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Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1296256
be very clear on your intention. Is this technology meant to document your organization's processes so that you know that everybody is following the process? Or is it purely a Big Brother is watching over you and making sure that you are locked in when you say you are? And is that really the feel- ing you want your employees to be left with?" Pau believes that COVID will accelerate a movement toward "management by objectives" —whereby employees are measured based on what they accomplish, rather than when and how they do the work. "If you can tell somebody, 'This is what I need you to do,' and they can do it in four hours versus eight hours? So be it. As long as they're doing what you need them to do, you, as their employer, should be happy." And then—if employers make this "less is more" philosophy socially acceptable and build trust into their corporate culture—perhaps employees will feel less wedded to their devices, and less likely to burn out. That echoes what Lane Mer- rifield says he's been hearing. "I've been on a half-dozen calls this month alone with compa- nies that are totally revamping their HR policies right now— shifting from a time-based expectation to an activity- based expectation. In the tech sector, this has been happening for a long time, where you're measuring productivity rather than the clock." Merrifield notes that while technological innovation has added many efficiencies to the business world, those ben- efits haven't gone to workers. "Think of how long it used to take to write a letter, handing it to a secretarial pool to type it up, then redraft it," he says. "Two or three hours went into what now takes two minutes with an email, or 20 seconds with a text. But most of the gains of that productivity went to the company." If we hope to get employees to buy into a remote culture— where digital devices keep us more connected than ever before—we have to offer them the freedom to schedule work for when it suits them, and the ability to walk away from tech- nology when work is done. "I think, more than any- thing else, the shift that's going to come as a result of COVID is that efficiencies start to bring life back into our lives again," Merrifield says. "To go play with our kids. To go watch them grow up in a way that my parents' generation couldn't, and my grandparents' genera- tion couldn't. Let's let technol- ogy work for everyone, and not just the company." • CLEAN BREAK According to a 2019 report from Ernst & Young, called Decoding the Digital Home 2019, the concept of "digital detox" has become more popular, with 43% of U.K. households surveyed "actively seeking time away from their smartphone and other Internet-enabled devices." Perhaps counter to stereotype, "digital native" millennials are even more likely to be seeking an escape: half of respondents aged 25-34 claimed to be looking for digital detox.