Are you killing your firm’s WFH productivity?

Are you killing your firm’s WFH productivity?

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WFH during COVID did result in the falling of productivity that many feared. Surveys showed that productivity remained the same and, in some cases, increased. However, a new study of more than 10,000 employees at an Asian technology company from April 2019 to August 2020 provides a different picture. Using software installed on employees’ computers that tracked what the employee was doing, the research confirmed that the employees worked hard. Total hours worked were 30% higher than pre-COVID, including an 18% increase in working outside regular hours. But this additional effort failed to translate into an increase in output. 

This research confirms early survey evidence where both employers and employees felt they were producing as much as before. However, the correct measure of productivity is output per working hour, not hours worked. Using this measure of productivity, productivity fell by 20%.

The research further analyzed the time the employees spent in:

  • “collaboration hours,” time spent in various types of meetings, and
  • “focus hours,” time where they could concentrate on their tasks and weren’t interrupted, even by email. 

The data showed that despite working additional hours, the employees had less focus time than before the pandemic as meetings consumed the extra time. The study supports Bartleby’s law which states that “80% of the time of 80% of the people in meetings is wasted.”

Why were there so many meetings?

  1. Managers can check on their team’s performance as they are less sure of the team’s commitment.
  2. Managers call many to validate their existence when they are not in the office. 
  3. The increased difficulty of co-ordinating employees who are working remotely. 

The latter suggests that WFM is inefficient, not to mention that remote employees also spend less time being evaluated, trained, and coached.

So, while workers saved commuting time, they didn’t hourly pay fell. However, WFH did not impact all employees similarly.

  • Those who the longest tenure with the company were the most productive, suggesting they could use well-formed relationships to work more effectively. Simon Sinek explained this in a recent video. 
  • Employees with children worked around 20 minutes a day more than those without, implying an even more significant fall in their productivity, presumably because they were distracted by child-care duties.

The researchers point out that the firm’s staff are nearly all college-educated whose roles “involve significant cognitive work, developing new software or hardware applications or solutions, collaborating with teams of professionals, working with clients, and engaging in innovation and continuous improvement.” The impact on other types of employees could be very different.

WFH expectedly resulted in teething and coordination problems as it was imposed suddenly. However, since the study stopped last August, there is a question of whether employee productivity has increased since. Most important from the research is that employees achieved the same output with slightly less ‘focus time’ than at the office. The real culprit of inefficiency was the time spent in meetings. 

Conclusion

So, to increase your firm’s productivity, don’t have as many meetings and keep them short. Ensure that the behaviors you accept and expect as part of your firm’s culture are not encouraging non-productive meetings. Also, with a move for more WFH, start building behaviors that will encourage meeting efficiency. Finally, there are a number of ways to improve meeting productivity as I mentioned in Not Another **** Meeting.

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Not Another **** Meeting

Not Another **** Meeting

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As I have mentioned before, we are all tied of Zoom, and the meetings seem never-ending. However, with COVID, I hear from many people that they are tired of Zoom meetings and actual meetings. As someone recently said, “We are having more meetings now than ever, and everyone is tired of meetings.”

It easy to suffer meeting fatigue, especially at times like this. So how do you reduce meeting fatigue? I think there are several ways.

 

Do you need a meeting?

It is too easy to have meetings today, especially with Zoom and our lack of social interaction. However, just because it is easy doesn’t mean that it has to happen. Undoubtedly everyone has seen those mugs and memes – “I survived another meeting that could have been an email.” So before calling a meeting, determine several things:

  • What is the purpose of the meeting?
  • What is the expected outcome of the meeting?
  • How needs to attend?
  • How long should it be?

If you cannot easily articulate the first two, then you don’t need a meeting. If you can, “Who needs to attend?” should be easy to determine. Keep it limited to only those who need to attend because making it large and wasting people’s time will reinforce “death by meeting.”

Finally, as Leonard Bernstein put it so well, “To achieve great things, two things are needed: a plan and not quite enough time.” Keep the meeting short, which keeps pressure on everyone to get its purpose accomplished within the time because no one needs another session.

 

A Meeting Agenda

Having determined that a meeting is necessary, put together a meeting agenda with time allocation. As Bernstein’s quote above states, you need “a PLAN.” Your agenda is the PLAN. So, lay out all the parts you want to cover in the meeting, the estimated time for each item, and the takeaways. Not the specific outcomes, but that there will be an agreed date, action item, responsibility.

Once you prepare the schedule, share it with the invitees, so they understand the expectations and determine if they need to attend. For example, an agenda could look like the following.

Item Outcome Time
1 Introductions & Purpose 5 minutes
2 Update on project status – Just each step’s status
  • On Schedule
  • Of Concern
  • Behind Schedule
 5 – 10 minutes
3 Review of those items “Of Concern” and “Behind Schedule.” Action Items, To-Do List 45 minutes
4 Review of meeting outcome and schedule of next meeting if needed Confirmation of Who, What, and When 5 minutes

The above agenda provides expectations of the meeting’s purpose, the expected outcomes, and how long the session will last. Without results, the meeting becomes a discussion with no solutions. I remember leaving a board meeting once where I was only an adviser, saying I would never attend another because, to paraphrase Samuel Beckett, “Nothing happens. Nobody commits; nobody is held accountable. It’s awful.”

 

Meeting Rhythms

Now just because we are suffering meeting fatigue doesn’t mean we don’t need meetings. For meetings to have value, they need a rhythm that is a continuous circle of meetings. Each session has a specific purpose, outcome, and time allocation. As Verne Harnish put it, “Goals without routines are wishes; routines without goals are aimless.” If you follow Rockefeller Habits, the 7 Attributes of Agile Leadership™, which I use, or EOS™, meeting rhythms will not be new.

However, whatever meeting rhythm you have, the key is to ensure the relevant data, financial, KPIs, etc. is circulated to all members prior to the meeting. Spending a large portion of the meeting receiving the data through PowerPoint presentations has a number of effects:

  1. It is just a huge waste of time. We can all read faster than we speak.
  2. Attendees tend to check out and so miss key pieces of information that may be presented.
  3. Giving people time to review and process the information will lead to better discussions.
  4. It increases “Death by PowerPoint,” and an aversion to meetings.

The ideal Meeting Rhythms for a company are below.

Daily Huddle

The Daily Huddle is a daily alignment meeting that lasts 10 or 15 minutes—done standing. All employees attend, and anyone not present should call in. If this seems complicated, remember General Stanley McChrystal, while in Iraq as Commander of JSOC from 2003 to 2008, did a daily huddle involving 50 people. However, he soon realized that the huddles needed to change to adjust to battlefield conditions, so they were expanded to include 7,500 people and run for 90 minutes.

The purpose is to synchronize activities across the organization and provide a daily forum for activity updates and scheduling. Each team member should contribute. However, it is paramount for the leader (CEO) to make sure it is too valuable to miss.

Sample Agenda:
  • Headlines: Good news (personal and business). The aim is to make the attendees relaxed and build camaraderie.
  • News: Any news from the previous day relevant to the entire team. Align on the Number One Priority for today
  • KPIs: Review yesterday’s numbers and each persons’ progress regarding their stated Critical Numbers and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
  • Issues: Any issues employees have encountered preventing them from moving forward on the Number One Priority for the day.
  • Rocks: The most crucial task each team member is committed to accomplishing that day. The statement starts with: “Today I will commit to accomplishing…”

Weekly Meeting

The Weekly Meeting ensures the weekly execution of Quarterly Rocks’ sub priorities. This meeting should be 60 to 90 minutes.

Participants should prepare to discuss results, KPIs, accomplishments, Rock updates, and their respective Priorities for the upcoming week. The meeting is not to solve significant strategic issues but to resolve most minor matters relevant to the monthly or quarterly plan and problems from the Daily Huddle.

Maintain focused discipline on the time frame and make every minute count. Reward and recognize good performance

Sample Agenda
  • News: Wins both personal and business
  • CEO Update: On the prior week or week ahead. Making the meeting “a not to be missed!”
  • KPIs: Did the team have a good week or a bad week? How is the team performing on Critical Numbers? How is overall performance?
  • Department-level Quarterly Rocks Review: Is the team on track or off-track for the quarterly goals? What Priorities are going well? What Priorities require fixing? Completed and open assignments?
  • Customer/Employee headlines: What are customers saying? What are employees saying?
  • IDS: Identity, Discuss, and Solve important tactical or implementation level issues. Use collective intelligence. Action Items and the “To Do” List. Who What When (WWW)
  • Close: One Phrase by each attendee summing up the meeting.

Monthly Meeting

The monthly meeting is the foundation of strategic execution. The discussion should start with a strategic training topic as part of the management team’s continual education. Frontline, middle and senior manager should attend, and the organization should use it as an opportunity to transfer leadership DNA.

This meeting is a place to discuss significant issues, which will have a long-term impact on the business. As these issues require more time for participants to brainstorm, debate, present ideas, and actively engage with each other to achieve the optimal long-term solution, the meeting should only be one or two topics identified in advance.

This meeting undertakes a review of the prior month’s financial results and the Rock’s execution status, so it should occur as soon as the monthly financials are available.

Sample Agenda
  • News. Good personal news.
  • Monthly strategic training topic(s)
  • Wins and Misses. Successes and Misses from the prior and current month relating to the achievement of monthly and quarterly business goals.
  • Review of Financial Statements: Monthly focus on Income Statement, Cash Position, and Working Capital.
  • KPIs: Executive report out on Critical Numbers, Metrics, Lead Measures and KPI’s.
  • Quarterly Rocks Review: On track? What is going well? What needs fixing? Where do you need help? Are there processes and inter-departmental flows that need improving?
  • Customer/Employee headlines
  • IDS
  • Close

The Quarterly Meeting

The Quarterly meeting is a time for leadership to assess a variety of strategic issues. The update and execution of The One Page Strategic Plan drive the agenda. Other topics for discussion and resolution are the team’s interpersonal performance, specific elements of the company’s strategy, top-tier and bottom-tier employees, morale, client success and satisfaction, competitive threats, and industry trends. Focus on the four key areas: People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash.

This meeting focuses on executing the subsequent 13-week “Sprint” toward the next waypoint on your company’s 3HAG. The duration of the session is typically half to a full day, depending on company need. It should occur as soon as the quarterly financial results are available.

Sample Agenda
  • Team Exercise or Icebreaker
  • Prior 13 Week Sprint Assessment: Revise incomplete priorities. Review the attainments for the quarter against critical criteria.
  • Financial Performance: CFO Report
  • Next 13 Week Sprint Plan: Review of 1 Year Goals, 1 or 2 Critical Numbers-Upcoming Year & Quarter, Key Company Rocks, Key Metrics/Lead Indicators
  • One Phrase Close

The Annual Strategic Planning Retreat

The annual strategic planning retreat is somewhat similar to the quarterly meeting; however, it is more strategic in scope. Assess the prior annual plan, current realities tested, and formulate a new long-range strategic plan. The yearly retreat focuses on the core ideologies, the BHAG, the development of 3–5-year strategic thrusts that will meaningfully differentiate the company.

The meeting’s duration is typically a whole day to two days, depending on company need, and is held offsite.

There is no need for the plan here as that can be a separate topic; however, in the end, communication of the outcomes to all employees need to be determined. The meeting rhythms should be set annually at the retreat, with the times and dates of all the meetings planned and circulated to everyone that will attend.

1-2-1s

All managers should have weekly 1-2-1s with their direct reports. These meetings should be an hour and the discussion focused on:

  • How is the employee doing?
  • Issues they are facing?
  • Issues that the manager sees?
  • KPIs and objectives for the quarter and year.

It is best if the agenda is agreed upon beforehand to prepare both the manager and direct report. If both know the topics for discussion, the outcome will be more fruitful, and if not, neither may have the requisite information at hand, making the discussion meaningless. Also, this weekly 1-2-1s are providing continuous feedback to the direct report and allowing for incremental improvements. Thus, at the time of the quarterly, or annual, review, there are no surprises, and no one has to recall what has happened over the last year.

If all those meetings seem overwhelming, I think on reflection it should reduce the number of overall meetings make the remaining ones more effective. Hopefully, with this guide your meetings can be more fruitful and engaging, resulting in better outcomes for the organization, the employees, and the managers.

 

(c) Copyright 2021, Marc A. Borrelli

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