The recent Microsoft Work Trends Index: Pulse Report is a testament to the growing divide between employers and employees. I wrote about The Great Divide In The Workplace back in October 2021

Microsoft surveyed 20,000 people in 11 countries, and analysed trillions of Microsoft 365 productivity signals, along with LinkedIn labour trends and Glint People Science findings.

The report had three key findings:

·       Productivity paranoia is rife

·       The office still perceived the only answer

·       Employee attrition is continuing to increase

Underlying all of these is the need for better leadership. I wrote about this in last week's newsletter.

Productivity paranoia

I have no idea why this appears to be just raising its head. This has been evident since the onset of the pandemic.

Source: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/worklab/work-trend-index/hybrid-work-is-just-work

Surveillance

In March 2020, the global demand for employee surveillance software increased by 80%.

The demand is trending upwards. The demand was stronger in 2021 than in 2020 and is significantly stronger again in 2022 to date. The following chart shows the month-by-month increase in demand for employee surveillance software compared to the 2019 monthly average.

Source: top10vpn

The figures show that we have managers who believe they cannot measure employee productivity if they cannot see them. The sad thing is that even when they could see an employee at a desk, this was not a sign of productivity.

According to Microsoft, 85% of leaders say the shift to hybrid work has made it challenging to have confidence that employees are being productive.

The use of surveillance software has many negative results including productivity theatre. This is where employees find many ingenious ways to look like they are always on and busy. I listed many of these in my newsletter Leadership– The Horror Story. They include the deployment of devices such as mouse jigglers and software such as Wiggle Mouse. As organisations find ways to detect such covert operations, employees respond with methods to always appear on that cannot be detected. Enter the mouse attached to a toy train or a desk fan to ensure it always keeps moving, the paper clip in the insert key, and the laser mouse on top of a glass.

The other result which has the biggest impact is that the use of surveillance software just screams at employees, “I do not trust you.” Whilst there may be sound reasons to use such software such as for security and employee safety, employees know that the reason for the deployment is for monitoring keyboard strokes, emails, location, web activity etc. Lack of trust is a major contributor to employee attrition.

Productivity versus performance

The other issue that arises is the confusion between productivity and performance. Productivity is measuring how many widgets an employee produced this week compared to last week. Productivity increases when more widgets are made in less time. A call centre worker could be measured on their productivity by the number of calls they answered. This does not reflect their performance. What was the quality of the call? How satisfied was the caller with the outcome? Will customer retention and attraction increase because of the performance?

These are performance measures.

Today’s reality is that many of our employees are knowledge workers, and their outputs are often intangible to define. They think for a living.

There must be a fundamental mindset shift in managers who perceive productivity as the hours a person spends at a desk. Even in the physical environment, a manager cannot determine how productive someone is just because they can see them for 8 hours!

In the distributed team this can be no different. Measurement must be based on outcomes and not hours.

Leaders set clear goals and expectations which motivate employees. Motivation can also be increased by setting learning goals as opposed to performance goals.

Rather than a performance goal – “Run three town-hall meetings to reach over 700 of our employees”, make it into a learning goal by adding some discovery, problem-solving and innovation.” Turn it on its head and say, “Find a way to reach over 700 of our employees in the next quarter.”

This gives employees autonomy to find the best way to achieve the desired outcome themselves. That is an outcome that can be measured.

Actions

·       Enable leaders to set clear and measurable performance goals for employees

·       Align the goals with organisational goals

·       Reward outcomes, not just activity

·       Lead with autonomy, empowerment, and trust

The office

The Microsoft report states:

“While 82% of business decision makers say getting employees back to the office in person is a concern in the coming year, the fact is that people now expect flexibility and autonomy around how, when, and where they work.”

We must remember that work is what we do and not where we go.

There are several things at play here.

Language

I believe we need to change the language we are using regarding our working model. The working model is not a “hybrid” one. During the pandemic for many, it was – the office or home. Now work can be done from many locations – the home, library, coffee shop, co-working spaces, hub, or university. Hybrid means two elements. Our working model has a myriad of elements.

The “office” becomes just another remote workplace that is equipped with activity-based working facilities and the latest and best technology to connect the entire workforce wherever they may be working. The “office” along with the home, hub, café, and library just becomes a workplace of choice.

Right reasons

Employees will return to the old “office” for the right reasons at the right time. It cannot be just because it is there. The Microsoft report states that 73% of employees say they need a better reason to go into the office than just company expectations.

Back in May, I wrote an article called There Are Only 5 Reasons to Return to the Office.

1.     Preference - If you prefer to work from the office, then you should do so. If it is worth the commute to work out of the office, then you should do so. It should be your decision.

2.     Purpose - When the distributed model has both flexibility and autonomy, it is the leader and the team that decide when it makes sense to attend the office.

3.     Participation - Once again it is a team decision when co-location of the team or part of the team in the office will result in better participation.

4.     Productivity - If the team decide that they will be far more productive working from the office, then that is a good reason to do so.

5.     Party - A good reason to get together in person and utilise the office space is to party. 

The bottom line is – “Is it worth the commute?”

The report also states:

“The data reveals a better way to bring people back together to engage and energize them. Connecting with colleagues is a key motivation for working in person.”

I could not agree more but it doesn’t just have to be about the old “office.” Employees can be connected wherever they are with technology.

Actions

·       Encourage in-person time to build connections wherever the most appropriate location may be

·       Utilise the latest technology to connect employees wherever they may be located

·       Acknowledge that open and honest communication is key to employee engagement

·       Build, maintain and sustain an environment of psychological safety

·       Develop leaders who are authentic and trusted

Employee attrition 

76% of employees say they’d stay at their company longer if they could benefit more from learning and development support.

A 2022 Randstad study found that reskilling the global workforce is a priority for employers everywhere. Three quarters said that training and development is an effective way to combat the skills gap but only 29% were investing in this area.

Employees are looking for opportunities to grow and develop and talent retention strategies should be addressing this.

Across all ages, 88% would make use of additional skilling opportunities if their employer offered them and 84% said they would speak to a career coach if given the chance.

Investing in workforce learning and development is a prime opportunity for employers to nurture a more engaged and committed, whilst improving retention and achieving higher innovation and productivity.

This reminds me of the cartoon:

CFO asks CEO: “What happens if we invest in training our people and they leave us?”

CEO says: “What happens if we don’t, and they stay?”

The Microsoft report says, “56% of employees and 68% of business decision makers say there are not enough growth opportunities in their company to make them want to stay long term.”

Many employees believe that learning requires leaving with 55% saying that the best way for them to develop their skills is to change companies.

Actions

Make learning and development a key component of the employee value proposition

Survey employees to find out the sort of learning and development opportunities they are looking for e.g., developing in their current role; developing soft skills; developing technical skills etc.

Provide career coaching to all employees

Summary

There is no going back to the way it was. We cannot build the future only on what we learned from the past. We must change our mindsets. We must embrace the challenge. We must see the future of work as the biggest opportunity with which we may ever be presented.

Better leadership is key.

The future of work is the future of leadership and that is very different to how it was pre-pandemic. What got us here will not get us there.

We need leaders who measure the right things in the right way.

We need leaders who acknowledge that the old “office” is now just another remote workplace.

We need leaders who provide employees with opportunities to grow their skills, build their careers and find a sense of purpose within the organisation.