Many U.S. companies are struggling to measure employees' productivity in a modern business landscape shaped by the rise of remote work and artificial intelligence, Bloomberg reported Feb. 5.
Corporate leaders and economists are investing more time, energy and money to improve insights into workers' productivity. The task is easier said than done, as productivity historically has been difficult to measure, according to the report.
The federal government measures labor productivity by dividing output by hours. However, this calculation is prone to errors, according to Jason Furman, PhD, a professor at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., and former head of the White House Council of Economic Advisers.
"Productivity is perhaps the most volatile major economic statistic," he told Bloomberg. "It takes an error-prone numerator — output — and divides it by an even more error-prone denominator — hours."
The focus on productivity comes as company leaders probe the optimal blend of remote and in-person collaboration, along with how generative AI may improve their teams' productivity. Productivity may become an even more important measure as population growth in developed nations slows, limiting companies' ability to rely on an expanded workforce to support economic growth, according to Bloomberg.
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