The remote working productivity slump that’s just around the corner: How to prevent productivity losses

As the world locked down in the wake of Covid-19 , companies began by focussing on operational and technological issues - simply getting their business to operate. And many surprised themselves at how quickly and well they adapted, often reporting an increase in productivity. However as remote working becomes our norm, we are seeing unintended consequences arise. 

One issue increasingly highlighted is visibility - the degree to which employees feel seen - and the impact this has on overall productivity. As people burn through social capital accrued in the office and visibility declines, productivity, performance and culture begin to suffer.

The value of in-person connections

According to the Office for National Statistics, 1.7 million people in the UK worked from home prior to the coronavirus pandemic; just over 5% of the workforce. In mid-June 49% of workers reported working from home at some point. This is a seismic shift in working habits, as some 70% of UK workers – 23.9 million people – had no experience of working from home before COVID-19. 

This unprecedented and unanticipated change and the resulting lack of visibility and social engagement between employees, coupled with uncertainty around people’s shifting roles and responsibilities means many large organisations are heading towards a large productivity slump. Using Zoom to run meetings and connect with your team isn’t going to cut it in the long-run for businesses that have onsite interaction baked into their DNA.

Start-ups and digital businesses have long recognised the increased flexibility working from home brings and have seen it lead to improvements in efficiency and self-sufficiency.  However, established, enterprise scale businesses have often been reluctant to implement remote working, recognising the value of in-person connections and relationship building.  Business leaders need to ensure they’re implementing technology that balances the undoubted advantages of remote work with what has been lost to ensure productivity during the new challenges society faces in the future of work.

A visible link between visibility and productivity

In June, we conducted research of over 1000 UK workers in companies of 250+ employees. Despite many business leaders stating that they have seen improved productivity from their employees since the transition to remote working, this isn’t borne out by our data, which showed that only 20% of surveyed workers felt more productive.

In terms of the link between visibility and productivity, we found that only 12% of employees feel very visible within their organisation since transitioning to remote working, and almost three quarters (73%) of employees who don’t feel visible within their organisation while working from home have experienced a productivity drop. In contrast, a large majority (86%) of those who feel very visible at work have reported maintaining or increasing productivity levels since working remotely. 

This confirms that when employees do not feel visible internally, their productivity plummets. I spoke to an expert, Gabrielle Adams, Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Psychology and Director of Executive Education at the University of Virginia, to understand why this is. She explained that visibility feeds into employees’ sense of belonging. This in turn elevates a team from simply completing set tasks to being motivated to support their whole organisation in achieving its goals.

Bringing people together in a remote working world

Based on the amount of business leaders speaking positively about their experiences managing a remote workforce, the incoming productivity drop has not been felt yet as employees are currently burning through the social capital they accrued while working in the same physical location as their colleagues. However, this cannot power remote working indefinitely. This will be most evident when change comes, either with employees returning from furlough, new team members beginning roles remotely, or people moving teams and beginning new projects, as they won’t have previously accrued social capital to leverage. As such, many organisations are headed towards a significant decline in productivity levels.

Gabrielle Adams advised that companies must create an organisational climate and culture that facilitates this sense of belonging and bolsters employee visibility.

So the question is: how can employers achieve this?

The first step is simply understanding that relationships between people power organisations and groups. Knowing who is who, where everyone fits in, and how to quickly get hold of the right person breaks down silos and unlocks potential. 

Secondly, communicate frequently and openly. Internal communication is always important, but with many companies making plans for employees to work remotely for the foreseeable future, and those who have been furloughed for several months now re-entering the workforce, COVID-19 has pushed it to new levels of importance. 

Business leaders should consider the tools that best enable active, two-way dialogue. None of this communication has to be lengthy, but it should be frequent - and not always focused on the workplace. Regularly checking in with individual team members on how they are coping with the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on their life will go a long way towards making them feel visible and valued. 

Thirdly, give your people a tool to help them recognise, remember, and discover individuals in their organisation. This creates better awareness of employees outside of their own teams, fostering a sense of belonging, inclusion, and therefore visibility, and increases productivity. According to our research, employees who need to identify relevant people to help them with their job while working remotely spend on average 19 minutes every day on this task. Multiplied up to a scaling business - where every minute counts - that’s more than an hour and a half a week, per person.

The most popular way of identifying this person is to ask a colleague (53%), which also requires said colleague to break from their own work. Only one fifth of people (22%) use an employee directory tool for this purpose, implying that many organisations do not understand the value of employees being easily able to identify people outside their team. 

Taking the three steps outlined, business leaders can address these issues of the new working environment head on to ensure that they are creating a productive community for the future of work.