In the last two years, many studies have been conducted on worker productivity. True, there were some before, but the two pandemic years and the introduction of hybrid work, which, whether we like it or not, has entered our lives, has also affected worker productivity. While employers mostly believe that workers who work and sit in offices are more productive, employees mostly believe they are more productive when working remotely. This could summarize all the extensive research that has emerged in recent years. But how to encourage productivity regardless of where one works and how to generally stimulate it is a million-dollar question.
Productivity vs. Diligence
As the term itself suggests, ‘productivity’ denotes the ability to achieve desired products (results, goals). Many mistakenly equate it with diligence, that is, performing a large amount of work in a certain period. Therefore, we often hear many say: ‘Today I was really productive – I did a lot of work.’ For many managers, it is a source of satisfaction and a sense of achievement when they see their people working hard. However, Tanja Pureta, owner and director of Ramira, a consulting company specializing in human resource management and organizational development, says that a lot of work does not, by itself, achieve the desired results; moreover, it can exhaust people significantly, moving them further away from achieving goals. There is also a saying that describes this phenomenon: A lot of buzz, little honey.
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– Therefore, the key to productivity lies in setting clear and realistic goals, that is, in presenting to people as clearly as possible what specific results we expect from them. A manager should explain to each employee what they need to do, why it is important, when it needs to be completed, and how the final result should look. This way, productivity can be easily tracked and measured: if an employee has achieved the agreed result, it means they were productive. If not, then they were not productive, regardless of how much work they may have done – explains Pureta.
A Sense of Purpose
Ana Jadrešin, a senior employment consultant at ManpowerGroup Croatia and Assert Croatia, is on a similar track, stating that her experience shows that people are more productive when they have a sense of autonomy and freedom of choice, including managing their own time.
– Focusing solely on personal goals will result in employees of the same company viewing each other with suspicion and perceiving each other as opposing sides and/or competition – says Jadrešin, adding another crucial factor that affects both productivity and worker satisfaction, regardless of whether they work remotely or in the office, which is a sense of purpose, or the meaningfulness of the work they perform.
Such employees are much more motivated and efficient. Jadrešin claims that fostering a sense of purpose is just one of the ways to strengthen employees’ internal motivation, which employers, unfortunately, still neglect, focusing primarily on stimulating productivity through external motivation of their employees, such as bonuses and other material rewards.
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The Director of Human Resources at Dukat, Helena Karasić, believes that to increase or maintain productivity, it is necessary to continuously invest in employees on several levels: financial, educational, and psychological. Companies, she says, need to think about goals in order to stimulate the level of employee productivity accordingly, which is a key prerequisite for meeting KPIs.
– Stimulating productivity is the result of multiple factors because it needs to satisfy the different interests of employees that motivate them. For example, for some, a good financial compensation may be sufficient motivation, while others enjoy having a dynamic and challenging job, and some may want both. To get an individual, and then a company where productivity is high, one needs to think about the entire collective – says Karasić, adding that it is crucial for productivity to have an adequate pay system, especially the variable part, and that it is necessary to invest in skills and employee development, educating them according to the needs of the job they perform to improve their work or help them solve challenges they encounter during it.
Goals Motivate
In addition to clearly set goals, which means they should be as specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and have a deadline by which they should be achieved, there are other important recommendations for stimulating productivity. One of them is that managers should involve employees in setting goals because they are the ones required to realize those goals. Moreover, they, with their knowledge and concrete experience in their work role, can best contribute to their specification. Additionally, this inclusion in setting goals in the role of an equal partner rather than as a passive deliverer of results strongly motivates employees.
– This way, employees feel important and therefore perceive the company’s goal as their own. This gives them genuine motivation to overcome obstacles that arise on their path to achieving the set goal – explains Pureta.
Of course, productivity can also be stimulated materially, but also by reducing the number of working hours, which is applied in the company Manpower Group.
– Along with a bonus system linked to achieved performance, we recently introduced a four-day work week at ManpowerGroup. This brings many benefits for employees, and then for the company as a whole, including greater satisfaction, motivation, productivity, and overall employee well-being. Highly motivated employees whose work is valued based on performance, that is, achieved results, rather than the number of hours spent at work, practically achieve results at least equal to before, but with fewer resources invested – says Jadrešin.
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Employee motivation is the most important for productivity, but everyone has different motives, so it is important to have a package of resources that serve to stimulate productivity to ensure that most employees remain motivated.
– I would emphasize that a significant role in productivity, besides various resources such as the variable part of salaries, incentives, education, and the like, is the relationship of employees within the team and the relationship between the leader and the team. It should not be overlooked that sometimes just a kind word and praise for a job well done can greatly motivate – says Karasić.
Wherever one works, productivity can and must be stimulated in the aforementioned ways. Regardless of where and what you do, a manager or supervisor should ensure regular communication about short-term and long-term goals, activities, and achievements with each employee and with the team they lead. Many managers fear that employees will ‘slack off’ if they are not kept in sight all day. However, if they have defined goals and deadlines together with them and regularly check the realization of activities necessary to achieve the goals, then their execution is the only measure of productivity – regardless of whether it happens in the office or from home. The problem arises when activities are not executed, and goals are not achieved, because then it is necessary to work together with the employee to find the causes of this and systematically resolve them. It is possible that neither the manager nor the members of their team know how to manage time and their own energy to achieve goals, so this is a skill that needs to be mastered for productive work regardless of the workplace.
