Businesses place a premium on efficiency. That’s understandable – as the saying goes, time is money, so the faster they complete tasks, the more money they make. And, under ordinary circumstances, focusing on efficiency is a reasonable thing to do. It may not rank above quality or accuracy, but it isn’t far behind. The question is, why have we invested so much in efficiency?
With staff in newly and unexpectedly remote roles, the fact is that it may not make sense to focus on maximizing efficiency anymore. Instead, this could be the perfect time to examine your company’s overall culture and how you conceive of your professional priorities. By taking efficiency out of the spotlight, you may realize there are other ways to measure success.
Means Of Measurement
At the most basic level, efficiency is short hand for time or, more accurately, man-hours. How many people did it take to complete a task and how long did it take them to do so? Furthermore, did they get sidetracked or run into any challenges that compromised the team’s ability to complete the assignment? Most of the time, managers don’t articulate all of those factors, but those are the unspoken expectations.
Another way of measuring staff achievement in the midst of the current crisis is by relying on more precise metrics. Your business undoubtedly has a set of key performance indicators (KPIs) that provide meaningful insights into how well staff are meeting performance targets. You should be using these KPIs to evaluate staff performance anyway, but given that everyone is struggling with focus, work-life balance, and other issues right now, they should act as a primary gauge of worker success.
Consider Community
KPIs let managers clearly evaluate staff performance on projects, but if your staff are miserably dragging their feet through each work day because operating remotely is so difficult and unpleasant, it doesn’t matter. And it doesn’t matter because they may quit or, at the very least, become so demotivated that their effectiveness will drop. Remote work may not be optimal but it shouldn’t be miserable.
Instead of accepting that remote work is hard and unpleasant and acting as though nothing can be done, managers need to take steps to proactively support their team and develop a robust remote work culture. The simplest way to do this is by choosing appropriate tools, such as a social intranet, that both allow you to manage projects and to meaningfully connect with team members. What it doesn’t mean: forcing your newly remote team to participate in silly games, attend remote happy hour, or otherwise cut into their completely reorganized home lives. Management’s goal should be to keep remote staff feeling included and supported, and that means giving them the right tools, not loading them up with extra activities and community building kitsch.
Efficiency frameworks have undoubtedly been responsible for a lot of worker burnout in years past, and it’s an even less sustainable approach right now. Instead, set clear expectations, keep the lines of communication open, and step back. You can have a supportive, productive work culture without being overbearing or forcing artificial cheerfulness – the right program, specifically a social intranet, will serve as your bedrock.