Let’s define “productivity” first. Productivity refers to how much output a worker can do in an hour. Recently, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that productivity plunged by the sharpest rate on record since 1947. That was after productivity had increased (surged) during the pandemic.
On August 18, 2021, The Washington Post wrote “The United States is currently experiencing a surge in worker productivity that could rival that of the tech boom 20 years ago – if it lasts.”
Obviously, higher productivity is preferable for the economy because it leads to more goods and services available at a lower cost and increases in wages. It also can alleviate many of our top economic issues, like high inflation.
This can be an entirely other topic in a newsletter, but I feel it’s worth mentioning. In relation to knowledge workers, I’m going to suggest something wildly out-of-the-box here in relation to measuring productivity – measure it in terms of results, not hours/time. The 40-hour work week was born out of the Industrial Revolution – first brought to the government in 1866 and became a law in 1940 (it took the Great Depression to make it the norm); things looked a lot different then and these were hourly employees doing manual labor – they got paid overtime over 40 hours. Knowledge workers are salaried for the most part; does time still make sense for measuring productivity?
Humans are not made equal. Each position has a specific workload that you expect to be accomplished. How do you choose that workload when some people are way more productive, without sacrificing quality, and some people are way less productive? Employers don’t usually take into account that people work at different rates; it’s impossible to expect two different people to complete the same workload in the same amount of time. In my mind, no one should be punished for being more efficient. Perhaps, measuring engagement and fulfillment will be more effective for our economy. Some economies do this already.
Better tools, more efficient processes (automation, digitalization), happier, more engaged employees (this is often overlooked as something that improves productivity!!), the help of robots and artificial intelligence. When I read articles on productivity, specifically, the ones in 2021 and 2022 by The Washington Post, they mention automation, increased technology, better tools, but they fail to mention the direct connection of employee engagement and productivity. Employers can’t fix what they don’t understand!
During the pandemic, organizations embraced technologies much faster than they would have otherwise. Additionally, many people saw the benefits of working from home, which made them happier/more engaged (not dealing with the commute, more time for themselves, potentially better work/life balance-if you set boundaries).
Employees? Leaders tend to blame employees for their lack in productivity. In fact, their response tends to be installing software to track employee activity. (There’s a reason why I am writing this after I wrote the blurb on trust. Installing spy software is going to severely breed a culture of distrust.)
The pandemic? Some leaders blame the pandemic. They say that the pandemic is the reason for a drop in employee engagement and happiness at work; it’s easier to blame something external than to look inside at what role you are playing in the situation.
The labor shortage? Due to a reported labor shortage, some have provided the reason that people are scaling back on their efforts for producing because they know their organization is going to have a hard time replacing them. To me, this shows a calibration that is necessary. Employees have historically tolerated an immense amount of unhappiness at work. That being said, I don’t think it’s morally or ethically appropriate for employees to take full advantage of the situation; however, this is a wake-up call for companies and leaders to get their act together.
Leaders? What role do leaders play in this? Leaders are out of touch and tend to act reactively. Employee retention seems to be an after-thought for companies. Senior leaders don’t seem to grasp the very high ROI of engaging your employees and/or they are so out of touch that they assume employees are extremely engaged and they are nowhere near that. Leaders also tend to operate the way things have “always been done” and don’t realize that remaining status quo and stagnant isn’t going to turn into a competitive advantage.
Here’s my take: I do believe that the pandemic provided an awakened perspective for people. Priorities have become clearer, what people are willing to tolerate has become clearer. People are now taking action after years on auto-pilot. I do not think the pandemic is to blame for the drop in productivity – I think the over-arching reason is senior leadership. Simply, because historically, they have operated under archaic terms and these past ways of operating are no longer working.
As a society, we’ve struggled to make the shift out of the industrial era to the knowledge working era. Many things have stayed the same when they shouldn’t have. How often do you hear the term “because it’s always been done this way”? Even if people recognize alternative ways, they mostly choose to stick with what’s been proven NOT to work rather than try something new (YIKES!); staying the same is comfortable – more comfortable than change.
Currently, over 60% of companies don’t provide any leadership development or training. Companies haven’t put effort in (change is uncomfortable) to develop the foundation of trust. We need people to step up and say – yes, we see the value in developing our leaders and employees, we see the value in doing things differently and we want to try it.
I believe that we need to be realistic. Creating high-performing teams and developing leaders is not going to happen overnight. Change is scary. Holding people accountable is scary. Developing yourself is scary. But what’s the cost of not doing these things?
In comparison to other countries, American full-time employees work 41.5 hours per week and about 11.1% of employees work over 50 hours per week. Americans put in more hours than several European countries with higher productivity rankings. In the past, Luxembourg was the most productive country with an average work week of just 29 hours (work smarter, not harder, right?).
Americans live to work and are working more hours while not being as productive – anyone else noticing that red flag?? We don’t care about working smarter, we just work harder. When will we learn that longer hours actually make us LESS productive?
Funnily enough, Google says that they increase productivity by giving their employees more work. I’d like to make an IMPORTANT distinction with this. This ONLY works IF you are training properly, coaching & giving effective feedback, clearly communicating, and exhibiting a bunch of other highly-effective leadership behaviors. Throwing more work at people and exhibiting ineffective leadership behavior will be LESS productive and disengage your employees!
Get to know your employees, peers, and superiors on a personal level
Work on building trust from the top-down
Get rid of the toxic, under-performing people in your organization (do this after you have tried to coach them for improvement)
Be clear with your communication and expectations
Encourage people to speak up
Conduct effective stay interviews
Be thoughtful and intentional about hiring the right people (personality & behaviors over skills) and create an organizational-wide goal for employee retention
This is a non-negotiable: develop your leaders! You will get nowhere with poor, ineffective, dysfunctional leaders.
Take charge of your own development – recognize your triggers, comfort around trusting others, quirks, etc.
If possible, eliminate at-will employment in your organization
Treat employees like adults – eliminate policies & rules and instead, start from a place of trust and encourage people to use their best judgment (this requires developed, highly effective leadership to operate under these terms)
U.S. workers have gotten way less productive. No one is sure why. (Oct 31, 2022)
People return to offices, productivity plunges(Oct 31, 2022)
The U.S. could be on the verge of a productivity boom (Aug 18, 2021)
These are the most productive countries in the world (2022)
Memo to work martyrs: long hours make you less productive
Gallup: Sustainable Development Solutions Tracks the World’s Happiness
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