Public Sector Productivity

Productivity levels across public services of government are lagging behind the private sector, with many government departments and agencies struggling to connect their people with their core purpose.

Since the pandemic, the private sector has seen a 1.3% uplift in productivity, but public services are currently 5.7% less productive. There is increasing pressure to deliver immediate turnarounds in productivity – but such pressure doesn’t always lead to sustained operational improvements. Government departments will face tight funding settlements for the foreseeable future, against rising demand for public services.

There is a lot of noise about the productivity challenge, and there is a very real risk that overfocus on getting more cases out of the door doesn’t address the fundamental challenges with delivery of public services.

At Baringa, we help our clients think more broadly about how to achieve more productive public services. Our government clients have unlocked sustained productivity improvements when we have worked together on what it truly means to be efficient and effective, starting with connecting people to purpose.

Watch video: How do we address the public sector 'productivity' challenge?

Transcript

Matt Jones, Baringa
The UK economy is in a productivity crisis. According to the latest data, the output from the average hour worked is lower than peer nation such as France, Germany and the U.S. And despite many government efforts to drive reform, the issue is even more acute in the public sector, where output is 5.7% lower than it was before COVID hit.

The productivity challenge is not going away. Government departments will face tight funding settlements for the foreseeable future against rising demand for public services. Delivering efficiencies through service modernisation will continue to be a core focus for upcoming spending reviews.

Rhiannon Evans, Baringa
So, what can government do to recover the productivity gap? Where are the greatest opportunities to improve public sector efficiency? And what does best practice delivery look like for public services?

Shreeya Parulekar, Baringa
There's a lot of noise about the productivity challenge, and there's a very real risk that overfocus on getting more cases out the door doesn't address fundamental challenges with delivery of public services. There's also a risk that efficiency is seen as synonymous with headcount reduction to the detriment of true public sector reform.

Theo Whitaker, Baringa
In Baringa’s work with the public sector, we support our clients to cut through the noise and focus on tackling areas of greatest impact. Here are three things we have seen that make a material difference to public sector productivity.

Shreeya Parulekar, Baringa
Focus on outcomes. The public sector should define and measure success by the impact on citizens and society, not just by the number of outputs produced. For central government departments, this means a much stronger link between the outcome delivery plans and operational teams working across each layer of the organisation.

Rhiannon Evans, Baringa
Unlock the power of people. Recognise that public servants are the most valuable asset. Empower them to make decisions, take risks, learn from mistakes, and share ideas. This will boost morale, motivation and performance. This is particularly pressing for government departments where technology portfolios are already full. Whilst programs focusing on people capability are rare, there is massive untapped potential.

Theo Whitaker, Baringa
Bring digital, data and technology close to operations, create multi functional teams to collaborate and co-create solutions to modernise service delivery, be that streamlining processes, automating tasks or enhancing insight. In doing so, operational teams are upskilled in the use of digital tools and data effectively.

Matt Jones, Baringa
At Baringa, we recognise that productivity in the public sector is a complex and multifaceted issue that requires careful analysis and creative solutions. We see first hand every day the challenges that public services face, as well as the exciting and innovative ways in which they're becoming more efficient.

Rhiannon Evans, Baringa
Over the next six months, we'll be sharing our insights and examples of where we have helped our clients in the public sector to improve productivity.

If you enjoyed this video, please give it a thumbs up. Leave a comment below and share it with your colleagues. Thank you for watching and see you next time

Technology Driven Productivity Insights

Three people seen from above working on their desks

What will increasing automation mean for civil service leaders of the future?

Matt Jones and his guests explore automation in Government, what automation means for the people who work on operating our public services, and the risks of bringing AI into organisations.

Five AI pitfalls that governments must avoid to unlock productivity benefits

Discover the five key mistakes organisations make when using AI – and how Government Departments can avoid them.

Customer support agent working in a call centre

Using AI to save hundreds of hours capacity per week for a customer services organisation

How do you improve productivity through purpose-led digital investment? Discover the four steps that enabled our client to find a resolution through purpose-led investment in AI.

How can public services translate the £4.7bn tech investment spent each year into productivity gains?

Making good use of technology is vital to the future of public service delivery. For government to meet these challenges, well-managed deliberate investment in technology is needed.

Group of people having a business meeting

Boosting productivity in UK public service digital transformations

Public service organisations should focus on delivering more strategic outcomes with less transformation budget by embracing three key shifts

How government can empower its people to help drive productivity

Jody Coleman, Sam Thornton and Lucy McKenzie share how Baringa’s Team-by-Team approach can support Government departments and agencies to become more productive by focusing on their people and making sure they feel empowered to deliver on key outcomes that will drive their organisational purpose.

From engagement to improvement: how empowering civil servants leads to better outcomes

Taking a people-led change approach, focusing first on fostering a positive team culture and boosting employee morale, drives significant improvements.

How to create inspiring leaders in government

Discover the three key ways Baringa’s leadership programme is critical to tackling backlogs, increasing case management throughput, and boosting employee satisfaction.

People power: how government can be more productive by empowering its people

Baringa’s Team-by-Team (TbT) approach helps Government departments and agencies to become more productive by focusing on their people and making sure they feel empowered to deliver on key outcomes.

Group of health care professionals in a meeting

A productive conversation about productivity – what’s next for the NHS?

Discover what could be done to address the NHS productivity puzzle.

Young woman and male colleague writing ideas on adhesive notes

Departments must not obsess over ‘input measures’ when developing productivity plans – especially when it comes to tracking time

Government organisations need to be mindful of the cost they are creating around input measures.

Why having a purpose is crucial to deliver services across government and the public sector

Our experts, Bernice McNaught, Partner, expert in Transformation Design and Delivery, and Robyn Turl, expert in Government and Public Sector, discuss their insights on how starting with purpose, and measuring what matters, are critical first steps to driving organisational performance across public services.

Tackling the NHS productivity puzzle

Whilst there has been an increase in funding, and in workforce size, hospital activity and productivity has not increased proportionately. How can we tackle the productivity challenge?

Rethinking failure demand in UK Public Services

Public services in the UK are facing higher-than-ever levels of demand, but are failing to deal adequately with customers' requests the first time.

Improving how we understand and address productivity

In this video, Theo Whitaker, expert in Government and Public Sector, explains the background of public sector productivity. He discusses the definitions of productivity, its impacts on GDP, and recent attempts by the Government to turn this around.

People looking at a board during a meeting

Leading with purpose: How the public sector can deliver better outcomes for society

Discover the three levers to implementing purpose led performance in the public sector.

How government can harness data to drive a purpose-led performance culture

The key steps that Government can take to embrace the use of data to improve delivery against its purpose

Solving the public sector productivity puzzle

Government departments are facing tight funding settlements – regardless of who forms the next government. This means driving productivity improvements will continue to be a core focus. The first step is fixing the flaws in how productivity is understood and measured.

How far will the Chancellor’s productivity programme go towards unlocking a more effective public sector?

Details of the latest government productivity programme have been revealed – but now comes the hard work of implementation for departments and agencies. Lessons must be learnt from previous efficiency drives.

Supporting the Land Registry to manage change and up productivity by 12% in the UK

We co-designed a program to create an average 12% uplift in productivity, equivalent to savings of £20 million.

Matt Jones

Partner, expert in Government and Public Sector

Contact Matt

Rhiannon Evans

Expert in Government

Contact Rhiannon

Are digital and AI delivering what your business needs?

Digital and AI can solve your toughest challenges and elevate your business performance. But success isn’t always straightforward. Where can you unlock opportunity? And what does it take to set the foundation for lasting success?

Find out more

Previous Insights

Featured

Four steps to prepare for CSRD and the niche challenges for wealth and asset managers

Featured

Sustainable procurement: unlocking the power of your suppliers

Featured

The rise of the COO podcast

Public Sector Productivity

Watch video: How do we address the public sector 'productivity' challenge?

Technology Driven Productivity Insights

People Led Change Insights

Purpose Led Performance Insights

Our Impact

Our Experts