Since the onset of COVID-19, there have been significant changes in the global workforce. What started as a brief response soon became a new way organizations do business. With work happening remotely more often, there were new challenges — and new problems — to address.
Because companies are using remote teams more, a discussion has developed and remains common: Do remote workers get less work done? There is disagreement about this issue between business leaders, HR experts, and team managers.
This blog will look into whether remote workers are less productive by examining views, biases, facts from research, and many other factors. We’ll explore results from studies, look at what motivates employees, and learn about remote work to give a detailed solution and methods you can use.
1. StackOverflow reveals why asking the wrong question can be frustrating.
What’s stated in the article, based on the survey, is that the main issue with remote workers may not be that they are unproductive, but how we measure what counts as productivity.
Historically, employers measured employee productivity by watching time on the clock, seeing who showed up at work, and counting meetings. Still, these classic measures do not reflect the increasing focus on outcomes in today’s knowledge work. It pointed out that we should measure how much an activity helps, rather than how visible it is.
It points to a better question: When we say remote workers are less productive, what ticket prices do we mean? Are you paying attention to the results produced, the impact of our strategies, or only our visuals online?
The problem is when old productivity KPIs are transferred to a fresh business situation. If someone only focuses on being seen instead of value, they may likely think that remote workers are less productive despite working faster and better.
2. Organizations are at times in conflict with their employees.
Despite the evidence, there is a large gap: a lot of executives and managers consider remote workers to be less productive, reports Forbes. Because of this perception issue, major companies have been pushing to get workers back in the office.
Tsipursky’s studies emphasize that this situation exists. Many employees say their work gets easier and is more rewarding, and productivity has increased when working from home, yet their managers continue to doubt it, mainly due to a lack of clear proof. The result? Opposition to remote work that isn’t based on strong evidence.
According to an LA Times report, even when the companies’ work was not affected, their leaders chose to bring staff back to the office out of uneasiness. The myth that remote workers work less strongly arose out of discomfort among managers instead of actual proof of ineffectiveness.
This highlights an important problem: believing what people think instead of looking at the real evidence.
3. Cognitive Bias and Visibility Heuristics is a useful term.
In order to explore this issue, we should look at an idea from cognitive psychology called proximity bias. This is when people are more likely to support those who are near them.
Managers in workplaces tend to believe that employees they come across daily, such as in the hallway or during meetings, are more dedicated. When you consider visibility heuristics, which make people believe seeing something means it is better at its job, you have the perfect way to confuse someone’s mind.
That type of bias means some managers assume remote workers are less productive, regardless of any performance statistics. If an employee’s work is less noticed, there’s always a chance their efforts will be questioned.
Evidence suggests that having a bad perception of remote work can cause managers to treat productive remote workers unfairly, simply because they aren’t visible.
4. Remote Work at the Expense of Productivity
Although most of the bias is imagined, there are times when remote workers are less productive, and these reasons usually come from how the organization is arranged rather than the remote setup.
- Anita Lettink outlines on her blog a range of situations that can lead to true reductions in team productivity.
- Indirect directions: Staff working from home struggle if goals aren’t well defined.
- If communication is not effective and meetings don’t follow a plan, then productivity drops.
- If you are missing the proper tools or your processes aren’t lined up, progress may slow down.
A lot of developers on Reddit reported that their productivity was lower during the early steps of working remotely. The problems included being left on your own at home, waiting for feedback, and misunderstandings. Many of them found that as time went on and management improved, productivity either matched their previous levels or grew.
A lack of unity in work-related systems decreases remote workers’ productivity. Yet, this doesn’t show that remote work has no value. In other words, the rules in place could use some perfecting.
5. Summing Up Hybrid Work Complications: You’re Neither Here Nor There
One funny problem with hybrid models — claimed to be the ultimate solution — is that they lead people to think that working remotely decreases productivity.
The Harvard Business Review studied hybrid environments and discovered that they most often cause people to:
- Teams not understanding what’s required of them
- Not all students have the same chances to hold positions or learn new knowledge
- Problems arise when remote workers are struggling to collaborate with those who are not.
- It’s impossible to avoid comparing those who work at home and those who are at the office when the team is split. With remote work again in the spotlight, it’s simple but incorrect to conclude that distant workers are less efficient.
Besides, not having all policies made the same can cause problems and waste time for both staff, yet remote workers are more seriously affected. As a result, performance measurements are not accurate and can bias people’s views.
6. Giving Visibility to Work from Home
If people can’t see their presence, the answer is not to make them work together on-site but to highlight what counts as valuable work in a remote setting.
How can leaders resolve this and make sure that remote work is central to their team’s efforts?
- Make performance reviews. Focus on what was accomplished. Focus on what your employees achieve instead of logging hours.
- Make use of asynchronous communication apps. Thanks to Slack, Tivazo, and Loom, you can remain clear about your tasks without always being online.
- Encourage documentation
Build consistency into processes, maintain a record of milestones, and let everyone track deliverables to prevent assuming details. - The point isn’t to measure if remote workers are less or more effective; it’s to show that the definition of productivity has shifted. Correcting or revealing hidden things, especially with customers, helps to strengthen trust and make people’s assumptions better align.
Conclusion
Then the question is, are those working remotely less productive?
The issue isn’t easily solved with just a yes or no answer. Though remote workers are less productive when systems are badly organized or when activities are not clearly explained, this doesn’t always happen. When teams are set up in an environment designed for remote work, with clear purposes, strong technology, and confidence in the leaders, such teams can even outperform those that aren’t remote.
Too many companies cloud their understanding by measuring old numbers, focusing on stereotypical ideas, and making sure everyone can follow the latest trends. When businesses face these challenges and think differently about productivity, they get to enjoy all the perks of remote work, plus extra improvements at work.
It’s important for leaders, HR managers, and team members to shift attention from wondering if remote employees are less productive to finding new methods of tracking productivity today.