Working Hard? Or Hardly Working?

How many times have we thrown this phrase around? During a time when companies are trying to find what works for their employees in terms of returning to work, this is a question that is certainly at the top of my mind. We have all met individuals who say, “Give me a call, I always have my phone on me” which provides the allure they are available 24 hours a day, but does this mean they are productive? How can being available for work 24 hours a day be sustainable? Which leads to the ever-elusive question, how do you measure productivity? Is it working? I know many companies who implemented software to measure employees screen times and have also met employees who have unveiled how they work around those screen times.

These ideas and “quick fixes” speak volumes to employee engagement, trust, and culture. Identifying how much work our employees really do is key to being able to accept that some teammates can complete their work at different times of day, in the office or remote, but nonetheless it will be completed. This involves trust, communication and a true collaborative team environment that cultivates moving upward, together.

At the end of the day, we all know the infamous saying, “numbers don’t lie.” I have found a lot of ease and peace of mind in trusting my team, infrastructure, and expectation management; this alleviates the need to micromanage our team & frees up time for us to grow our business. We measure our success in many ways but there are a few things we cannot bypass or find loopholes in. We cannot fake authenticity; we cannot fake numbers. We cannot fake success. While this works for us, it does not come without growing pains. We are grateful for our team’s commitment to our values internally and how it translates to our clients.