I recently worked with a company director who was asking me how she could get her people back to 100% productivity post COVID-19. In exploring this leadership challenge, I asked her what percentage she would put on their current productivity, and she suggested 80%. She did not wish to withdraw the working from home arrangements that the pandemic had facilitated but was worried certain team members were not working as productively at home as they could be.
She acknowledged that her staff benefit from the ability to work from home which improved work-life balance and therefore health and wellbeing (as well as a sense of being valued). So, I led our discussion in a specific direction to firstly address the low hanging fruit of accountability. I queried why was there no mechanisms in place to monitor output? What could be put in place to hold staff accountable in this regard. We identified simple measures for immediate implementation to address this which were:
- Quick morning check in via Teams with supervisor outlining key focus for each day.
- End of day email to immediate supervisor advising outcomes of agreed to daily focus.
- Weekly or fortnightly work from home tasks identified in advance and reviewed collaboratively.
We discussed the strong likelihood of a cultural shift that might challenge her staff and her leaders in implementing these parameters “after the fact”. There is a great deal of value to set clear boundaries in the immediate face of change rather than afterwards as it always costs more time and energy to shift something once it has become accepted practice.
The more difficult aspect of this session revolved around the ‘’100% productivity’’ question. I challenged her to consider whether it was at all possible her staff had been operating at 120% prior to the pandemic and this had become the norm. Her perceived 20% drop in productivity could in fact be reflective of the post pandemic phenomenon of individuals assessing their commitment and contributions in the workplace. There is no easy answer to this question, and certainly no one size fits all solution. However, now more than ever leaders (and followers) need clarity around roles, responsibilities, expectations and deliverables to be both effective and satisfied on the job. For leaders, this is an ongoing conversation in an ever-changed world.