If you have seen coverage of the Budget speech, you will know the Chancellor is very concerned about productivity. The problem is, when it comes to turning resources and labour into wealth – delivering better goods and services at lower cost – many businesses in the UK are falling behind their international competitors.

It is well understood that the key to business productivity is employee value-add: how focused and effective managers and staff are.  At a practical level, they need the right skills, but above all we need people who bring real enthusiasm and energy to their work.

So the real question is, how can we achieve these higher levels of motivation?

Achieving productivity and motivation

This is a complex subject but to take just one facet, it requires people to have a crystal-clear sense of purpose and a belief in their employer and its work. The primary responsibility rests with each of us to know what would give purpose and meaning to our lives, so that we can find and totally commit to the right organisation, delivering true satisfaction for us and major benefits for the employer.

There is a school of thought that dismisses this as woolly or utopian thinking; all we need is to knuckle down and work hard. But in an economy so dependent on innovation and service, that kind of one-dimensional thinking inhibits companies and prevents us from making progress as quickly as we could.

Finding purpose in your career

Truly, deeply and effectively thinking about purpose and meaning is very difficult. It requires introspection, open-mindedness and personal honesty. To achieve these often means we need stimuli: someone asking questions and prompting us. We cannot know all of the jobs, industries and companies that exist, but we can learn how to apply our new perspectives to finding something that will meet our standards.

At Work Horizons we ask questions, prompt ideas and give you tools to be successful but it requires thought and commitment to get there. Find your purpose, be the person to which you aspire and be the employee for whom organisations will fight.

If you would like to explore this subject further, we recommend “Start with Why” by Simon Sinek or preview the members section at Work Horizons.