Productivity- an objective or a consequence during the pandemic times?

Many surveys point to how much productivity has gone up while people are working from home. In August, Mercer confirmed that 67% of companies reported that productivity had not gone down during the pandemic, while 27% said it increased. Another survey conducted by USA Today and LinkedIn reports that 54% of workers confirm that working from home has had a positive effect on productivity. The reasons for this, they said, were time saved from commuting (71%), fewer distractions from co-workers (61%), and more occasional meetings (39%). Mercer, earlier in April, said that people were working three hours more on average! The concept of 9 to 5 had virtually disappeared, and people found it difficult to separate work and life boundaries. Another research done by Harvard and NYU economists suggests that people logged in to work for about 48 minutes more than the past.

The initial euphoria about productivity made companies happy. It negated preconceived notions that working from home was 'shirking from home.' CFOs salivated at the prospect of saving commercial real estate costs (some estimates about 2-3% of revenue). Experts projected that only 34% of existing commercial real estate would be needed going forward as more people work from home. Some employers confirm the permanent working from home (Twitter, etc.) while others are experimenting with four day week (Microsoft, Japan, for instance) given the fact that employees are making up productivity elsewhere.

More recently, the enthusiasm seems to have tamed a bit. Productivity, in its simplistic measurement of outputs divided by inputs, appears to be coming at the cost of employee wellbeing. Great for the company, bad for the employee- and soon, that has an impact. According to Gallup, engagement levels were at their highest in May but had gone down to its lowest by June. Some organizations noticed a drop in productivity per hour measurements. JP Morgan Chase declared it was time for its employees to return to office; among other things, they saw a decline in productivity on Mondays and Fridays! Others may follow suit if they find that their productivity levels show a drop.

Here lies the problem. 

Organizations measure productivity in a one-sided way: as to what it means for them. Business productivity at the cost of an employee's 'personal' productivity is never sustainable. Monstor.com reported that 69% of the employees surveyed felt burnt out by July. And personal productivity is about employee's energy levels. When work is energy replenishing, or energy nourishing, personal productivity is high. However, when work is energy-draining, it affects the employee's ability to perform at their best. A compounding factor is, of course, the tensions created by the pandemic and its consequences on employees' daily lives: health issues, childcare issues, financial issues, etc., which are additional energy-draining elements that affect productivity. 

Consequently, the first measure of business productivity should be a measurement of employee wellbeing! Organizations that focus on this metric are likely to focus on ensuring that working from home/ working virtually does not continuously drain one's energy; instead, they figure out ways to build and replenish the energy. Just like physical fitness went mainstream a few years ago, wellbeing is also likely to go mainstream now. Microsoft is grappling this by instituting digital nudges that help employees take virtual commutes, meditation breaks, and other disciplined work habits that allow people to replenish their energy. These features are also likely to be available in Teams later this year. A new crop of organizations has come up, including Arianna Huffington's ThriveGlobal, that offer a plethora of digital tools to help employees manage boundaries and recharge themselves. Mentora has provided digital nudges for a long time, allowing users to self-regulate their lives and center themselves to be the best version of themselves. The real trick is for organizations to realize that these are not employee benefits, but keys to employee productivity! It is not compensation or reward; it is a cost of doing business. 

Wellbeing is not easy to measure. According to Prof. Martin Seligman, well being has five elements to be measured: positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment (resulting in an acronym: PERMA). Mentora's model is even better tied to wellbeing- a way of ensuring that the employees bring the best version of themselves to life, work, and leadership. It measures five energies: Purpose (similar to Seligman's 'meaning'), wisdom, love (equivalent to relationships), growth, and self-realization. Perhaps the most straightforward tips on wellbeing I have seen are two. One was from Prof. Tony Driscoll of Duke University, who begins and ends every one of his sessions by asking his participants to share on chat, an 'emoji' that best represents their emotions at the moment. Another colleague of mine always starts her staff meetings by asking each of her colleagues to go around sharing one thing they were grateful for. I found these two simple acts to be significant in calibrating people and giving them a simple dose of energy boost by the very nature of someone asking them the question!

I also think that productivity as a measure is narrow, simplistic, and over-used. I would, instead, opt to measure creativity. Productivity is more comfortable to justify, but when it becomes the sole criterion, it saps away - yes, productivity. It requires organizations to continuously chase productivity...squeezing more from the lemon until the juice runs out entirely. Creativity, on the other hand, unleashes and expands. Unleashing creativity in organizations is not about figuring who is the most creative- it is about creating conditions where everyone can be. One leader scrapped the entire performance criteria for her organization in 2020 and told her employees that she would measure them only on three things: resourcefulness, resilience, and responsiveness. This 'liberated' employees to do what it took to make things happen and not be constrained by rules. Another organization went into a storytelling mode- Stories about how an employee did something entirely out of the box and celebrated helped employees feel it was ok to go beyond perceived constraints. A third organization approved the formation of communities of practice for employees to form into self-managed work teams to address thorny problems. 

Of course, while both employee wellbeing and creativity measures are organizational decisions, there is no substitute for effective leadership and considerate co-workers in driving employees to be at their best. As per a recent Monster.com survey, 48% of workers don't feel supported by their boss! Research also shows that while managers are focused on KPIs, employees, on the other hand, want more trust and empathy. One data points to a surge in demand on cyberwatching software, which is the complete opposite of unleashing and trusting people. Leaders often mistake presence as equating to productivity (which is why some want them back quickly in offices) and focus on driving the most from the employees as though they were livestock, not human resources. In times like now, leaders need to tap into people's emotions, harness them, motivate them, and coach them. Anything else is a turn-off! Leadership faultlines are amplified, and lower productivity and lack of engagement are often reflections of poor leadership. Organizations will be well-served to help leaders learn the skill of giving emotional first aid. Employees are no longer able to leave their emotions at the door...they bring into the virtual space. In my research, this training intervention is perhaps the most potent performance enhancer we have now. Yet, very few employees seem to be taking advantage of it. 

Many employees are not going to come back to an office space anytime soon. Organizations need to figure out a way to keep energy levels high. Looking at productivity not as an objective, but as a consequence, will help change the framework for thinking through the sustained management of working from home. Three simple ways of doing this are to focus on employee wellbeing, drive creativity, and teach managers to give emotional first-aid.