The Wales Productivity Forum has launched a new Productivity Toolkit aimed at helping small and medium-sized businesses better understand, measure and track productivity, and identify opportunities for improvement.
The toolkit sets out a definition of productivity and explains why it matters for businesses of all sizes and sectors. It states that productivity growth is key to generating profit by enabling firms to create more from the same resources, which can allow them to reduce prices, gain market share, invest in the future, increase wages and retain greater profit.
It also sets productivity in a wider economic context, noting that if labour productivity in Wales matched the UK average, residents would be able to achieve the same results nearly one day faster. The toolkit encourages businesses to explore whether freeing up resources in this way is possible within their own operations.
At a practical level, the toolkit includes a calculator designed to help businesses measure labour productivity using three figures: annual turnover, the cost of non-labour inputs used in production, and the number of people employed. Businesses are also directed to an Office for National Statistics interactive tool to benchmark their performance against others in their industry, helping them understand how they compare with peers and how far they may be from the most productive firms in their sector.
The toolkit also encourages businesses to track productivity over time, allowing them to assess the impact of changes they make. A short productivity health check invites businesses to score a series of statements on a ten-point scale, prompting reflection on areas of strength and where barriers to productivity growth may exist. Firms are encouraged to revisit this regularly and to take proactive steps to address issues identified.
Speaking on the Unlocking Wales' Productivity Potential podcast episode Unlocking Hidden Business Productivity Potential, businesses that have already used the toolkit said it helped them step back from day-to-day operations and think more clearly about how productivity shows up in their organisations.
Jane Wallace-Jones, CEO of Something Different Wholesale, said the toolkit prompted reflection and helped spark ideas about where small improvements could be made within a fast-moving business.
Jane described how her business measures productivity across different departments, with a particular focus on warehouse operations, customer service and staff engagement. She also highlighted how small operational changes can save time across a workforce, using an example from her own warehouse where repositioning equipment reduced unnecessary movement and delivered time savings over the year.
For Barcud Shared Services, which provides internal audit and procurement shared services primarily to the social housing sector in Wales, the toolkit was used as a starting point to assess where productivity improvements could be made.
Group Operations Director Tom Wilkinson said productivity in the organisation is closely linked to staff performance, wellbeing and service quality. He said the toolkit provided a way to sense-check where the organisation stood and to support decisions about reinvestment, particularly in people and training.
Tom also outlined how Barcud measures productivity through outputs such as audit reports delivered, procurements completed and savings generated for clients, alongside indicators such as sickness absence. He described how changes introduced within the organisation, including the adoption of a four-day working week, have increased productivity while maintaining quality and improving staff retention.
Find the Wales Productivity Forum’s business toolkit here: https://www.productivity.ac.uk/regions-nations/wales-regional-forum/toolkit/
