For years, the workplace offered leaders a reassuring picture. Employees arrived in the morning, sat at their desks, attended meetings, and remained there until the workday ended.
Everyone could see that work was taking place. Or could they?
If an employee is sitting at a desk for eight hours, what exactly has been proven?
Being present has never guaranteed that someone is productive. A person can spend an entire day moving between meetings, responding to emails, and appearing extremely busy without completing anything that moves the organization forward.
Remote and hybrid work did not create this problem. They exposed it.
Presence vs. Performance: What Are We Really Measuring?
When employees were no longer within a manager’s line of sight, many organizations struggled with a basic question: How do we know people are working?
Some responded by tracking login times, computer activity, or online availability. These tools may provide information, but they can also encourage employees to focus on appearing active. Once people believe activity is the measurement, they learn how to produce activity.
A green availability light does not tell us whether a customer was served, a deadline was met, a problem was solved, or a project moved forward.
This is not only a remote-work issue. Long before hybrid work, employees learned which signals created the impression of commitment. Some stayed late because senior leaders stayed late. Others filled their calendars with meetings, sent emails at unusual hours, or made certain they were seen carrying papers from one part of the building to another.
Busy became confused with effective.
This does not mean most employees are attempting to avoid work. Most people want to contribute, perform well, and be recognized for what they accomplish. The problem begins when an organization sends the message that visible activity matters more than meaningful results.
People adjust to what leadership measures. When the measurement is disconnected from the result, employees may satisfy the measurement without delivering what the organization actually needs.
Presence, Activity, Performance, and Results
These four words are often treated as if they mean the same thing. They do not.
Presence tells us that someone is there.
Activity tells us that something is happening.
Performance tells us how effectively the person carries out the responsibilities of the role.
Results tell us whether the work accomplished what mattered.
There are positions in which physical presence is essential. Manufacturing, healthcare, transportation, hospitality, retail, and many other types of work cannot always be performed remotely. Even in those settings, however, showing up is only the beginning. Attendance matters, but it is not the complete measure of contribution.
The same is true for remote and hybrid employees.
A person may not be visible throughout every hour of the day and still deliver excellent work, respond when needed, support colleagues, meet deadlines, and serve customers exceptionally well.
Another employee may appear continuously busy and accomplish very little.
The real leadership question is not simply, “Where are you working?”
It is, “What are you producing, and how does it contribute to what we are trying to accomplish?”
Results Are Not Always Easy to Count
Measuring results sounds simple until leaders attempt to define them.
Some outcomes are relatively easy to count. Sales may be measured through revenue, new accounts, customer retention, or profitable growth. Other contributions involve collaboration, creative thinking, developing people, preventing problems, or building relationships. Their value may not appear neatly on a daily dashboard.
The harder a contribution is to count, the more important it becomes for the leader to understand the work.
This requires more than assigning a number to every activity. Leaders must clarify what needs to be accomplished, how well it needs to be done, when it needs to be completed, and how the work affects customers, colleagues, and the organization.
They must also distinguish between short-term output and long-term value. An employee can complete more tasks while making more mistakes, frustrating colleagues, or damaging customer relationships. Completing more tasks does not necessarily mean producing better work.
Without clear expectations, employees are left guessing. Managers may then retreat to measuring whatever is easiest to see.
Flexibility Does Not Eliminate Responsibility
Employees should not have to prove their commitment by remaining visible every minute of the day. They do have to demonstrate their contribution through the quality, reliability, and results of their work.
Flexibility is not permission to become unavailable, miss deadlines, or leave colleagues wondering when the work will be completed. It is an opportunity to perform the work differently while continuing to deliver what the role requires.
Employers have responsibilities as well. They must establish clear priorities, define successful performance, provide feedback, remove unnecessary obstacles, and address problems directly. Monitoring an employee’s every movement cannot replace capable management.
This is where the new relationship with work must find its balance.
Employees can expect greater flexibility in where and when some types of work get done. Employers can expect strong performance, responsiveness, collaboration, and results.
Those expectations are not in conflict.
Measure What Matters
Flexibility works when people understand what they are responsible for accomplishing and how their contribution connects to the organization. It begins to fail when expectations are vague, communication is inconsistent, or visible activity becomes the primary measure of commitment.
Leaders should not ignore performance problems. They should address them. But knowing how long someone was logged into a computer does not necessarily tell a leader whether the person performed well.
The better questions are whether the work was completed, whether it was completed well, and whether it produced the results the organization needed.
When leaders measure activity, employees learn to produce activity.
When leaders clearly define the results that matter, people can spend less time proving they are working and more time doing work that matters.
Think About This
What does your organization currently reward: presence, visible activity, strong performance, or meaningful results?
If an employee can satisfy your measurement system without producing valuable work, the system may be measuring the wrong thing.
Action Item
Choose one role in your organization and review how its performance is evaluated. Identify the results that matter, the quality standards expected, the time frame involved, and how the role supports customers, colleagues, or organizational priorities.
Then ask whether your current measurements reveal meaningful performance—or merely show that someone appeared to be working.
Wenkroy International LLC is a Professional Advisory company with a main purpose of helping entrepreneurs and business people create the strategy, the plan and the steps necessary to achieve that person’s vision for their business and often their life, while navigating the obstacles which may be blocking them from reaching their goals. The process may involve one on one coaching, advising, laser focus days, personal growth workshops and more. The methods utilized are determined together. The results and value positively impact individuals, teams, divisions and across entire companies. People are now able to focus on what matters most to them, because, they have clarity on where they are heading.
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