Growth is a top priority for CEOs today, and as traditional avenues for driving growth, like market consolidation, outsourcing and cheap financing dry up, CEOs are looking to employee productivity to fuel success in 2025 and beyond.

Discussions about productivity are seemingly everywhere and often with conflicting notions about whether employee productivity is actually increasing or decreasing. While there may not be agreement on the direction of productivity, most can agree that productivity is difficult for employers to define, measure and influence.

Gartner determined, through extensive surveys and interviews, that the two critical elements of employee productivity are efficiency and value creation. Efficiency is whether employees are doing quality work consistently and on time, and value creation refers to employees devoting time and skills to work that is results-oriented and focused on organizational priorities. When employees are productive in this way, their organizations are 3.1 times more likely to see an increase in revenue and 3.6 times more likely to see an increase in profitability.

In order to realize these benefits, here is what CEOs need to understand about employee productivity:

HR involvement in Strategy Boosts Employee Productivity

Employees, managers and business leaders view productivity in different and sometimes contradictory ways. It’s HR’s job to bring everyone together.

Unfortunately, many HR leaders don’t see productivity as their job, and 1 in 2 HR leaders say HR is not always included in making decisions that impact employee productivity. However, a 2024 Gartner survey of nearly 2,000 managers of knowledge workers found that with direct HR involvement, employees are up to 11% more productive.

In order to drive productivity, HR needs to be an active partner in shaping productivity initiatives by:

• Including productivity in HR strategy to secure their seat at the table
• Identifying collaboration opportunities for cross-functional productivity initiatives
• Articulating the talent tradeoffs of productivity initiatives to the C-Suite
• Championing employee needs in productivity strategy

AI Usage Does Not Guarantee Productivity

While there is widespread adoption of AI – 84% of HR leaders say their organization is using or piloting GenAI tools – productivity gains remain elusive. A December 2024 survey of more than 3,400 knowledge workers found that just 8% of employees are fully capturing productivity gains by using GenAI.

To realize the intended benefits of GenAI, HR must ensure employees not only have awareness of the tools available to them, but access to learning and development opportunities to effectively adopt and use the tools consistently.

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