The Scottish and UK governments can encourage a multi- sector, design-led outlook to boost worker productivity

AS fears of "Brexit" continue to weigh on hiring decisions it may be that productivity will shortly be forced back to centre stage, irrespective of the result on June 24.

Increasing output per worker remains unfinished and a stubbornly slow business in pursuit of gains benchmarked against key competitors. EU In or EU Out, Scotland and the UK must demonstrate a will to capture a higher productivity target.

There are all sorts of diverse economic and social factors in that debate. The bottom line remains that it is a core element in the growth jigsaw, stimulating employment across the board.

In Sunderland, car maker Nissan has Europe’s most productive auto manufacturing plant. It is one of still too few examples central to sustaining a high ranking in the growth league table.

Does it matter? The answer is an emphatic Yes. Remember that inward investors use it in that complicated matrix of key performance indicators and incentive packages that lead to larger scale job creation. Investors of all types, of course, await June 24 with what in understated fashion might be labelled, "interest".

On a darker note, there are allegations that if we leave the EU worker rights will be at risk, sacrificed in a desperate bid to recover competitiveness.

Could the productivity conundrum be solved by adopting a Scrooge-like culture of lower worker costs? A lifting of restrictions on hours and a miserly reversal of all manner of statutory leave allowances is the perception of union leaders and Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn.

It’s not impossible in a vision of a "temporarily" damaged UK commercial landscape, pending new trade and tariff talks.

Scaremongering or outrageous humbug, there is, according to a new set of statistics, a more palatable demonstrator of how the Scottish and UK economies can boost productivity, sustain investment and create future opportunity. It’s down to good design.

For relevant reference, Nissan adds to its UK economic impact by engineering and designing cars in Britain, including a number of its Infiniti luxury brand within the portfolio, then exporting around 80 per cent of the manufactured output. New model design work is ongoing. A virtuous circle of success in which design has a specific role.

Implicit is higher level intellectual added value; the educated, and innovative pool of labour who lend advantage.

It anchors primary investment from big employers – one reason why Nissan will stay put if the UK electorate decides to enter the unhelpfully but inevitably protracted negotiations culminating in our departure from the current 28 state alliance.

It therefore secures secondary employment in supplier networks, and the next tier of suppliers then supporting peripheral spending by workers right through the financial food chain.

In January, statistics from the Scottish Government showed productivity in Scotland outperformed the UK in 2014.

The bald figure is immaterial here but while it grew on average by 4.4 per cent, compared to the UK figure of 0.2 per cent upon which it is catching up, it remained at a lower headline level than the overall UK statistic.

New analysis from the Design Council (DC), revealed last month at a closed conference in Dundee, the UK’s first UNESCO City of Design, implies further acceleration can be levered from the creative influence of design but with broader perspective.

DC recommends introducing the principle of "design thinking" to working environments across key sectors, stimulating change in output.

Workers in the official Design economy in Scotland produce £43,100 of annual output, says DC. That’s behind the UK average for design economy workers (£47,400) but compares favourably to the £33,600 cross-sector calculation for the overall UK economy.

DC’s research is the first to consider the contribution and value of design across the whole UK economy, rather than as a single industry. It concludes design is worth £4.8 billion to the Scottish economy (£72 billion to the UK economy, punching well above its weight). It insists the Scottish and UK governments can encourage a multi-sector design-led outlook to boost productivity per worker, improving organisational performance and aiding a rebalancing of the economy.

It contends that design is an underestimated tool and an exemplar for other industries.

It provides 110,500 "highly productive" jobs, finds the DC investigation. The bulk of these jobs are concentrated in the three core sectors of digital design, architecture and the built environment, and in multidisciplinary design. Loosely translated, the latter includes creators of fashion or those engaged in industrial design. The thrust of all of this is taking design conventions and applying them to the construction of fresh operational systems within Scottish businesses and our public services.

"Design thinking" is a state of mind but can be facilitated by physical elements, like offices with "Innovation Pods" (break-out spaces) to allow latently creative minds to do their stuff.

The V&A Dundee Museum of Design, now taking shape on Dundee’s waterfront and due for opening in 2018, is developing a programme of related work to benefit businesses – especially the SME backbone of the economy.

More than a few international enterprises, some UK headquartered and some by no means big, will agree.

Employees at all levels can be thought leaders. Releasing that additional layer of blue sky thinking in each of us may be the key economists have been seeking.