Think you’re productive at work? Your manager doesn’t think so. Here's why

About 93 per cent of employees in India feel they are productive at work but a whopping 91 per cent of the leaders seem to disagree, indicating a disconnect between employees and leaders during hybrid work, according to country-specific findings from Microsoft’s 2022 Work Trend Index Pulse Report released on Thursday.  

The study found that 91 per cent of leaders in India say the shift to hybrid work has made it challenging to have confidence in employees being productive, according to the findings summarised in the report.

The report highlighted that the hyper focus on productivity is impacting health and wellbeing as 47 per cent of employees and 58 per cent of leaders in India report that they’re already burnt out at work.  

Calling for “ending productivity paranoia" as one of the three urgent pivots every leader needs to make to improve the success of hybrid work, the report said it is “imperative that leaders need to create clarity and alignment around company goals, eliminate busywork that doesn’t support those goals and listen to their people”.  

However, the data shows that only 44 per cent of companies rarely, if ever, collect employee feedback. Only 56 per cent of employees in India can confidently say that their company solicits employee feedback at least once a year. This means that just under half of the companies in India hear about their employees’ experiences at work (44% versus a global average of 57 per cent), it said.  

Suman Gopalan, the CHRO of Freshworks, who was a part of the round table organised by Microsoft to discuss the findings, said productivity is not about the number of hours or being physically present. If that were the metric, people were hyper productive during the pandemic, she added.  “It’s now defined by outcomes or impact. It’s about what you deliver and the impact you create. Organisations are moving away from busy work to creating meaningful impact and agile ways of working rather than the traditional ways of working. It’s now about how do we align people around a common purpose and then allowing people to go away and do their work.” 

 Saumya Khati, SVP & Head HR, Shiprocket, said they had not seen a sip in employee effort during the pandemic. “We launched more products during the pandemic, actually. Productivity is the output. What we need to control is the input metric. That way you can course correct whenever required.” 

What can bring employees back to office? Their teammates!  

Besides, 93 per cent of leaders in India say getting employees back to the office in-person is a concern, while 80 per cent of employees in India say they need a better reason to go into the office besides company expectations, but they would be motivated to go for other reasons.  

The report finds that people are most likely to come in for each other than any other reason. 91 per cent of employees in India would be motivated by the promise of socialising with coworkers and 92 per cent by the prospect of rebuilding team bonds.  

“Thriving employees are what will give organizations a competitive advantage in today’s ever evolving economic environment,” said Bhaskar Basu, Country Head – Modern Work, Microsoft India. “To bridge this gap, a new approach is needed that recognizes work is no longer just a place, but an experience that needs to keep employees engaged and connected, no matter where they are working from.” 

The report is based on an external study of 20,000 people in 11 countries, including India, drawing on analysis of trillions of Microsoft 365 productivity signals, LinkedIn labor trends and Glint People Science insights. 

Also read: Watch: Infosys opens digital centre in Canada’s Calgary; to create 1,000 new jobs by 2024

Also read: Jobs in the time of festivals! Hiring up 13% on-year in Sept, shows Naukri report