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As return-to-office debates continue to rage within many organizations, executives worry whether remote, hybrid and even onsite team members are productive enough. Quantifying this can be tricky, though, since most people now collaborate across a network that is more distributed than ever.
Atlassian’s recent survey of Fortune 500 and Fortune 1000 executives cited low productivity as leaders’ top organizational challenge for 2024.
But what the research also indicated is that leaders either don’t know how to effectively measure productivity or they’re not confident in the metrics they've chosen. Nearly half the respondents assess productivity by tracking office attendance, but only one in three believe their return-to-office policy has had any impact on employee performance.
The term "productivity" itself is so hazy, it's no wonder organizations are scratching their heads, said David Allen, author and creator of the work-life management system Getting Things Done, and a leading authority in the fields of organizational and personal productivity.
“Productivity is still mostly a subjective assessment, unless it’s truly a rigorous output versus input measure, such as labor costs versus profit, which is not a bad metric, but it’s rare for anyone to be keeping track of,” said Allen. “Most people’s personal assessment of productivity is how good or not good they feel about what’s getting done in their ecosystem.”
Think Beyond the Data Points
Measuring productivity effectively depends on two factors: the job type and the size of an organization, said Brad Smith, chief science officer at meQuilibrium, which conducts productivity and workforce wellbeing studies for organizations across various industries.
“If you're in a frontline occupation and you have to be present to do your job, it's pretty obvious if you're not productive — the widget doesn't get made, the patients don't get cared for, the floors aren't polished or the customer service calls don't get answered — but for desk-based or knowledge workers, it's a much more significant challenge,” said Smith.
“The scale of the company is also a factor: In small companies, what you do or don't do is highly visible, and it's obvious who's producing and who's not. But a senior managing director at a large health insurer once told me, ‘You could probably hide here for about five years before somebody figured out you're not being as productive as you could be.’”
Despite the intense focus on employee output, there’s not much current data on the factors that increase or decrease employee productivity. To better understand what drives and diminishes productivity, meQuilibrium conducted a study asking respondents to identify what contributes positively or negatively to their own sense of productivity. According to the results, having some control over how and when work gets done, along with supportive coworkers and managers are key drivers of productivity and performance.
“Stress-related productivity impairment is up,” said Smith, “but we also saw that those levels are flat among people who are hybrid, remote and onsite. That tells me it's not a return-to-office problem; it's a bigger-picture problem.”
Related Article: It's Time We Revamp Our Productivity Metrics
Motivate Your Team
Today’s workers are navigating a different world — economically, socially and politically, Smith said. He said the research showed a rise in incivility, “with people coming back and not remembering how to behave,” he said.
This indicates that leaders can still bolster their organization’s bottom line by promoting good work habits.
Allen said keeping track of the project outcomes that are relevant to employees’ jobs and areas of responsibility, and consistently updating the status of those outcomes, helps quantify how effective employees are.
“Productivity should be defined by ‘outcome and action’ thinking: ‘What are we trying to accomplish?’ and ‘What’s the next thing to happen to move that needle, and who’s doing that?’ Having one without the other is ineffective,” he said.
It’s that basis that has led Allen to develop the five steps of his Getting Things Done workflow:
- Capture everything that has your attention.
- Clarify what’s actionable.
- Organize reminders.
- Reflect on your systems to regain control and focus.
- Engage so you can make confident decisions.
He suggests approaching each step by asking questions to formulate a plan:
“What’s not on cruise control (capture)? What needs to be done about it (clarify)? What do we need to keep track of about that (organize)? Who and how often should the status be evaluated (reflect)? What’s the next action on any moving parts of this (engage)?”
He said following these steps can help leaders promote a productivity mindset and assess how projects are going.
Related Article: How to Reset Performance Expectations for Your Team
Make Time for What’s Important
Smith said a daily or weekly stand up, during which the team shares what they’re working on and progress to completion, can be a great way for managers to see productivity gains — as well as roadblocks.
“It also motivates employees to get moving: You see your peers doing things and you want to have progress to report in front of your team. It's often used in tech, but it's effective in a wide variety of roles,” he said.
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Managers must also be mindful of the time commitment required by those meetings, so avoid bogging people down with too many meetings. According to the Atlassian study, people who feel they spend too much time in meetings (defined as two hours or more per day) are more than twice as likely to report not having enough time to focus on their work.
Workers who set their own priorities, track their progress and get projects done tend to become more productive. Aim to create a balance of space for collaborative and focused work, said Smith.
“At meQ, we’ve carved out two afternoons a week where there are no standing meetings; that frees up 20% of the week and allows workers to allocate heads-down time to do the tasks that need concentration,” he said.
The most productive people also use time management strategies such as setting focus timers or blocking time to work on specific tasks.
“Time-blocking works if it works for you,” said Allen. “It’s especially good if you have an upcoming deadline and you need to protect time to do what you need to do.”
When workers can structure their schedules around important work, they waste less time and make quicker progress. The Atlassian research also showed that when employees track their progress daily, they reported 16% more goal clarity, a 30% increase in workload sustainability and 31% more headway in accomplishing top priorities.
Related Article: Can Cracking Down on Meetings Improve Productivity?
Cultivate a Culture of Balance, Trust and Autonomy
In December, Slack’s Workforce Index, based on responses from 10,000 desk workers in the US, Australia, France, Germany, Japan and the UK, noted that another challenge when trying to measure employee output is that productivity isn’t linear — it occurs in chunks throughout a typical work day.
The study also revealed a surprising connection between people who continue working after hours and decreased productivity, well-being and job satisfaction.
Employees who log off at the end of the workday register 20% higher productivity scores than those who feel obligated to work after hours. Yet, 54% of respondents reported feeling pressure to continue working after hours, and half said they rarely or never take breaks during their workday.
Giving employees some control over where and when they work can go a long way. Autonomy and trust are incredibly empowering to people, said Smith. “When people feel you trust them, that helps create a positive working relationship. It builds engagement at work, a positive culture and people being productive.”
The meQ report found that the most powerful protective effect for productivity and turnover intent is also the most effective tool leaders can wield to protect against other negative outcomes: prioritizing well-being.
“When we looked at the impact of a manager being intentional about caring for team well-being, incivility was much less likely and self-reported productivity impairment is 14% lower,” said Smith.
While it’s not a way to measure productivity, making employees feel like they're part of a team led by a caring leader is a powerful lever that can help boost productivity and reduce other negative impacts.
“We've done six workforce well-being studies over the last three and a half years, and every outcome we've looked at — whether it's a positive thing you want to boost or a negative thing you want to protect against like turnover risk or burnout — showed the most powerful positive influence on an employee's work life and experience is having a manager who cares about them,” said Smith.
