What drives productivity in your workplace? The CMI community reacts

For close to 20 years, the UK has faced a stark productivity gap. Output growth has stagnated since the 2008 financial crisis, leaving British workers producing significantly less per hour than those in major G7 economies like the US. For leaders on the ground, this shortfall presents a day-to-day challenge. 

We were keen to see what the current picture looks like to them, so we asked the CMI community on LinkedIn what they felt drives productivity in today’s workplace.

What really drives productivity in today’s workplace?

Source: CMI LinkedIn poll, 1,087 votes

Almost three-quarters of the responses suggested the biggest shapers of productivity lie directly within the purview of managers and leaders: 39% cited team culture, while 37% said productivity was mainly down to good management. 

As Tim Cox fCMgr MCMI wrote in the comments, “Good managers build a good team culture, so the two go hand in hand.” Or, as Kirsty Mills CMgr MCMI put it: “If you have one of those, you tend to get the other, and then everything else falls into place.”

Holistic and flexible

The key role of managers and leaders here is no surprise to us. In 2024, we released a report into the UK’s stalling productivity and concluded that, in order to improve productivity, the country needs to address its management gap by investing in developing its talent.

Our LinkedIn poll sparked an insightful conversation between Karl Johnson and Michael K H about the nature of good management. Karl pointed out that a single manager alone can be great but that “the whole management system working together with the managers is the key”. Michael agreed, adding that “a great manager looks average in a poor management system among other managers, yet has so much more respect from his team”. 

Meanwhile, Nihal Kamal Negem fCMgr used his comment to zoom in further, adding that the key leadership skill for driving productivity is transparency, because it enables managers to adapt to all kinds of people and environments and build the flexibility required for productivity.