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This era will likely be characterized by its rapid digital advancements. The very fabric of business has shifted, as everything has taken on a digital dimension. And to keep pace with our increasingly virtual, or often hybrid, workplaces, traditional yardsticks, tools and metrics to measure productivity have naturally required an in-kind adjustment.
This evolution has been rapid — and challenging.
“So many leaders and teams are drowning,” said Shani Magosky, founder of The LeaderShift Project and author of “The Better Boss Blueprint.” “Reframing productivity has been the proverbial lifeline to get people back on the boat.” And once there, the real work begins.
In today’s work environment, collaborative platforms are everything. They offer tools to track team progress, set goals and measure output. But they also present a dilemma: How can businesses capture crucial metrics without encroaching on employee privacy — or worse, fostering a surveillance culture?
From Drowning to Digital: Reframing Productivity Metrics
“It perplexes me to see how many leaders still gauge productivity by face time, even subconsciously,” Magosky said. The digital age, marked by intangible outputs, remote workers and diverse project objectives calls for a more nuanced approach. This isn’t easy for companies rooted in “the way they’ve always done it.”
“The mindset shift is to focus on results: Are individual contributors and teams making progress on and achieving their unique MBOs, KPIs, OKRs or whatever acronym soup your company uses to define goals?”
Aligning teams to take thoughtful, consistent action and measuring impact has always been complicated, but it can feel impossible these days. “It’s extremely complex to get a vivid picture of collective productivity with the highly distributed nature of where, when and how work gets done,” Magosky said.
As a result, many companies have migrated to collaborative platforms that have become standard in the modern business toolbox, like Slack, Trello, Asana and Microsoft Teams. “They’re great for project management, knowledge sharing and the ability to work asynchronously, with dashboards that show (mostly) objective productivity metrics and highlight accountability or lack thereof,” said Magosky. “But, if companies are not intentional about rolling out collaborative platforms and if there is no formal alignment from the start detailing how and when to use each platform, they can actually detract from productivity.”
Then, there’s also the shiny object syndrome: “Many companies introduce the new flavor of the day SaaS collaboration tool without sufficient training, so it never really takes hold and is an investment with little to no return,” Magosky said.
Keeping those challenges in mind, the right productivity tool should ultimately benefit companies by offering task tracking with detailed progress features, goal setting that can be tied directly to business objectives and time management that captures workflow efficiencies. Most also have indicators showing when someone is online, offering immediate access to coworkers during work hours and beyond. This makes getting in touch with colleagues incredibly easy and convenient.
But the convenience provided by these tools is also showing cracks, as it’s taking a psychological toll on workers.
Related Article: How to Encourage Healthy Digital Work Practices in Your Team
The Price We Pay for Productivity Tracking
Slack’s State of Work in 2023 report shows 63% of the more than 18,000 desk workers surveyed across nine countries said they “make an effort to keep their status active online, even if they’re not working at the moment.”
Workers are hyper-aware of being tracked, and they’re hacking their apps to appear more productive.
It seems many feel we’re moving toward a surveillance culture, Forbes senior contributor Jack Kelly predicted in 2021. One where “spying will continue unabated,” and bosses will install hidden cameras and devices that track every keystroke, he said.
So, although productivity platforms offer remarkable insights, striking a balance between productivity and privacy with employees is essential. But there’s a thin line between measurement and surveillance, and the question is, What is that line?
Anne Knox Averitt, partner at Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP, said in the midst of all this, companies should consider the legality of their actions. “In general, on a federal level, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act and the Stored Communications Act authorize employers to monitor employees’ work-related communications that are made using, or stored on, employer devices. Employees in certain states enjoy more robust privacy protections either through statutory law (i.e., New York and Connecticut) or through a more general right to privacy in the state constitution (California, Florida, Louisiana).”
And in case you’re worried the game is still rigged in favor of surveilling employers, she further shared that “these protections will only increase, as more than 20 states have privacy-related legislation pending.”
Related Article: Workplace Monitoring and Employee Data Privacy Are on a Collision Course
Tips for Tracking Modern Business Metrics
Beyond legality concerns, there’s also something to be said for maintaining employees’ trust. Setting up guidelines will help.
To ensure compliance, Knox Averitt cautions that employers should:
- Get advance written consent from employees to monitor.
- Tailor any monitoring to collect necessary information tied to that employee’s actual job performance (keystrokes or desktop activity for certain computer jobs, GPS locations for delivery drivers, etc.).
“We advise against broad surveillance beyond the scope of the employee’s job (or workday), which can run afoul of privacy protections both for the employee’s general right to privacy and beyond (such as HIPAA issues for a healthcare entity). Unnecessarily broad surveillance can give rise to legal landmines — and put a damper on workforce culture.”
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Employees who feel constantly monitored will likely experience higher stress levels, lower job satisfaction and reduced innovation, as they stick to “safe” and “tracked” tasks. So, to empower employees and promote a culture of trust, companies may want to consider using productivity tools. This means providing employees access to their productivity data and allowing them to set personal goals and tracking their own progress.
Creating an environment where employees can voice their concerns or suggestions about the tools in use is also recommended. Magosky advises employers to focus on the results rather than the process, and to trust employees to manage their work methods, provided they meet the desired outcomes.
Also consider prioritizing mental well-being and scheduling ongoing training on the ethical use of your tools — or enlisting the help of an expert to assist in establishing ethical and rewarding guidelines and processes for the company.
The digital era’s success lies in employers and leaders’ ability to balance productivity with empathy, innovation with ethics, and measurement with trust. Let’s get there together.
