industryopinion
Productivity grows from trust, not fear
In the quest to drive greater business productivity, ‘bossware’ is not the answer says Todd Olson, chief executive of Pendo.
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emoralizing.” “Humiliating.” “Toxic.” Tat’s how a group of workers described the feeling of being monitored by so-called ‘productivity soſtware’, also known as ‘bossware’,
to the New York Times. Whether it’s through sending pop-up alerts to you – or, more likely, to your boss – warning that you’ve been ‘idle’ for too long, or taking screenshots of your laptop at random moments to verify you’re engaged in ‘productive’ work, these kinds of programs are growing increasingly popular among management across the corporate world even as they prove an Orwellian nightmare for employees across organisations. What explains the rise in such problematic soſtware? Businesses
have embraced bossware to further a longstanding goal, one that’s only become more urgent amidst the current global economic downturn – how to boost productivity and do more with less. With the digital workplace having become the workplace itself in the wake of the pandemic, the time was ripe for new solutions to drive employee productivity despite the lack of a centralised physical office. Unfortunately, bossware is one of those cures that’s worse than
the disease. Let’s set aside for a moment all the problems with how productivity monitoring soſtware decides what counts as ‘productive’ versus ‘idle’ time spent at work. How it fails to factor diverse ways of working into its ratings system, how it categorises time spent thinking through crucial work problems in one’s own mind as idling, and how its definitions of productive behaviour sometimes run counter to healthy employee and business objectives. Ultimately, the problem with bossware is more fundamental. It
rests on the assumption that the most effective and beneficial human motivator is fear, rather than empowerment based on trust. Tis assumption is wrong at its core and misses what makes managers most effective. When the best managers of yesteryear walked the corridors of the physical office to check in with their employees, it wasn’t in order to police their workplace behaviour. It was to help them do their best work, get a finger on the pulse of their wants, and plan points that needed remedying in service of that goal. In today’s digital workplace there’s a way to continue that tradition in new form, but bossware is not the answer. Instead, companies
14 | March 2023
should be leveraging the power of soſtware adoption platforms – sometimes called digital adoption platforms. Tese are platforms that help leadership understand how work happens, not in order to name and shame individual users, but rather to build better processes and workflows and set their teams up for success. Te best soſtware adoption platforms serve this goal transparently
and ethically. Unlike privacy-invasive employee monitoring soſtware, these platforms collect only anonymised data related to business-relevant applications and workflows. In doing so, they help keep the focus on improving what matters. By leveraging these analytics-drawn insights, employers can take
action to make work happen better. Tat may mean eliminating underused apps or streamlining cumbersome workflows. It could also mean using the platform to deploy targeted notifications within and across apps to help guide users through onboarding and other critical tasks. Managers can use soſtware adoption platforms to actively solicit feedback from employees and give them a voice in the change process. Aſter all, employees oſten understand the intricacies of their work better than their bosses. Why not treat them as an asset for making work happen better? Businesses should be thinking about productivity in terms
of process, not individual people. Optimise the former and you empower the latter to be more productive. Te ultimate goal of adoption soſtware is to be able to track and create better systems and workflows rather than to micromanage workers through monitoring, with all the ethical questions that raises. During a time of ‘quiet quitting’ and record workforce turnover, businesses that embrace bossware run the risk of losing out on top talent and making themselves a less appealing option for the very people who can help them grow. Who wants to work for a company that treats all its employees as potential menaces rather than as the lifeblood of its success? At a time of growing macroeconomic headwinds, rising inflation,
and tight labour markets, a more productive business has become a necessity for most leaders. In the digital workplace, adoption soſtware offers a better way for managers to get there – a way built on trust, not on fear.
www.pcr-online.biz
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