Most sources define productivity as the measure of the efficiency of a company’s production process using the number of units produced relative to employee labor hours (Investopedia). Or in the workplace, you may define productivity simply as how much work is done over a specific period of time.

Unfortunately, most companies focus on the numbers only, giving targets to hit as the motivation. But this only works in the short term. What actually increases productivity? Increase employee engagement and happiness (Forbes).

What we know about productivity:

Most people want to be productive: contrary to popular memes about watching Netflix all day, the majority of people want to feel good about the work they accomplish in a day.

Engaged Employees Increase Productivity & Profitability

If an employee can see how their job supports the company as a whole, the team, and even has a role in improving society, they will be more likely to focus better and enjoy their work. So before sharing targets and metrics, show them how their role (even the entry-level roles!) helps everyone else.

Daily Feedback Beats Yearly Performance Reviews

Employees who receive fast feedback are typically 3.6 more engaged than their counterparts who receive yearly performance reviews (Gallup). Not only are they more agile because they can make real-time adjustments to their work, but fast feedback also retains purpose-driven employees looking for accelerated progress.

90% of Employees Feel Equally Productive Working From Home

While employers may think their employees are lazy at home, most employees reported that they are overworked (Owl Labs). So, while they enjoy the flexibility with their families, making them slightly less accessible at a moment's notice, they actually work for an average of two hours more when they’re home compared to working in the office.

Office Employees are Interrupted Every 3 minutes and 33 seconds.

The office environment, particularly open offices, is notorious for interruptions and distractions (Business2Community). A one-minute interruption can take employees up to 20 minutes to get back on track. Instead of being concerned that an employee’s status is offline when they should be working, encourage your employees to go on do-not-disturb, put their heads down and stay productive. Of course, working from home (or a library, coffee shop, etc.) makes that approach possible.

Does remote monitoring software increase productivity or resentment?

As more employees demand remote work options, companies try to mimic the office by installing employee monitoring software on work devices. Using these tools has some benefits and risks, especially with robust project management tools available for remote teams.

Pros

At SWAY, we explore all aspects of Hybrid work to develop Happy Hybrid teams, and there are some benefits to remote monitoring that your team might consider.

Set daily Focus Work goals and self-track
Track who is doing what work and when to reduce confusion
Learn which tasks and projects take up more time than you realize
Discover repeated tasks that could be automated to better utilize labor
Find out if some employees are overworked or underutilized

Cons

Trust is an important component of the new world of work, and remote employee monitoring tends to erode that trust. No one likes feeling someone looking over their shoulder, and monitoring may feel even more invasive.

Invasion of privacy if personal information is on the device or the user logs into a private account.
Disengaged employees due to lack of trust
Legality issues in some states

In the current age of high employee turnover, you may need to balance the risks of losing an employee with the benefits of tracking their moves.

Increase productivity without increasing costs

So you want to measure the productivity of your team without using monitoring? First, use the remote tools available: project management software like Asana, ClickUp, or Trello makes it easy to coordinate work across teams. Then try these tips for better engagement with your team.

Use SMART Goals

We’ve all heard about SMART goals when it comes to performance reviews, but these should be applied to every project you take on. There should be an end goal in sight from the very beginning that’s connected to the company objectives.

Task Identification

This is where the project management tools come in: as a team, you can see all the tasks that are part of a project and which teammate is responsible for each task. At a glance, you can see who takes on the most tasks. Some do have a useful time-tracking element, especially if you work in a setting with billable hours for clients.

Employee Benchmarks

Feedback and benchmarks are key to a healthy work environment. Employees need to know if they are on the right track with their work and whether they are meeting their managers’ expectations. Engagement goes down when feedback is sporadic or scary.

Remember, “Clear is kind. Unclear is unkind.”

Learn Your Net Hybrid Score

At SWAY, we help companies build happy hybrid teams, starting with their Net Hybrid Score: a survey that measures how your employees feel about their hybrid work environment.