The Productivity Puzzle - Post Lockdown

It’s the 15th June and for many of us it’s the start of a long road to normal, or whatever the new ‘normal’ will be? For many uk employees it’s been a cross between a 10 week holiday and house arrest, all the time in the world free and nothing to do with it. For others it’s been a revelation, a realisation that we can be productive without the office commute, politics and posturing. For some of us it’s been 10 weeks of hell with little interaction and no distraction left to our mental torment without release. So for those of us fortunate enough to still have our jobs and health what will the future hold and what lessons can we learn?

Prior to lockdown you will have heard endlessly how unproductive we are in the uk, I have to be frank called bullsh#t on this many times, how you can compare a services economy where we innovate to a manufacturing economy where you produce following innovation is beyond me but it’s precisely this market focus within the UK that means lessons from lockdown could be a major boost for many of us.

Lockdown has brought us many changes, some we have enjoyed more than others. Many of us have enjoyed working when suits us, rather than a meeting room calendar. Many of us have got used to channelling the time we normally commute into more productive time, whether doing Joe Wicks with the kids or clearing our ‘to do’ list of tasks literally a year overdue! In the daytime we have enjoyed the song of the birds, on the evenings the shine of the stars. We’ve also learned that we don’t need to drive 6 hours to close that deal although we may have to wait 5 hours for Zoom to load our presentation!

On the flip side though while we have gained touch with nature and our families we have lost touch with our colleagues, we have become indifferent to the subtle relationships that for many make work so much more than a payslip and we have been unable to separate workplace from home leading (for some) to mental stress.

So what will post lockdown bring? Well firstly I think for employers and employees the scales will shift, for entry level jobs there will be less opportunity and more applicants. Full employment is a distant memory, of a time long since gone. However for more experienced staff, employers will reap the rewards or the consequences of how they have treated colleagues during lockdown. Those that furloughed on 80% can expect to see their ‘gesture’ repaid as talent looks to move to employers who value their team more highly.

The environment will be big, your team will seek environmental practices, be it more web based meetings or electric cars or bikes. Employees will work from home more frequently, this could actually lead to more productivity and positivity when in the office as the office will be an occasion rather than a routine.

Of course for many little will change for the better, for those in shops, factories, care industry workloads will continue to be high with more challenges and potentially more intrusive shift patterns coupled with childcare headaches.

Covid 19 has changed us forever, but some of the changes can and will be positive. More flexible working patterns, less face to face meetings, less time commuting will have a major impact. The last time we lost a huge amount of the worlds population to disease was 1918 with the Spanish Flu and you could be forgiven for thinking some managers still lived in those times. However just like the Spanish Flu those managers will soon be extinct, hastened by COVID and the positive lessons for productivity, employee flexibility and the environment. Ah the environment, I feel another blog coming on.