The interdisciplinary Centre for Productivity and Workplace Performance, hosted by Kent Business School, is a joint initiative of it two co-creators; Catherine Robinson from Kent Business School and Christian Siegel from the Kent School of Economics.
This group aims to contribute to the current debate around productivity, both in terms of macro and micro economic perspectives, from explaining and addressing regional inequalities to establishing models of co-operation in firms of all sizes to increase their output per-hour per-worker.
Productivity sits at the heart of current economic policy. As a source of economic growth, it enables nations to improve their living standards over time. Productivity growth allows for the creation of sustainable growth without necessarily exploiting more resources, either natural or human. For firms, improvements in productivity translate into more efficient business practices, market-share growth and improvements in earnings for shareholders as well as workers. Productivity growth is the desired outcome of international engagements, investments in innovation and skills development.
At its simplest, productivity is measured as output per worker or per hour worked. Labour productivity is a benchmark used to compare performance over time, across sectors and between firms. A more holistic measure is total factor productivity (TFP) which captures efficiency improvements that are neutral of the mix of capital and labour inputs. Better productivity enables any organisation – from countries and multinational firms to city councils and SME’s – to do more with less.
Productivity isn’t everything but in the long run it’s almost everything ~ Krugman
