BUSINESSES in Jersey believe that culture, leadership and digital tools - note just financial investment - are key to improving their productivity, a survey has revealed.
Almost half (45%) of respondents to Jersey Business' latest productivity survey say leadership and technology skills are the most common areas of investment, and culture 'remained the single biggest self-identified productivity driver' (22%)
Theses were among the key findings that Jersey Business chief executive Paul Murphy shared at the organisation's Productivity Pulse event earlier this month.
More than 200 firms across all sectors, sizes and stages of business completed the fourth edition of the survey, which Mr Murphy says provides 'clear and independent' data and insights into productivity in the island
He said the results showed that the local business community had 'strong engagement but some uneven progress'.
Four in five organisations survey say they focus on innovation and listen to their people, but only 17% have a formal productivity strategy in place.
Generally, businesses feel that process efficiency and harnessing technology are the top ways to improve productivity, but lack of resources (40%), time (26%) and competing priorities (29%) pose challenges.
My Murphy also revealed that this year's survey, in common with those of previous years, found that the 'average working day is still 24% unproductive' with 60% of businesses saying processes were not automated where they could be. A 'standout result', the chief executive said, was in AI adoption AT, up from 30% in last year's survey.
Jersey Business head of business support Jennie Smith also shared updates regarding the Better Business Grants initiative, which is nearing the end of its first round of funding. The grants form part of the Government of Jersey's £20 Better Business Support Package launched earlier this year.
Businesses have since been applying to receive a share of the £5.3m available in match-funded grants to invest in productivity, skills, apprenticeships and visitor economy. The same amount will be available next year under the second round of funding.
Mrs Smith said the latest data showed that businesses were privately investing £244 for every £100 of grants, which had 'gone up considerably' from £190, the figure that was shared in the Better Business Support Package Q1-2 2025 Delivery Report.
'What's really nice is that 62% of the applications we've seen have had a big portion of spending in the island, and the other 38% is usually because its something you cant get [in Jersey],' she revealed.
'We're not seeing quotes for tech companies based away from the Island; we're seeing them here. And [we're seeing quotes for] skills companies in the Island, where it's delivered locally.''
Hiring solutions providers 4hire appeared in a testimonial video played at the event, which detailed how the firm used its Better Business Grant to fund new portable traffic signals that were 'more sustainable and efficient'.
The average number of days between each battery exchange has risen from 4 to 14 days,' John Le Cappelain of 4hire said in the video
'We found an 88% reduction in total battery exchanges and from this, we conservatively estimate a 350 - kilowatt-hour reduction in energy consumption resulting purely from reduced numbers of battery charges, 150 miles of road travel saved, equating to over 30kg of CO2 emissions saved and 30 man hours saved; specifically high-risk manual handling man hours'.
My Murphy said 'When we look around [the Better Business Grant initiative], it's got a real circular benefit - there's input in the funds, there's buying and investment that starts to be stimulated... which brings benefits for those suppliers as well'
He said that, over time, he hoped the grants would allow people to 'think about what investment has done for business' and would do the same next year and longer term.
'My remaining hope is that 2025 sees the same uptake and we all lean in to make sure we can share stories - as 4hire and others have done - because while its okay to talk about strategically and monetarily, a lot of us like to see come to life' Mr Murphy added.
