Improving Individual Productivity and Future Considerations

Now you have a better understanding of individual productivity and its importance. Let's see how measuring, analyzing, and improving individual productivity benefits individuals and organizations.

Benefits of Measuring, Analyzing, and Improving Individual Productivity: Individual and Organization Levels

• Monitor and provide feedback: Tools and platforms that support individual productivity can provide ongoing feedback on individual performance. These data can be helpful for individuals to see their productivity trends and make changes accordingly.
• Diagnose problems: Feedback from productivity tools can be helpful in diagnosing problems. Organizations need to diagnose problems so that they can come up with new productivity strategies, rewards, and policies, as well as make decisions about which current productivity strategies should be expanded or phased out. At the individual level, feedback on and measurements of one's own productivity can be helpful in identifying root problems hindering individual productivity.
• Increase profitability and lower costs: At the organization level, higher measures of and sustained individual productivity across the organization can reduce waste; result in a leaner operation and higher workforce effectiveness; and save time, money, and resources. This can lead to profitability in the long run and reduce operational costs because of the overall higher output from employees.
• Reduce stress and enhance well-being: Improved individual productivity can help employees manage their workloads, meet deadlines in a timely manner, and assert more control. This can help employees to reduce stress, maintain work-life balance, and reduce feelings of burnout. Measures and analysis of individual productivity can help keep employees accountable and working on their daily goals, which can also help to streamline workflow.
• Improve workforce effectiveness: Individual productivity is interlinked with and contributes to organizational productivity and workforce effectiveness (Goodman et al., 1994).

Future Considerations for Individual Productivity

The future of work is being shaped by two powerful forces: The COVID-19 pandemic, which has accelerated the digital transformation of work and the growing adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) in the workplace, which may endanger a considerable number of human jobs. How has work changed during the global pandemic, and what will it look like in the future?

COVID-19 pandemic and remote working:

Dhaliwal and Forbes Technology Council (2020) pointed out that "the pandemic is having a significant impact on how we collaborate, where we work, and the employer-employee relationship with respect to remote job performance" (para. 1). Companies are being forced to become more agile and adapt to remote working. Moreover, productivity data on remote teams might have exceeded expectations altogether. According to McKinsey, 80% of people enjoy work from home. Also, 41% feel more productive than before, and 28% are as productive (Dhaliwal & Forbes Technology Council, 2020).

AI and the future of work

With the advent of AI and automation, more and more job profiles within organizations run the risk of being replaced by AI and other types of technology. A Forbes article reports, for instance, that over 40% of blue-collar and white-collar jobs will be replaced by AI in the next 25–30 years (Koetsier, 2019). Therefore, although the advanced technologies will enable organizations to generate more productivity and lead to the nation’s economic growth, it is worth noting that these technological changes will risk human jobs, transform the nature of jobs, and alter the dynamics of relations between future employees and their employers.

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