When we break down the “currently used” response by industry, we see that trade industries have above-average PM technol

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These are the same industries that have been hit hardest by the shortage of skilled labor. They cannot increase productivity by hiring high-performing professionals, so they rely on PM technology to improve the efficiency of their existing employees.

When we break down the “plan to use” response by industry, there are two areas with above average adoption rates (see Figure 2 ):

Average for "planning to use": 14%

Healthcare: 26%
Financial services: 25%
If you are a SMB leader in healthcare or financial services marketing with stockholder database and have not yet invested in PM technology, we encourage you to begin evaluating systems with the intent to implement these tools by 2020 or risk being outperformed by your competitors.

figure 2

Investment plans of small and medium businesses in the field of PM tech (2018-2020) by industry
Key takeaway: To achieve growth, small businesses must lead cross-functional change initiatives. And if they can increase employee productivity with the right PM technology, creating high-performing employees from ordinary employees, they can achieve their growth goals in less time.

High performers are more productive than average workers and can achieve results faster. A study by McKinsey found that if you have a project that is expected to achieve results within three years, and you replace a fifth of your average workers with high performers, you could achieve the same results in less than two years (about 30% faster).

We estimate that SMBs that improve employee productivity through improved internal processes and PM technologies will achieve their growth goals 15% faster than their competitors.