The World's Most Productive Countries

What does Luxembourg know that the rest of us don’t? Lisa Smyth finds out what CEOs can learn about productivity from the countries doing it best.

- Lisa Smyth

Self-made billionaire and Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson once said “Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients.” This citation has launched hundreds of internet memes and inspirational coffee mugs. But, research released last year on the world’s most productive countries suggests CEOs around the world really need to heed Branson’s advice.

In 2017, the research team at Expert Market looked at the top 35 countries by GDP as designated by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, and then determined productivity levels by dividing GDP per capita by the number of hours worked in a nation.

Luxembourg topped the list for the second year by an incredibly large margin, with the average employee working 29 hours a week and their productivity per hour coming in at £51.80. Workers in the second country on the list, Norway, were productive to the tune of £39.72 per hour, and averaging just 27 hours a week.

Other northern European countries with lower than average working hours rounded out the top 10, along with Australia (32 hours a week) and the US (which according to this study, averages 34 hours a week, though other studies have reported it is as high as 47 hours).

“Productivity is a really hot topic at the moment – it is the backbone of an economy. We wanted to focus on productivity at the individual level,” explains Sophia Patsikas, Research Executive at Expert Market. “Different cultural attitudes to working really come into play. The northern European countries have always pioneered the way forward in work–life balance.”

STRIKING AN INCLUSIVE BALANCE