The UK is successful in many areas – it has a large, successful renewable energy sector, a whopping great financial services sector and a large tech startup sector. Yet UK productivity does not reflect these advantages.
Skills seem to hold back UK industry – many firms are finding it impossible to recruit the skilled or experienced workers they need.
This ends in a bidding war for the available talent – and this reduces productivity by putting up costs.
Traditionally, if labour is expensive or scarce – or both – firms have used technology to fill the gaps.
This might be what they have to do now – to meet the current skills shortage.
They should investigate where technology solutions can transform processes .and where it can help improve the information flows that will enable the executive team to better manage those processes.
All of that will only work, however, if the firms have the necessary skills and expertise to manage the resulting transformation projects. Technology can unlock growth and improve productivity. But it can place a noose around the neck of the organisation if technology solutions are badly designed or poorly implemented.