Rethink... productivity

The UK government has made growth its key mission. But solving the British productivity puzzle is not a new priority - it’s been on the agenda for successive governments.

Getting productivity up is crucial to sustain higher living standards. The more productive we are, the better off we'll be.

But the UK has experienced significantly slower productivity growth than comparable countries since the global financial crisis in 2008 and by some measures, Britain has been going through its worst period for productivity growth since the Napoleonic Era.

Britain’s productivity lags that of many of our major trading partners, including France, Germany and the USA and that’s despite British workers spending longer in the office. According to the ONS, the French can work four days and achieve roughly as much as the British do in five.

What are the factors behind the UK’s chronically weak productivity growth, what are other countries doing better?

How can we increase Britain’s productivity?

Presenter: Ben Ansell Producer: Farhana Haider

Contributors:

Margaret Heffernan, Professor of Practice in Management at the University of Bath, writer and former CEO. Paul Johnson, Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies. Gareth Davies, Head of the National Audit Office. Leslie Perlow, Professor of organisational behaviour at the Harvard Business School and founder of the Crafting Your Life special project.

Rethink is a BBC co-production with the Open University