Poor productivity costs UK economy £340bn a year

The lack of motivation and productivity among UK employees is costing £340bn every year, according to research.

Only 15% of UK workers consider themselves to be ‘highly motivated’ and a quarter (24%) admit to just ‘coasting’ at work, according to the What’s My Motivation survey by the Hay Group consultancy.

Just one in five (21%) of the 500 UK employees surveyed thought they were ‘very effective’ in their current job role and less than half (48%) rated themselves as ambitious.

Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance

Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday

Email(Required)

OptOut

From time to time, we will send you emails about selected products, events and services from Personnel Today and OHW+ - but you can choose to opt-out at any time. If you do not wish to receive these emails, please tick this box.

Comments

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Δ

Emmanuel Gobillot, director of leadership services at Hay and author of the report, said: “Companies are failing to engage their employees – and paying a heavy price in terms of productivity. British business leaders must focus on gaining the buy-in of workers if the UK is to be competitive in an increasingly global economy.”

Some 45% of respondents said they would be more productive if they were doing a job they loved and 28% said they could be more productive with better training and management.