{"id":125,"date":"2021-08-17T09:55:15","date_gmt":"2021-08-17T09:55:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.viewshub.com\/theloop\/?p=125"},"modified":"2021-08-17T16:21:52","modified_gmt":"2021-08-17T16:21:52","slug":"the-case-for-productivity-over-efficiency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.viewshub.com\/theloop\/2021\/08\/17\/the-case-for-productivity-over-efficiency\/","title":{"rendered":"The case for productivity over efficiency"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Michael Mankins<\/strong> is Partner at Bain & Company<\/strong>. Michael leads the firm’s Organisation Design, Corporate Strategy and Transformation efforts. Much of his work has focused on the strategic and organisational initiatives that drive performance and long-term value.

He is co-author of: Time, Talent, Energy: Overcome Organizational Drag and Unleash Your Team’s Productive Power<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why should business leaders prioritize workplace productivity over efficiency?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michael: <\/strong>Many leaders think of productivity and efficiency as being synonyms.  But a productivity mindset is very different from an efficiency mindset. 

Efficiency is about producing the same output, with less input.  It\u2019s about reducing the denominator \u2013 most typically, labour hours \u2013 at a faster rate than the numerator, unit production.  Efficiency is about \u201ctrimming fat\u201d and \u201creducing waste\u201d \u2013 both very admirable objectives.

Productivity, by contrast, is about producing more output, with the same input.  It\u2019s about removing obstacles to production so that the numerator increases at a faster rate than the denominator. Productivity requires simplifying work and focusing only on those tasks most critical to satisfying customers and fuelling growth.

As we emerge from the COVID pandemic, companies will once again be searching for avenues for growth and profitability. Improving productivity will be essential to identifying and capitalizing on these new growth opportunities.  In fact, an excessive focus on efficiency can inadvertently result in cutting essential fuel for growth \u2013 namely, the critical talent and capabilities required to satisfy more customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What impact is the pandemic driven shift to remote working likely to have on workforce productivity both in the short-term and long-term?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michael: <\/strong>Our research suggests that Shelter-In-Place and Work-From-Home restrictions spawned by COVID-19 have widened the productivity gap between the best companies \u2013 those in the top quartile of our research sample \u2013 and the rest (the average of the remaining three quartiles). 

Those companies that were collaborating effectively before the pandemic have found ways to productively utilise the additional time most employees have been able to devote to work each week.  Furthermore, remote work has enabled a company\u2019s most productive employees to engage in a wider number of topics and initiatives than they had previously been able to support \u2013 multiplying the impact that these individuals have on company performance.  And, finally, the best companies have found ways to continue to engage and inspire their teams, encouraging employees to bring more of their discretionary energy to the work that they do. 

Most companies have seen productivity fall during the pandemic. Ineffective collaboration has resulted in more time being devoted to internal meetings \u2013 with the average company seeing the total time wasted on internal meetings increase by three per cent or more.  Many of these same companies have seen their best performing employees leave the workforce \u2013 unable to balance the needs of work and family and feeling insufficiently supported by their employers.  Finally, the distance created by remote work has led employee engagement at many firms to fall precipitously during lockdown.  The combined effect of all this: productivity at most companies has fallen by five per cent or more when compared to pre-COVID levels.

Our research suggests that prior to the pandemic, the best companies were 40 per cent more productive than the rest.  However, the current environment has widened this productivity gap.  We now estimate that the best companies are 50 per cent more productive than the rest.  Unless leaders take specific actions to reduce organisational drag in their companies, this gap is likely to persist for many years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How can businesses drive more effective collaboration between teams in the current environment?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michael: <\/strong>In our experience, most employees come to work every day wanting to be productive.  But, too often, the organisation drags them down.  Complex processes and procedures waste time and limit productivity. Unclear roles and responsibilities mean that too many people are required to make decisions (or, worse, no one is empowered to make them).  Finally, a culture that confuses \u201cinclusion\u201d with \u201ccollaboration\u201d further limits the productivity of an organisation\u2019s best talent.

Organisational drag has intensified for most organisations under COVID.  The total organisational time consumed by corporate bureaucracy has increased with remote work \u2013 largely due to the number of meetings increasing and the total number of attendees per meeting also increasing. Accordingly, the current environment requires extra vigilance when it comes to organisational drag.

Leaders must identify the sources of \u201corganisational drag\u201d in their company.  They must seek to simply process and eliminate unnecessary procedures. They must clarify roles and responsibilities \u2013 ensuring that only those individuals required to make a decision are involved in making it (and not one person more). And they should take a critical eye to their company\u2019s culture.  They must themselves be a role model for the right behaviours \u2013 delegating authority for decisions, when appropriate, and limiting the number of attendees to most meetings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What can businesses do to better bridge the growing productivity gap you have observed?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michael: <\/strong>Complexity is the silent killer of workforce productivity and, therefore, of growth and profitability.  Unnecessarily complex processes waste scarce time and talent. They also make attracting new, difference-making talent more difficult.  So, if we were to give most executives one piece of advice it would be: \u201csimplify, simplify, simplify\u201d.

As important, however, is the deployment of star talent.  An organisation\u2019s best talent is many multiples more productive than average. The best companies recognise this and seek to put their difference making talent in roles where they can make the biggest difference on performance. This requires the identification of business-critical roles \u2013 that is, the five per cent of roles that explain 95 per cent of a company\u2019s ability to devise and execute its strategy. It requires a willingness to concentrate a company\u2019s best talent in these roles. And it demands that a company\u2019s best leaders be put in charge of its best teams. Concentrating great talent in this way creates a \u201cforce multiplier\u201d on performance.

Finally, employee engagement and inspiration has never been more important.  An engaged employee is 45 per cent more productive than a merely satisfied worker.  And an inspired employee \u2013 one that is deeply connected to the mission of the company and\/or its leaders \u2013 is 55 per cent more productive than an engaged employee (or 125 per cent more productive than a satisfied worker). Investments in employee engagement and inspiration, in our experience, pay very high dividends in terms of workforce productivity for the very best companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What role does effective feedback have to play in improving workplace productivity, including in a remote working environment?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michael: <\/strong>Feedback is always important to employee development \u2013 and, ultimately, to productivity.  It is not more \u2013 or less \u2013 important in a remote working environment.  However, feedback does need to be more intentional in a remote work environment.  After all, supervisors cannot rely on routine \u201challway chats\u201d to share ideas and insights or provide counsel on development priorities.  Companies that have open, honest and direct communication regarding expectations and performance help employees get better.  Feedback doesn\u2019t have to be more elaborate in the current working environment, but it does need to be more planned and more explicit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why business leaders should prioritize workplace productivity over efficiency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":126,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[15,23,16,22,19,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewshub.com\/theloop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewshub.com\/theloop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewshub.com\/theloop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewshub.com\/theloop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewshub.com\/theloop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewshub.com\/theloop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":161,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewshub.com\/theloop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125\/revisions\/161"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewshub.com\/theloop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewshub.com\/theloop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewshub.com\/theloop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewshub.com\/theloop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}