Cecile Alper-Leroux, a 20+-year HR tech veteran, is UKG (Ultimate Kronos Group) VP of Product and Innovation.
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While few people could have predicted the conditions that made shifting to remote work necessary and pervasive, it's clear remote work is here to stay for many. As a result, organization leaders who may have never considered allowing employees to work from home must now evolve their thinking about what it means to be productive, and how to measure and manage productivity from afar.
Before Covid-19 forced a rapid shift toward remote work, many organizations were skeptical about employees who wanted to work from home due to concerns about employee productivity. In Ultimate Software's 2019 remote work survey, 42% of managers listed monitoring remote employee productivity as a top challenge, outpacing concerns around communication and interpersonal connection. When we conducted that survey, just over one-fifth of the U.S. workforce worked remotely at least some of the time. Today, nearly half (42%) of the U.S. workforce is working from home full-time, with many business leaders considering making remote work permanent in some form after the pandemic subsides.
Presenteeism Versus Productivity
The ways we measured productivity at work had not changed much pre-pandemic, yet the conditions around work have changed significantly now. The problem is that organizations haven't kept up. Employees have been juggling myriad responsibilities and often have additional caregiving, health and financial concerns, and require the trust of leadership more than ever.
If managers are measuring productivity based on whether employees are attending virtual meetings or are available to be on-call during traditional business hours, they may be setting their employees up to fail. For example, an employee may not be able to make it to a weekly morning check-in meeting because they are spending mornings guiding their child through remote classes. Missing out on that virtual face time might make a manager unfairly question that employee's commitment, regardless of the quality and quantity of work the employee produces. Leaders must guide and trust, shifting their expectations from monitoring to connecting and measuring. The idea "work-life balance" has been exposed as a fallacy in this new environment, where life and work are inextricably connected.
Rather than monitoring the amount of time employees spend logged into Slack or participating in Zoom calls, managers should focus on outputs and results. As long as work is done well and in an appropriate time frame (with consideration for the individual's circumstances — this is crucial), managers must now give employees the liberty to manage their work and time.
Use Tech For Collaboration, Not Surveillance
If a leader is still new to managing remote workers, they may be tempted to seek out technologies that monitor what employees are doing online during work hours. Employers in the U.S. legally have the right to do so, but taking this route can quickly lead to virtual micromanagement and a breakdown in employee trust.
When an employee feels constantly surveilled, they can become distracted and focus on the wrong things. Employees have enough challenges in life and work — managers don't need to add a lack of privacy to the list. This can create a toxic culture where employees don't feel trusted and empowered, and managers waste time supervising when they could be connecting meaningfully. Companies with this kind of culture risk losing their best employees. It's important to recognize and understand that how employees think and feel about the day-to-day realities and benefits of their jobs directly impacts business results.
But it's possible to leverage technology to increase transparency and communication across remote teams. Ensure employees have access to the tools they need to be successful. This can mean implementing systems to track progress on deliverables or providing team collaboration software. When there is transparency in work and expectations, it is easier for managers to support or course-correct employees so they stay on track. These tools can help managers know what employees are doing without constant surveillance.
The Human Elements Of Productivity
Managers must also pay attention to and act on interpersonal cues that signal how employees are faring when the boundaries between life and work are nearly gone. Leaders who subscribe to the notion that life and work are inextricably linked from the onset are likely to have more productive and engaged teams. For everyone else, we must remember that life and work are interconnected journeys, and the path is certainly not simple.
Managers have to be highly observant to pick up on employees taking initiative or to identify signs of distress. If an employee asks to take on new responsibilities or be involved in more projects, they are likely to have a good handle (or strong support) in other areas of their work/life. If you sense frustration when talking to an employee, it may signal that there is something impeding their ability to work at full productivity. If this is the case, managers should delve deeper into the root cause of these challenges. Keep an open mind, listen empathetically and be prepared to help employees find a productive work cadence. Remember that most employees care for their work and want to be successful.
It's also important to recognize people for work well done and maintain connections with remote employees. During challenging times, employees' desire to be recognized increases by about 30%, according to one expert. Connect their work to their personal purpose and impact on both the organization's goals and the greater good. These positive conversations can seem esoteric in a remote environment, but they are more crucial than ever.
Looking Ahead
Remote work may benefit many people, but it doesn't work for all. We have examples in our own company of employees who can't wait to get back to the office, while others love the ability to work from home. The current crisis complicates things, but perhaps the lesson to learn when we return to something closer to normalcy is the value of managers who trust their employees deeply and focus on outputs and outcomes. This will support employees in both cases with policies and programs that promote life-work success for all.
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