Where education helps individuals to be more specialized in firms, productivity is more likely to increase. This is in line with Taylor's (2006) assertion that "specialization of workers at a firm adds to productivity." Further, the author is of the opinion that to enhance the productivity of workers, many companies choose to provide their employees with on-the-job training. In a way, the skills such workers develop while undergoing training or furthering their education is what ends up impacting positively on their productivity. Hence for a nation with a highly educated workforce, productivity levels are bound to increase. When it comes to R&D, it can be noted that an increase in research and development spending tends to increase or enhance productivity. This phenomenon can be looked at from several points-of-view. For instance, as Taylor (2006) notes, huge R&D expenditures result in enhanced technological change. With a change in...

Further, an increase in R&D spending in some cases informs higher rates of innovation and invention. These two concepts have a direct impact on productivity as they have a way of making work easier amongst other things. For instance, the invention of the light bulb and the development of the same through innovation enhanced productivity by amongst other things making it possible for companies to implement night-shifts.
Conclusion

As I have already noted in the introductory section, productivity remains one of the key concepts in macroeconomics. Indeed, many economies are actively looking for ways of enhancing productivity so as to speed up their economic growth rates. Some of the areas these economies may find it worthy looking into include R&D, education and technology.

References

Taylor, J. (2006). Principles of Macroeconomics. Cengage Learning.