As CEOs recalibrate their strategies for long-term growth, one theme is becoming increasingly clear: Employee productivity is now central to enterprise success.

With traditional growth levers like market consolidation, labor arbitrage, and low-cost financing offering diminished returns, business leaders are turning inward – to the unrealized productivity potential within their workforce.

Yet, despite this renewed focus, organizations are still struggling.

The number of organizations failing to meet their annual productivity goals has increased ninefold between 2019 and 2023.

The root of the problem often lies in four persistent myths about productivity – myths that HR leaders are uniquely positioned to dispel.

Myth 1: Productivity isn’t HR’s responsibility

In many organizations, productivity is still seen as an operational or managerial concern, while HR remains focused on recruitment, engagement, and development.

But this siloed approach limits results.

Gartner analysis of data from nearly 2,000 managers of knowledge workers found that when HR plays a direct and active role in productivity strategy and execution, employee productivity increases by as much as 11%.

HR is uniquely equipped to connect the dots between executive priorities, manager execution, and employee experience.

But doing so requires a broader mandate – one that brings productivity into the heart of HR strategy.

To drive real impact, HR must integrate productivity into workforce planning, facilitate cross-functional alignment, and prioritize the capabilities that matter most.

Yet many organizations still lack a cohesive approach.

To close this gap, HR must take an active partnership – role embedding productivity into strategy, identifying cross-functional opportunities, communicating talent tradeoffs to leadership, and championing employee needs to ensure productivity efforts are both effective and sustainable.

Myth 2: GenAI usage will automatically unlock productivity gains

The hype around generative AI (GenAI) is real – but so are the growing pains.

As of October 2024, 84% of HR leaders told Gartner that their organizations had either implemented or were piloting GenAI solutions in the workplace.

Common use cases include employees using GenAI to draft emails, summarize documents, generate ideas, and automate repetitive tasks – yet many still lack the awareness or training needed to fully integrate these tools into their daily work.

Despite this momentum, only 8% of knowledge workers say they’ve seen meaningful improvements in both speed and quality of their work after frequently using AI solutions at work.

The issue isn’t the technology – it’s the lack of enablement.

41% of HR leaders reported to Gartner that they haven’t even started training employees on how to use GenAI. Without clear guidance, many workers don’t know what tools are available or how to integrate them into their roles.

HR’s opportunity lies in bridging that gap: tailoring training programs, identifying GenAI-ready roles, and helping employees shift their workflows.

Organizations that do this well not only unlock productivity gains but also empower internal mobility and build long-term workforce resilience.

Myth 3: Onsite workers are more productive than hybrid or remote teams

Return-to-office (RTO) mandates are often justified by a belief that productivity thrives in physical proximity. But the data tells a different story.

Gartner research has shown that there is no significant difference in productivity between fully onsite and hybrid teams.

What really drives productivity is clarity – specifically, mutual clarity around expectations, roles, and team norms.

Teams that establish this alignment experience an 11% boost in productivity, regardless of where work gets done.

Rigid RTO mandates can do more harm than good – especially among key talent segments.

Gartner’s data has shown that high-performers are 16% less likely to stay at organizations with strict in-office policies. Women and millennials also report a 10-11% decline in intent to stay under similar conditions.

These groups value autonomy, flexibility, and environments where they feel trusted.

Instead of enforcing blanket policies, HR should focus on designing flexible, inclusive strategies that support both performance and retention.

This means enabling managers to lead with trust, and ensuring employees understand why being in the office – when needed – matters.

Myth 4: Improving productivity requires more data and metrics

There’s a growing temptation to throw dashboards and metrics at the productivity challenge, driven by the belief that improving productivity simply requires more data.

But more data doesn’t always mean better decisions.

In fact, increasing information about the context of existing data is twice as impactful as simply adding more metrics.

When metrics are misaligned with business outcomes – or lack the right context – they can backfire.

Employees may shift into performative behavior, chasing numbers instead of impact, while trust in leadership erodes.

To address this, organizations must focus on seamlessly integrating meaningful, outcome-oriented insights into how productivity is measured and managed.

According to Gartner research, organizations that rely too heavily on quantitative data to improve productivity risk missing critical dimensions of work – particularly the non-measurable, non-digital labor that often drives long-term success.

Without understanding the context in which productivity data is collected, metrics can create blind spots, distort performance, and even damage employee engagement.

The key is to focus on a thoughtfully chosen set of metrics that matter – and to co-create them with the people who understand the work best.

HR plays a pivotal role here, shaping how productivity is defined, involving employees in that process, and ensuring local context is part of how data is interpreted.

By investing in meaningful, contextualized insights rather than more metrics, organizations can build a more transparent, trusted, and effective approach to measuring performance.

At the heart of each of these myths lies a deeper truth: productivity is not just a numbers game – it’s a people strategy.

When HR embraces its role as a catalyst for clarity, capability, and culture, organizations can unlock a 35% increase in employee productivity.

That’s equivalent to each employee contributing nearly three additional hours of high-impact work per day, driving over $47,000 in added annual revenue.

As organizations continue to navigate a rapidly evolving business landscape, HR’s ability to confront myths and lead with insight will determine not just how productive the workforce becomes – but how successful the enterprise ultimately is.