Listen: What's the link between procurement and productivity?

Influential research has found that only one in two employees thinks their workplace helps them to be more productive, and argues that more effective workplaces could boost the economy by tens of billions of pounds. Yet too often the procurement of workplaces has a narrow focus on minimising cost, rather than creating the conditions for employees to thrive.

Whilst addressing this is important to the future success of the economy, there is a bigger picture for companies to consider. Improving the workplace experience is about more than just getting better outputs from employee inputs. It is also about remaining competitive in a changing world. Different attitudes to work and new ways of working mean that employers need new approaches to attracting, retaining and inspiring highly-skilled people. As such, improving the workplace experience should be part of any strategy to succeed in the so-called 'war for talent'.