Productivity is a buzzword for everything from the future of capital cities to the fate of individuals’ employment. In times of economic volatility, the instinct to focus on productivity above all else is understandable – after all, everyone wants to get all that they can out of their assets, including people. But too often instead of increasing revenue, it leads to Productivity Paranoia – an all-consuming obsession that destroys the relationship with employees while ultimately not creating any real value for the business.
The full picture
Productivity only measures a single aspect of a person’s contribution to the team, and it can be far from the most important. What about a person who inspires others by making the workplace a more desirable place to be, or offering advice when teammates inevitably get stuck?
What about the individual whose productivity isn’t as consistent, but whose bursts of creativity invigorate the business and add innovation?
Focusing on productivity alone means missing out on all the other attributes a person brings to the business, and could well lead to people feeling alienated. This productivity-obsessed approach is likely to drive an epidemic of “quiet quitting” as employees feel nothing but productivity is valued. It could ultimately drive them, and their talents, out of the organisation.
Someone in the grip of Productivity Paranoia might think that’s no great loss, but they will soon feel the impact these supposedly less productive employees had on their colleagues. At best, productivity overall will drop as the remaining team members miss the support, creativity, or simple comradery of their colleagues. At worst, productivity stars will decide that their in-demand skills will be better recognised and rewarded at another workplace.
Vindicating value
Part of the solution is to focus on quality over quantity – in other words, don’t just look at an employee’s productivity, but at the value they bring to the organisation. This includes productivity, but also factors such as the level of support they provide others (including customers!), unique perspectives that nobody else in the organisation can offer, or creativity and an understanding of new markets and opportunities.
Broadly, focusing on value requires the same approach as productivity, just with a wider scope. First, there cannot be a one-size fits-all approach. There are already countless variables to measure productivity, from the output of work to time taken to achieve objectives, and understanding value adds even more. To succeed, the business has to define how it measures value, establish baselines for employees, and ensure it is offering the right support for team members to do their best work.
To begin with, the business has to establish whether it has minimum baselines for factors such as productivity or creativity, and ensure that it’s helping all its employees meet them. For instance, the majority of employees need to use technology to do their jobs. Just giving the support and advice needed to overcome hurdles and adopt the tools in front of them might help the majority of employees meet a minimum baseline. But as with any other approach the HR department takes, this shouldn’t be one-size-fits all. As anyone who has explained technology to a teenager and a grandparent will tell you, different people have very different levels of digital dexterity or comfort with technology. Instead, the approach used should be smart enough to understand when an individual needs help and guide them towards a solution.
The benefit of this approach is that it doesn’t just establish a baseline of productivity, but actually frees up more of team members’ time to focus on core tasks and makes for a better employee experience. Identify exactly how individuals add value to the business, and give them goals, KPIs, and support to help them reach their full potential. One key ingredient in this recipe for success is empowering all employees to fully use all of the technology tools at their disposal with contextual guidance and automation.
Beyond paranoia
Productivity has clear value as a metric, beyond the obvious. For instance, understanding employee engagement or whether a training program or a new process have been successful. But it is not, and cannot, be the only measure of the value an individual brings to the business.
This is especially true in an environment where businesses sell themselves to potential employees based on the experience they offer, including culture, wellness, and work/life balance. For these businesses, focusing on a single raw number and succumbing to productivity paranoia is a sure-fire way to show that any talk about employee experience was insincere. Conversely, showing all the ways in which a business values employees and their contributions will go a long way towards backing up their claims and retaining talent.
