Work Smart Now

How to Jump-Start Productivity, Empower Employees, and Achieve More

Richard Polak

• Publisher: Skyhorse
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781510759831
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business Communication
• Index: Business

From one of the top HR specialists in the world comes this much-needed guide to help people maximize productivity and increase revenue. Whether it's in corporate America or in our own living rooms, people are wasting time. From the minute we wake up and check our Facebook page or emails—before we even crawl out of bed—to late at night when we stay up longer than we should, watching our favorite show. There's a precise moment that falls between working enough hours to be productive and working too many hours, yielding a diminishing marginal return. The difference between the person able to master this and most Americans that fail miserably at it is quality of life! If one continues to work past this moment, a negative return will ensue, and that negative return produces guilt. It lowers the amount of time for recreational activities and spending time with family. We've siloed productivity to our work life, however; the impact on our personal life is often loss. An alarming 39% of workers in high-tech companies believe they are depressed, as reported by PC Magazine in December 2018. 72% of people who have daily stress and anxiety say it interferes with their lives—anxiety and stress alone have reduced productivity by 56%. More than 80% of people have experienced some form of anxiety, stress, or depression in the workplace. People are spending more time at work than at home or with their loved ones; or, if they are at home, they are working. They are always "on." As a result of this disparity, people are not fully living their lives. And the "work-life balance" marketed by some HR consulting firms and employers simply does not work. It's all work and no life! Studies have also proven that when people are unhappy in their personal lives or careers, their productivity goes down and everything and everyone around them suffers. This causes a domino effect, which trickles into every area of their lives. Previous generations used to say, "Work harder, " but we've now learned we must "work smarter." Polak has practiced and tested his methods in hundreds of opportunities and has been paid millions by the largest corporations in the world to share these tools. He feels that every individual and business should have these tools, and will share them with us here.

CHAPTER ONE

The Coffee Klatch
and Research
(There Is Science Involved)

Our story opens in the conference room of the CEO. This room has a rich feel. Centered is a mahogany conference table—not a scratch on it. Sitting around the table are three employees, all well-dressed (but no suits or ties— business casual). Three employees are on the screen calling in from their home offices. The room is replete with modern technology and state-of-the-art communication tools: large monitors on both walls, HD cameras, and more. Big business is conducted in this room. If the room could talk, it would say “success.”

CEO: Hello, everyone. It’s good to see you. Thank you all for attending this coffee klatch. Does anybody have any idea why I’ve asked you to join me? (pause from the group)

CEO: There is no wrong answer.

Bethany: We’re all getting raises?

CEO: (pause) I love your sense of humor.

(some soft laughter)

Bethany: We’re all getting fired.

CEO: Wrong answer again. Bethany, these are extremes. I wonder what’s going on with your work . . . just kidding.

Kent: Some of us are getting fired?

CEO: Well, I can see this is going to be fun. I’ve asked you all to join me today so I can receive honest feedback about an initiative I plan to launch. I know it might sound odd that the CEO wants honest feedback, but it’s true. I need it. I can’t help the organization or yourselves if I don’t get honest feedback.

Milton: Why us?

CEO: You are each leaders in your area.

Kent: (inflating his chest) Yes, I guess we are.

Bethany: Is the company doing okay?

CEO: The company is doing fine. But fine is not good enough—not for me, and it shouldn’t be for you either. I want us to improve. Essentially, this is and should be the same mission for every corporation. My job is to do the best I can for everyone with a vested interest in the company, its stakeholders, and its shareholders. And while you might or might not be shareholders, I consider you stakeholders. You all come from different departments: marketing, sales, operations, finance, and administration. That’s by design. I want a balanced perspective on my plans and how they might impact different parts of the organization. Any questions? (no questions)

CEO: Everything we talk about here today and in future coffee klatches—if you agree to attend—will remain confidential. I might take action based on the feedback I receive from you, but nobody’s name will be used in the process except in a positive light if I feel that would help you and the company.

(Attendees in the room are appropriately respectful, listening, some fidgeting due to nerves)

CEO: Now, what I plan to do today is to take us all on a journey.

Kent: (excited) Hawaii?

CEO: A personal journey. A corporation looking to grow has two choices: increase revenue or decrease costs in order to make more profit. Remember, profits are good for everybody, including the employees, because profits will be shared with everyone. The journey I hope to take us on will increase revenue rather than cut costs. Cutting costs ultimately leads to less business, unhappy employees, and disengagement. It’s better to increase profits by increasing revenue. To do this compassionately, however, we must increase productivity. Now, that does not mean working harder. Not necessarily. Take a look at this chart. (The CEO hands out the following chart.)

CEO: You can see that working harder doesn’t necessarily produce better results. It literally means just working harder. Working harder is important, but working smarter is even more important. Any questions so far?

Bethany: Can you elaborate further on how we can increase productivity without working harder? I’m not quite getting that. I see from the chart that it’s optimal to work two or three hours.

CEO: Yes, that’s true. This is a general chart of productivity. If you were on an assembly line, you could work longer and still be productive. However, if you’re in professional services, two to three hours without a break is your maximum. We’re going to discuss this and many other topics during our journey together. It’ll take time for the company to make changes. In this session, first I’ll show you the data and research that supports what I plan to roll out. Hopefully, I will gain consensus. Second, I’ll talk about all the productivity buckets: absenteeism/presenteeism, well-being, engagement, technology, and, finally, optimizing your own workday and, by extension, improving your lives. It’s the combination of all these together that will make an impact. We have a wellness program. We have some initiatives on engagement, but they are not measured or coordinated together to produce great results. The goal here is not only to increase productivity in our company but also to improve your life’s journey—the two go together. I don’t believe in work/life balance. These are words that are often thrown around the workplace, and I don’t believe it’s an accurate concept. It divides work and life, and that doesn’t make much sense to me. Work is life and life is work. They must be together. I’m taking for granted that you’re all hard workers here. I’m not asking you to work harder. For those in this room, including myself, I know that’s impossible. I’m asking all of us to work smarter. Ready? Let’s get started.

There is a preponderance of research on how increased productivity improves results in an organization and, more importantly, improves results in the lives of its employees. So, there is a way to actually have your cake and eat it, too.

Throughout this book, I will show you documented research I have gathered from a myriad of sources. This supports everything I’ve learned through my experience.

You may look only at the “sound bites” and move on, and there’s nothing wrong with that. I wanted to show you the amount of research because it’s indisputable—human nature does not change. Our great philosophers (who I refer to as the first HR professionals) Plato, Aristotle, Nietzsche, and many more, are long gone, but the principles they established regarding human behavior are the same. As I publish further editions of this book, I will only add to this research list.

Another thing to note about research: follow the money. Some research is driven by self-interest. Some of what you will see is essentially hidden behind sophisticated advertising and promotion. For example, a wellness company doing its own survey on wellness is not credible. After all, would you publish findings that don’t implicitly back up the product that is your livelihood, or would you ensure that the results make your product necessary? This same principle holds true with insurance companies, recruiters, consultants, and others. Even research by academic institutions is often funded by self-interest groups. With that in mind, I’ve tried to include the most credible sources possible. It’s not an exhaustive collection, but as I said, collectively it’s indisputable.

The Financial Impact

Duke University conducted a study that lasted about five years. The study observed and analyzed the impact of work on the health and wellness of 6,700 employees who came from a range of corporations in unrelated fields. Research showed that 60 percent of people were stressed or overwhelmed by financial obligations even though they worked for a living wage. Furthermore, only half of those companies offered financial education programs to help alleviate these concerns. The Federal Reserve Board estimates that financial stress among employees costs the employees’ companies $5,000 per employee per year in lost productivity (higher turnover, absenteeism, presenteeism). If you have 1,000 employees, that’s $5,000,000 off the bottom line.

The fact that this book must be written is somewhat beyond me. The thought that the lack of productivity has been lurking in corporations’ backyards for decades and has not been addressed appropriately is astonishing because fixing the issue is really one of the easiest ways to make money. I think this has not come to light earlier only because of the lack of creativity in many CEOs. It’s easier to follow prescriptive business school formulas to make money—pressure people to work harder, cut costs, and risk forcing sales on products that are inferior for your customers—but it makes more business sense to encourage compassionate productivity. Empower employees to do better. All the research supports the wisdom of this approach.

Great workplaces have 65 percent less turnover and five times higher stock market returns than industry peers. They also have higher earnings per share, outperforming those peers by 202 percent.^*

At my first job, I learned a hard lesson on how business works. I always gave to charities, and I saw that companies do so, too. When I was in my early 20s, I approached the CEO of the company I was working for and asked if we could donate to a special homeless organization. He asked me who was on the board of directors of the organization. I said I didn’t know, but that it was an important organization that helped a lot of people. He leaned toward me and said (I’m paraphrasing), “Richard, we are a business. We’re happy to give to charities if it will further our business interests. For example, if you knew someone on the board that we do business with or could potentially do business with, we could justify a contribution. Otherwise, the business cannot support it.” This was eye-opening to me . . . and very sad. On the other hand, it taught me an important lesson about business. I needed to find creative ways to give to society under the aegis of being “good for business.” What I did for one firm in Germany, a giant multinational where the executive team did not want to provide a pension plan for its German employees, was to show that the profits would increase due to the boost in productivity by employees receiving a pension plan. In addition, if they looked at the benchmarking data of what the company’s competitors were doing, a pension plan for the employees was essential to attracting and retaining talent. This combination presented the business case for a pension plan for the employees in Germany. It all worked out fine, and to this day these German employees are able to retire with dignity after a 35-year career with the company.

There must be an “in-between” state that exists to separate dispassionate business growth with an eye on overworked employees suffering from burnout. The result of burnout is a drop in morale from unreasonable expectations resulting in a loss of productivity. The answer to balancing “good business practices”—those that generally result in increased profits and lower costs—with human needs and emotions is compassionate productivity, and it can be an absolute game changer.

What Is Compassionate Productivity?

Compassionate productivity is the idea that recognizing employees as human beings with their own struggles, triumphs, goals, and motivations results in better overall work. This isn’t something that should be new to business, and to be fair, it’s not completely unused in certain industries. In general, however, organizational decision makers tend to favor a more hard-edged approach that emphasizes strictly separating the human from their work. This is a mistake for a few different reasons, all of which we’ll examine in sections that follow.

Before we move on, however, it should be noted that compassionate productivity isn’t an extreme. We aren’t looking at a situation where one end of the spectrum is the concept that employees must be extrinsically motivated—be it by stress or by other means—in order to work as well as they can and where the other end is compassionate productivity. The idea of compassionate productivity is actually a happy medium between two extremes: the aforementioned perspective that sees employees as a means to an end to be “motivated” in whatever manner necessary, and one that allows employees to work however and whenever they want.

It is possible to give employees the space they need to thrive without also compromising on the business processes that you know work for your organization. And when you get that balance just right, you might be surprised at how much the productivity of your workforce improves as your workers show what they can achieve when they are happy and passionate about their jobs.

In the following chapters for the CEO and management, we will take a look at some of the components that are vital to boosting productivity and helping employees reach their full potential. For the employee, in reading this, it will inform you on how to excel in the organization. But before we move forward, I want to talk about building a workplace culture that promotes compassion and understanding over fears and threats to lower performance reviews before we get there. This is a fundamental idea that should serve as the foundation for the rest of the tips and lessons in this book—a strong base upon which you can create the environment that is perfect for your business and the workforce.

Compassionate Productivity Versus Traditional Performance Incentives

Traditionally, improving workplace performance has been accomplished by setting goals and pushing employees to meet them by whatever means necessary. According to Emma Seppala, associate director of the Stanford University Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education, the most common motivator in the past was a reprimand— part of a checks-and-balances system that served to remind employees that their jobs were entirely dependent upon their performance and that any deviation from an upward trajectory might cost them their career.^* This had the added “benefit” of projecting the potential consequences of underperforming or mistakes to the rest of the department or team, too. Keeping everyone “on their toes” was the preferred way to drive productivity and performance—in other words, by instilling fear and stress into the workforce.

Whereas this method has long been the go-to method in many industries, today’s research shows that it is not the best way to go about motivating employees to do better. In one study published in the Journal of Management, for example, researchers found that the focus on achievements above all else only leads to workaholism and increased stress levels, both of which actually serve to hinder productivity and diminish work quality, rather than improve it.^* And while pushing employees to work harder and longer hours in order to meet a specific goal or deadline might not result in “true” workaholism—that is, the compulsion to work as much as possible despite negative consequences in personal relationships or other out-of-work experiences and connections— it results in very similar behavior. Instead of being internally motivated to work despite an overall decrease in quality of life, focusing on achievements and meeting quotas tends to result in “workaholism” born from the fear of losing an income or damaging a career. Despite the difference in motivators, the end results are much the same.

As the study notes, workaholism is tied to negative outcomes. These include job stress, burnout, poorer mental and physical health, and work/life conflict. In later chapters, we’ll see exactly how each of these factors negatively impacts productivity, but suffice to say that they do nothing to improve the long-term productivity of employees. Eventually, constant fear and stress will cause almost everyone to experience burnout and apathy. That might manifest directly in the workplace itself, or it might be something that occurs mostly in the employee’s personal life. But, regardless, the negative impact of these factors on motivation and productivity are the same.

More specifically, Seppala notes—and I agree—that traditional approaches to incentivizing performance boosts in the workplace result in high stress levels that often disrupt an organization’s culture. This is a problem. First, and perhaps most practically in the short term, individuals operating from fear and stress are less able to reason and think clearly, something that naturally results in a drop in work performance. In the long term, a disruption in corporate culture can cause many cracks to form and widen in an organization’s overall mission as well as in the unity of its workforce as a whole. The goal is to create an organization with employees who believe in their work and the company’s overall vision. That unity helps boost worker morale as well as productivity. When the workforce is highly stressed and is more concerned about getting work done than about completing quality work with the well-bei...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Preface
• Chapter One: The Coffee Klatch and Research (There Is Science Involved)
• Chapter Two: Introducing Productivity (Modern-Day Techniques for the Modern-Day Company)
• Chapter Three: Key Component #1—Absence Management and Presenteeism
• Chapter Four: Key Component #2—Well-Being (Well-Zilience)
• Chapter Five: Key Component #3—Engagement
• Chapter Six: Key Component #4—Technology
• Chapter Seven: Key Component #5—Optimizing Your Workday (Getting 30 Hours Out of 24)
• Chapter Eight: Adapting to Change
• Chapter Nine: The Next 24 Hours
• Final Note to the Reader
• Appendix: Further Reading
• Index