Increased productivity has been a constant goal for modern economies ever since the early days of the Industrial Revolution. Up to the late 20th century, however, increasing employee productivity either involved technological innovation (going from the steam engine to electricity, moving from the telegraph to the telephone, inventing more efficient materials, etc.) or, more often than not, plainly working harder.
These days, on the other hand, well into the era of the Knowledge Economy, increased productivity mostly means working smarter.
You see, while still important, it’s not the machines or industrial processes that produce the most value in the present economy, but people.
Lots of companies could buy the same datacenters as Google, for example (it would “only” need an investment of few billion dollars, the kind that goes on all the time). But without the smart people operating them, designing new algorithms, building new business models, and creating a slew of IP in the process, those machines will be worse than useless.
Tags: Best Practices • elearning • Employee Productivity • Online training