What does Productivity mean in 2024?

Amid the Return to Office trend and reports of a cooling jobs market, some employers talk of rebalancing the emphasis on wellbeing, adding an increased focus on productivity. But what does productivity mean as we near the mid-point in this second decade of the 21st century?

Bright Horizons clients say their focus is on workforce sustainability and future-proofing. So, among the best employers, productivity is not seen as a narrow focus on ‘getting more out of people, at all costs’ but rather ensuring that great people, with all their expensive training and valuable knowledge and networks, stay fit to keep working and are able to give of their best day-to-day.

We discusses our newly-released data from Bright Horizons’ client employee survey: the Work+Family Snapshot.

During this session we discussed:

- What we understand by productivity in our fast-changing world of work

- Strategic actions being taken by leading employers to support sustained high performance.

- Evidence that employers helping remove life’s everyday hurdles see better productivity, performance and wellbeing in their employees as well as higher employer approval.

Our panel:

James Marsh (Chair), Former HRreview Editor

Kellie Wade, Benefits & Wellbeing Manager – Europe at Sidley Austin LLP

Jennifer Liston-Smith, Head of Thought Leadership at Bright Horizons