It’s High Time We See Productivity Differently

When the pandemic swept over the world, a lot of executives went into panic mode. The crisis forced them to adopt new ways of working to keep their businesses open, with mainly remote work. Suddenly, many of those leaders had to accept a way of working that they’d previously rejected.?

While I’m sure that those who did so had diverse motivations, one constantly cited was the “loss in productivity.” In their eyes, remote work led to a drop in productivity because it was impossible for managers to efficiently control their team members. In other words, people working remotely were going to do anything but work because they didn’t have someone breathing down their necks.?

After a year and a half since the pandemic broke out, a lot of those executives can agree that such a perspective was nonsense. Many surveys and reports showed that remote workers were actually more productive and efficient than when working in the office. The results were so conclusive that many of the reluctant executives are now remote-work converts, to the point where they are pushing for permanent remote work (mainly in a hybrid model).

Now, none of that surprises those of us who embraced remote work years ago. We know of the many benefits that come with it, including increased agility, boosted productivity, a wider talent pool, and even savings. But we also know something else—those executives need to take that increase in productivity with a pinch of salt. Let me explain why.

Why We Need a “Different Productivity”?

Traditionally, businesses have measured the productivity of their employees through a series of methods. There are companies that measure it by objectives, while others do so quantitatively (such as the number of clients an employee serves during a specific period). There’s productivity by profit, by quality of completed tasks—even the 360-degree feedback method. You could suppose that these methods (or a combination of them) should be enough to measure the productivity of a remote/hybrid team.

You’d be wrong.

There are a few aspects inherent to remote work that those methods don’t take into account. I’m talking about employee well-being, teamwork, and innovation. The fact that employees are meeting their goals, producing more, or report being more productive is good but that productivity can’t come at the expense of what should be the pillars of modern businesses.?

A little context can help here. The same surveys and reports that found that productivity has increased with remote work also found that employees are working longer hours, feel overworked, and report exhaustion to the point of being burned out. They also show that, while many employees like working remotely, they also miss some of the in-office perks, especially bonding and collaborating with their coworkers.

Both of those things impact what I think is the greatest objective for any business today: innovation. With exhausted employees having trouble collaborating and connecting with their team members, it’s impossible for companies to pursue innovative efforts, mainly because those issues frustrate any and all attempts.?

All of that goes to show that we need a new definition of productivity that doesn’t just take into account the activity level of employees but also contemplates how that activity takes place. In other words (and following the great proposal Microsoft’s Jaime Teevan made on HBR ), it’s about well-being, connection between team members, and innovation, which is the only way business can succeed.?

How the New Definition Would Look

It’s important that I clarify that this new definition doesn’t shove aside the old definitions of productivity, but rather expands on them. By all means, you should definitely measure your team’s productivity similarly to how you have been doing it up until now. However, you should really amend your preferred method, taking into account the 3 factors outlined above. Here’s what each one of those could bring to the table.

Employee well-being.

If hybrid teams are the future (and, by the looks of it , it totally is), then you’ll need to foster productivity in different ways depending on whether your team is working from home or in the office. Doing so can provide a boost to your staff that you’d hardly see if you encouraged productivity in the same way.

Thus, you could push people to be more productive when working from home by allowing them to be more flexible with their hours while also helping them create limits to prevent overworking. In turn, you could use the time your team works in your office to encourage connections and activities that require collaboration, like brainstorming sessions.

Doing this shows you acknowledge that a huge part of productivity spikes have to do with the comfort of your team and that you’re taking the necessary steps to provide that comfort for them. Naturally, you should listen to your staff to better build that comfort zone, as they are the ones who could better point you in the direction this new productivity-centered strategy could take.

Teamwork.

As the surveys I cited above show, employees like to mix in-office days with remote work because of the social aspect. So, your new definition of productivity should take into consideration the ways in which you can boost collaboration efforts, which, in turn, will result in more valuable outputs from everyone.

With that in mind, the new definition of productivity should see the office as a collaboration hub where people in your hybrid teams come together to discuss new ideas and develop new perspectives. As an executive, your task would be to ensure that your team actually leverages that space to pursue that purpose.

Doing so can be tricky at first, especially because you need to balance what each of your workers wants out of going to the office with what your company needs from the team working on-site. That might have you revising and adjusting your processes, your communication protocols between the people in the office and the people at home, and your schedules.?

Innovation.

If you play your cards right and follow the suggestions above, you’ll be on the right path toward innovation in your business. That’s because the new idea of productivity that includes employee well-being and collaboration paves the way for people to come together in the best conditions to put out more sophisticated ideas.

Innovation thrives in teams that have a strong bond and share of belonging. That means that you should take all opportunities provided by the hybrid work model to make your team bond. Use the time people spend in the office to strategize, plan projects, and brainstorm new ideas. Then have people work on them while they are in their “remote days.”?

Doing that will provide you with the best of both worlds. You’ll be giving people the social component necessary for innovation to grow when people are in the office while also giving them a level of autonomy when they are working remotely. It’s a win-win scenario for everyone who lays the groundwork for innovation to blossom.

Let’s Shape the New Normal

While it’s true that we aren’t out of the woods yet, the end of the pandemic feels closer. So, there’s no better time to start thinking about the post-pandemic world and how we’d like it to be. There are plenty of aspects to consider about it, but I think that seeing productivity in a different light is of paramount importance.?

Why? Because productivity equalling more hours worked or increased output feels like an outdated and shortsighted concept. Right now, we need to embrace more human-centric notions to grow, so productivity can’t be separated from how our employees feel and how they work best. In fact, I can’t see a new normal without understanding that productivity is deeply rooted in the “how” rather than the “how much.”