The boundary between work and hoe was never clear even during the normal office working. This has become further hazy during the epidemic when we started working from home. We are on call for both the office as work as home-related work, all of our waking hours.
During the epidemic of the last 18 months when we have been working from home, we have learnt to juggle our work and home-related work expertly. Many a time we may succeed but quite often we are at the centre of an embarrassing spectacle.
Some employees developed an innovative approach of breaking down the tasks into microtasks. Use the small intervals to accomplish the microtasks we have planned. this helped them to make progress in the tasks set out for themselves and added up to complete the tasks over the day.
The work from home(WFH) concept was introduced to overcome the barriers to work. It disrupted our entire way of working or accomplishing a task/ project for the organisation. It created an opportunity to reexamine productivity as we had known it till then and explore new ways of getting work done.
Despite WFH for the last 18 months, it is very clear that we are not going back to our old way of working. Employees would be unwilling to give up the flexibility of working from home though we may miss many things that can be experienced only when working in the office.
Managers need to create a new definition of productivity – one that takes into consideration how much work gets done and also understand that the boundary between work and home no longer exists.
A new definition of productivity.
The productivity of knowledge workers is difficult to measure. There are two types of data that are used to measure their productivity
- Self-declared data
- Employee activity data.
Despite working from home, the productivity of knowledge workers remained high. In many cases showed an improvement when working from home. However, it was observed that the employees worked longer and many reported feeling overworked and exhausted.
Creative work like team discussions, brainstorming was very difficult when team members were remote. The personal interactions and between team members are weakening and teams are becoming more soloed. This threatens creativity, innovation and finally productivity.
Hence a new definition of productivity is necessary. It should focus on well-being., collaboration, social interactions and innovations to measure success.
A new definition of productivity.
A new broader definition of productivity should focus on the factors mentioned above.
Well-being:
A hybrid setup helps in having a sustainable approach to work. It can utilise the benefits of WFH as well as working in the office and build on them.
Focus on collaboration, relationship building while in office. Encourage people working from home to include other priorities like hobbies, family, fitness.
Be aware of the downsides to each method. members with long commutes can be called to the office in a staggered manner to avoid peak hour rush. Set boundaries at work so that they do not over-extend themselves.
Find the right balance that works for every individual and encourage them to adopt it.
Collaboration:
One of the main reasons for coming back to the office is to cultivate social connections and collaborations. It is best to create team agreements that define how hybrid teams work together. Teams can establish meeting free days or plan in-person meetings. Managers can set norms about the times of the day responses can be expected.
Innovtion:
It requires team members to get together, exchange ideas, brainstorm solutions and balance time for reflection.
Remote work is ideal for individual work and productivity. In-person meetings are required for teams to collaborate and creative tasks where it is necessary for all to be present at one place.
New team members are best met in person and asked to spend time in the office to understand the team dynamics and create social connections.
While many things are uncertain in the long run, the purpose is to help shape them. In the final analysis, hybrid work should bring out the best in the individuals and at the same time help teams be productive, and also support team members in their well-being, collaboration and innovation.
Let’s Redefine “Productivity” for the Hybrid Era
by Jaime Teevan HBR 2021/09
R2G 