Rethinking Productivity in the Remote Work Era
As the dust settles from the massive transition to remote work, one word looms over everything.
Productivity.
Are your remote teams just as productive as they were in the office? Are people less productive because they’re binge watching Tiger King instead of filing out their TPS reports? Or are they more productive because they are free from office distractions? How should you gauge the productivity of remote workers?
What if we are asking the wrong question? Thinking hard about remote team productivity actually reveals a lot about what’s wrong with the way we view productivity in the workplace.
The classic view of productivity
When we think about productivity, we usually think about a formula like this:
But this formula fails several tests when we look at what a great future company should be.
What’s wrong with our view of productivity
Four things, just off the top:
- That formula works great for machines accomplishing tasks, or for people whom we’ve trained to act like machines. But it doesn’t work well for real human work.
- It assumes that if you give a ‘productive’ worker more hours, they will get even more work done. That’s just not true for humans.
- It treats all work the same. As long as you are doing something, you can feel productive.
- It doesn’t value time as the most precious resource we have.
What remote work reveals about human productivity
Remote work exposes the true differences between a company that is actually operating in a new way, and one that simply converted all of its in-person meetings to Zoom calls.
Here are some things you learn when you start tracking the productivity of remote workers.
You don’t need as much time to do the things you always did
In the early days of remote work, it’s not uncommon to realize that you can get most of your core work done in a relatively small amount of time. If you have all the information you need (a big if–see below), then work can happen pretty quickly.
A lot of the stuff you were doing doesn’t really matter
Some people with a lot of caregiving responsibilities have less time to commit to work. As they prioritize their work and only do the most important things, you realize that a lot of the other stuff didn’t really need to be done in the first place.
Every day is different
It’s nearly impossible to maintain the same levels of productivity day after day. One day you might really crush it; the next day, you need a nap. This is very typical for human work. We work best in surges, and then need time to recover.
Proxies for busyness
One of the main fallacies we fall for in the office is that we equate busyness with productivity.
At the office, we have signals for busyness.
- Sitting in front of your computer
- Scheduling/attending meetings
- Being very active on communication channels (e.g. Sending/answering emails)
- Turning in work
If someone is doing all these things, you assume that they must be productive.
However, in a remote work setup, no one sees you sitting at your computer all day. You can still try to appear busy by chatting a lot or scheduling meetings, but remote work forces a bigger emphasis on actually turning in work.
A better definition for the productivity of remote workers
Rather than just using the classic formula, leaders of remote teams need to think about productivity in a new way.
Measuring remote team productivity based on tasks works for machines, but humans are better at objectives. Objectives are usually longer-term and require more strategy and creative thinking. They may not have a clear path and require some intuition and quick planning.
You can manage humans who are doing tasks. But if you give them objectives, a remote team manager turns into more of a coach who helps them achieve it. Remote work productivity is determined if the objective was reached or not.
How to create a culture of productivity on a remote team
Start with empathy and trust
No surprises here. Remote work requires a foundation of trust. Don’t start off assuming that your team can’t reach their objectives without you breathing down their necks all the time.
Be clear about the objective
Every person should know exactly what objective they are working on and how to know if they’ve achieved it. The leader’s job is to make sure this is clear for everyone.
Don’t put a metric on anything shorter than a week
Objectives should have at least a week to achieve. This lets the natural flow of work to happen and doesn’t force people to keep up a steady daily pace that doesn’t always happen.
Let people work on their own schedule
Humans naturally work in waves with great and not-so-great days. They have moods, caregiving responsibilities, and unique energy cycles. If you need something to do the same work, at the same time, every day, then it’s time to invest in a machine.
Don’t celebrate proxies for productivity
As a manager, you may be unconsciously valuing those who are more chatty or responsive on Slack, instead of those who are hitting their longer-term objectives. Be careful who gets your best time and praise.
Stay in touch often
Giving longer-term objectives doesn’t mean that leaders are absent from remote teams. You can do a pulse, or heartbeat check-in throughout the week, but remove any sense of guilt from the daily check-in.
Be unique in your coaching
Keeping great remote work productivity means that you need to know what makes individuals excited and motivated. Is it public praise? An extra day off? A gift card? Each person is unique, and you want to find out what makes your team tick.
Have better meetings
Bad meetings is a fast way to kill remote team productivity. Respect their time and have really good remote meetings (with agendas!).
Remove as many distractions as possible
Distractions are just as tough in the home office as the office-office. Educate your team on how to deal with internal distractions, but also encourage them to take control of their notifications and log out of synchronous communication tools when they are focused.
Efficient communication
Great remote communication practices will create a more productive team. Understand the main challenges that remote team managers face and create systems that can handle them.
Have a common digital workplace
An easy way that teams become unproductive is when they have to ask around for all the right data. A digital workplace is a single place where all of your processes, projects, and collaboration happen. Do the work to set up your digital workplace so that no one has to go fishing around for the details they need.
A new age of remote work productivity
Remote work shines a new light on how we measure work. When evaluating remote team productivity, we should move away from tasks and start thinking about objectives.
Remote work opens the door to rethinking the way you think about productivity. Don’t just try to replicate what happened in the office.
Make the shift towards objectives and not tasks and welcome in a new era of work.
This article first appeared on Workminus.com. Subscribe there for more thoughts on the future of work.
