Study Reveals Barriers to Team Performance — AI Model Delivers €3,418 Productivity Gain per Employee

New research shows how structural leadership barriers reduce performance — and how new Novogain AI unlocks measurable ROI.

OULU, FINLAND, November 25, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- A new national study of 227 HR managers and frontline supervisors from Finnish companies and social and healthcare organizations reveals a pattern that many leaders intuitively recognize but rarely quantify: organizations are structurally preventing their own teams from succeeding.

The findings highlight a decisive imbalance between traditional financial steering and the modern leadership capabilities required to maintain performance, wellbeing, and retention. To solve these obstacles, Novogain AI was developed — enabling every organization to apply the most effective development tools to improve productivity in a sustainable and measurable way.

The Five Most Significant Barriers to Team Performance
The respondents identified five critical obstacles that consistently undermine team effectiveness across industries:
Team leaders lack time to solve team problems (18.9%)
Management systems prioritize cost over people (16.7%)
Insufficient human leadership skills among supervisors (16.3%)
Leadership and well-being work is not implemented systematically at the team level (11.1%)
Lack of tools for systematic team development (9.0%)

These findings paint a clear picture: supervisors are held responsible for team performance, yet the organizational system makes it nearly impossible for them to succeed. Novogain AI was created specifically to solve these barriers. With it, organizations can now access the most effective leadership development tools and improve productivity in a sustainable, long-term manner.

“Leaders know what matters — the system doesn’t allow them to do it”
Leadership researcher and Novogain AI founder Marko Kesti describes the problem as systemic rather than individual:
“Supervisors are squeezed between short-term performance pressure and a chronic lack of time. They know they should invest in people leadership, but the system pushes them toward firefighting. When leadership becomes reactive, QWL drops, stress increases, and productivity declines.”

Kesti’s 20 years of research have yielded a human capital production model demonstrating how leadership behavior shapes a team’s effective working time, wellbeing, and financial performance. The study’s results align precisely with this dynamic: when QWL falls, productivity follows.

Turning Point: AI-Driven Leadership Support
To address these long-standing barriers, Kesti’s team developed Novogain AI, a research-based leadership assistant that builds a digital twin of each team. The solution analyzes team dynamics, predicts the productivity impact of potential leadership actions, and recommends the most effective strategies for both wellbeing and performance.

Unlike traditional leadership training, Novogain AI provides:
Real-time guidance tailored to each team
Evidence-based practices validated through reinforcement learning
Financial impact forecasts using the human capital model
Clear prioritization, recommending only 1–4 high-ROI actions at a time
“Leadership development often fails because it’s generic. Novogain makes it personal, situational, and financially transparent,” Kesti says.

Case: The Wellbeing Services County of Kainuu— A 3,900-Employee Systemic Turnaround
One of the clearest demonstrations of Kesti’s research in practice comes from The Wellbeing Services County of Kainuu (Kainuu), a major public organization in North-East Finland.
Over a two-year period, Kainuu implemented systematic QWL measurement and leadership development practices structured around Kesti’s research and aligned with Novogain’s methodology.

Performance Results
Team performance increased from 54.9% to 64.7% in two years.
QWL was measured across all 3,900 employees using a comprehensive, organization-wide survey
Direct Financial Benefits
The development program generated significant, measurable improvements:
€8.9M reduction in personnel costs
€2.1M savings in purchased services
€1.6M lower spending on materials and supplies
€0.73M reduction in disability-related payments

Total documented benefit: €13.33 million.
Impact per Employee (FTE)
To express the gain in a way decision-makers can benchmark across organizations:
(€M 13.33)/(3,900 employees) = €3,418 per employee

In practice, this means each employee generated €3,418 in annual value through improved leadership, reduced structural time (Ax), and stronger team functioning.

Operational & Safety Improvements
Beyond financial benefits, Kainuu achieved notable operational improvements:
Near-miss incidents were cut in half
Employee load indicators dropped to one-third
These changes reflect healthier teams, more sustainable work rhythms, and stronger organizational reliability.
“The Kainuu case shows that leadership development pays off when it’s systematic. When supervisors receive structured support and teams are guided with evidence, performance and cost improvements follow naturally,” Kesti emphasizes.

Why This Matters Now
Across Europe and globally, organizations face a convergence of challenges:
rising sick leave
workforce shortages
aging populations
pressure to increase productivity with limited resources
The study shows that the issue is not a lack of motivation — it is the absence of a leadership system that enables supervisors to succeed.
Novogain AI addresses this gap by integrating:
QWL method for measuring human performance
Team level digital twin modelling
Reinforcement learning AI for leadership guidance
Team-level ROI forecasting to support sustainable productivity
This makes Novogain one of the first AI solutions to explicitly connect leadership behaviour, wellbeing data, and financial performance in real time.

A New Era for People-Centric Productivity
Kesti argues that the future of organizational competitiveness depends on how well companies combine human expertise with data-driven guidance.
“Organizations want to improve their teams, but supervisors lack the system. Novogain AI enables leaders to act with confidence — not with more work, but with smarter work.”
When working conditions improve, better wellbeing follows — not the other way around.
With evidence from both the nationwide survey and the Kainuu transformation, the message is clear: people-centric leadership is no longer a philosophy — it is a measurable competitive advantage

Kesti Marko Playgain Oy
Novogain (Playgain Inc)
+ +358407178006
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Introduction video showing Novogain AI key features

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