UK productivity gap reaches an all-time high

The difference in the level of productivity between the UK and the other G7 countries is the biggest it’s been since comparable estimates began in 1991, the latest figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) have been able to reveal.

The data suggests that the UK is lagging behind all but Japan in both productivity per hour and output per worker. In fact, for output per worker, the UK was above Japan by 12 percentage points, below Canada and Germany by 5 and 9 percentage points respectively, and below Italy and France by 14 and 16 percentage points respectively.

In terms of output per hour, the UK’s productivity gap of around 18 per cent compares with a gap of about 7 per cent for the rest of the G7.

Mark Beatson, chief economist at the CIPD, said: “The fact that we have been lagging behind is a very long term problem and we have been trailing some of these countries for decades. We are roughly back to where we were 25 years ago and a lot of the hard work has been undone.”

Tensor Time and Attendance System can help improve workforce productivity

Making sure that employees are at peak productivity levels at all times is very important for line managers, who should consider using a solid and reliable time and attendance system designed to offer a clear overview of all holiday bookings and approve (or disallow) them accordingly.

That’s exactly the case with Tensor’s WinTA.NET system, which supports extensive Absence Planning and Entitlement Management. The built-in graphical calendar charts provide a colourful way of viewing an individual’s or a department’s absence records, and each employee can be allocated different entitlements for absence such as annual leave or allowed sickness.

As absence is booked and taken, the remainder available for each entitlement is updated. Entitlement formulae are used to calculate more complex entitlements calculated on a rising scale based upon length of service.

WinTA.NET provides this information through warning email notifications or via hardcopy reports. The system quickly identifies missing employees that are expected to be at work and then informs you via automatic email reporting reports distributed by email.

If you’d like to find out more about the Tensor WinTA.NET system just contact us or Book a Demo, we’ll be more than happy to answer all of your questions and queries.