The No. 1 challenge Fortune 500 executives are currently facing with employees, according to new research from Atlassian, is low productivity. The study involved surveying 100 Fortune 500 and 100 Fortune 1000 executives, and nearly half (43%) identified low productivity as their biggest organizational challenge.
That said, interestingly, executives are more concerned about employee productivity than bringing them back to the office. Despite only a third of executives with an in-office mandate believing in-office policies have impacted productivity, 76% of Fortune 500 executives are more concerned about how their teams are working rather than where they work.
This concern about productivity is not a new trend. At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a surge in productivity – yet short-lived. In the first half of 2022, productivity experienced the sharpest rate of decline on record since 1947. However, productivity has been improving, with a 5.2% growth in the past summer, the fastest pace since 2020. Unfortunately, despite this serious improvement, executives still struggle to trust in employees and believe they’re working effectively without the type of constant supervision usually received while working in-office.
That said, the decline in employee productivity is attributed to various factors. Some CEOs blame remote work, arguing working from home makes it easier for employees to exert less effort.
Recently Microsoft introduced the term “productivity paranoia” to describe managers’ anxieties regarding remote and hybrid employees’ work efforts since they are unable to actually observe how people are working.
The Atlassian report highlights major challenges in remote work, including decreased organizational loyalty and difficulties coordinating tasks effectively. On the other hand, economists and human resource leaders attribute the decline in productivity to factors such as a sluggish economy and higher job turnover. In fact, Gallup reports employee disengagement costs the world $8.8 trillion in lost productivity, equivalent to 9% of global GDP.
To address declining productivity, Atlassian suggests focusing less on output and more on how employees structure schedules and collaborate – thus encouraging employees to spend around 30-40% of their week in “focus time”. This would help block off consistent “open collaboration” time each week to be responsive to messages, jump on a call, or just say “hi” to their teammates which also helped employees work more effectively.
Bottom line – it’s about reorganizing your time to be more focused and deliberate about what you want to accomplish and when. When employees feel as if they have enough time to get their most important work done, and the support to do so, it’s easier for them to deliver better results.
