which is above and beyond the capabilities of any businesses without a comprehensive data strategy. That’s most businesses; fewer than 50% are tracking job satisfaction, workload levels, or absentee levels according to C-Suite research by Barnett Waddingham in 2023.

Finally, for employees, resilience means nothing - or worse, it means employers want them to be able to put up with more without complaining. The routes to improving resilience feel like sticking plasters when they need to be systemic. UK workers have much higher expectations of their employers than they used to. Location, value and purpose, diversity, environmental considerations, later in life support - these are all just a few factors employees want out of their work - and all are options in the resilience toolkit.

What should C-suites do?

The lessons of business resilience - planning a long-term sustainable strategy of growth and profit - can be transferred to personal resilience too. Employees are looking for confidence that their employer will support them in their personal growth in the long run. That includes work-life balance, training and education, excellent management, as well of course as a strong remuneration package across salary and pension.

These metrics for success need to be directly and uniquely tailored to the needs of the business and its staff. No two businesses are the same, and that difference is captured in its data - if done right, data can reveal the DNA of a business, and uncover all manner of illness and health. It’s also vital businesses aren’t narrow-minded in the collection of this data to avoid stereotypical assumptions of their workforce. While it can be suggested that a set of men in their 30s in Liverpool will have very different needs to a set of women in their 50s in Cheshire; these are very basic assumptions, and don’t take into account wider, more unique circumstances associated with these employees.

It is only by truly understanding and then meeting people’s needs that a resilient workforce can be built, and in turn, improve productivity and profitability.