Transfer to fully remote work due to the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic has changed the perception of productivity forever. Business owners worldwide were obsessed with the issue of productivity. The question of productivity should always be a top priority if you want to run a successful business. This question has become a burning one during and after the pandemic when remote and hybrid work has become predominant.
And managers started seeking ways to track their remote workers effectively. One of the most efficient solutions for tracking employees’ performance is software for employee monitoring that can track their time and activities at work so that you can rest assured that they’re working while out of your site. While this app can paint a detailed picture of employees’ activities and time spent on various apps, projects, or tasks, its use can be controversial if managers decide to keep their employees in the dark about it or abuse their personal data during monitoring.
Besides many managers wonder whether they’d be able to make a difference between genuine productivity and presenteeism where employees show up for work but are unproductive.
The question here is whether employees’ visibility guarantees productivity or if this is another misconception.
Does Employee Visibility Mean Higher Productivity?
One of the major reasons many business leaders are reluctant to offer their employees remote or hybrid work arrangements is that they won’t be as productive as they are when working under their watchful eye.
However numerous studies conducted on employee productivity during the Covid-19 pandemic proved them wrong, showing that remote workers were more productive than their office-based counterparts.
It seems that employees are more engaged in their work when they can choose the time and place to work. And if you want to know whether your remote employees are working on tasks and projects without hovering over their heads, rely on the remote workforce management app to do this for you. By doing this you’ll learn how your employees use every minute of their work hours separating the time into productive, unproductive, and idle without intruding on their privacy.
You can also track the time spent on different tasks and projects, tracking the apps and tools they use in the work process.
This accurate data-based analysis of your employees’ performance will identify performers and set them apart from those prone to presenteeism. You can use this data to take specific steps to reward overachievers and get underperformers back on track.
Shift Your Focus From Measuring Productivity to Managing It
A shifted perception of productivity accompanied the tectonic changes in the workplace. Employees and leaders needed to change the way things were done, adapting business practices to virtual workplaces.
Managing a remote workplace involves spending countless hours in meetings and tackling countless distractions that can eat up your employees’ time at work. This said, your employees may spend hours on various meetings or switching from email to Slack accounts, thinking that they’re highly productive, while in fact, they aren’t.
This is why it’s crucial for you to focus on the quality of work delivered rather than the hours spend at work. This shifted perception of productivity that focuses on the quality of work rather than on the number of hours spent working will lift off some pressure off your employees, helping them to abandon false productivity practices and focus more on finishing critical tasks.
For example, you can eliminate unnecessary meetings, by hosting one weekly team meeting to cover the most significant topics. And you can encourage your employees to dedicate specific time blocks in their day to tackling emails or other menial tasks so that they can use the rest of their time to focus on creative work.
Final Words
Managers are responsible for building tight-knit, productive teams. If you want to boost your employees’ performance offer them a workplace where they can flourish.
This said, equip them with tools that can help them be more efficient and deliver high-quality results.
Also, improve your managerial skills so that you can tackle the numerous challenges of a changing workplace without affecting your employees’ productivity or work satisfaction