What happens when leaders are managing work they can no longer see in the same way?
How do you maintain productivity, accountability and connection when working from home is no longer an occasional exception or temporary arrangement?
Flexible work had been emerging in Australia for years, but COVID-19 accelerated the shift almost overnight. Many businesses adapted quickly at the time, often treating working from home as a temporary response rather than a long-term part of how the business would operate. Then work returned to something closer to normal, and many teams and leaders were left navigating flexible arrangements without the clear policies, expectations and leadership habits needed to support them properly.
If you’re a business owner this is an opportunity to embed flexible work into the culture properly and create a workplace where people can perform, stay connected and thrive.
Hi, I’m Esther, Director of Seed HR. I have spent more than twenty years working across HR, supporting leaders through the practical, complex and often very human side of managing people. Across that time, I’ve worked with businesses of different sizes and stages, from larger organisations to growing SMEs, and I understand how challenging it can be to balance flexibility, productivity, compliance and team culture.
At Seed HR, our work is about helping business owners nurture their people while protecting the business they’ve worked hard to build. This blog is for leaders who are ready to move beyond temporary fixes and build a workplace that reflects how people work now, and where work design is heading next.
Why Working From Home Still Makes Some Leaders Nervous
Workplace management is at a pivotal point, much like other major shifts in how work has been organised throughout history. Just as leaders had to adapt during the move from agrarian work, where labour was largely tied to land, seasons and physical presence, to industrial work, where factories, offices, set hours and supervised teams became the norm, leaders are now being asked to adapt again.
This new way of working changes the signals leaders have traditionally relied on to assess work, contribution and team dynamics.
Many Baby Boomer and Gen X leaders developed their leadership instincts in workplaces where presence, reliability and contribution were observed directly. They learnt to lead by walking the floor, hearing client conversations, noticing who was under pressure, reading team energy and seeing how people responded to colleagues throughout the day.
For decades, those cues helped leaders protect standards, identify issues early and stay close to the work.
Microsoft’s Work Trend Index also found that many leaders feel less certain about productivity when they no longer have the day-to-day visibility they once relied on. This discomfort is understandable. The challenge is learning to lead effectively when visibility no longer tells the full story.
This is where leaders need to separate the appearance of work from the evidence of work.
Productivity Does Not Come From Watching People Work
Presence is commonly treated as a proxy for performance, but the two are not the same.
An employee can be visible in the office all day and still avoid the work that requires focus, judgement or follow-through. Equally, an employee working from home may be producing thoughtful, timely and commercially valuable work without being physically seen.
Microsoft’s Work Trend Index warns that measuring activity rather than impact can undermine trust and create what it calls “productivity theatre.” This is when employees feel pressure to look busy rather than focus on meaningful work. That might mean staying online longer, sending unnecessary messages, attending meetings that don’t need them, or prioritising visible activity over the work that actually moves the business forward.
Leaders need to be conscious that they are not unintentionally creating a workplace where people appear productive rather than one where meaningful work is actually being done. I see this more often than many business owners realise.
People can respond quickly, attend every meeting and stay visible, while still spending time on low-value activities that do not move the business forward. Leaders benefit when they move the conversation away from activity and toward evidence.
This means looking at the standard of the work, the consistency of deadlines, the reliability of communication, and the employee’s contribution to the team and the business.
The Issues Start When Expectations Are Unclear
Flexible work arrangements tend to break down when the practical expectations around them haven’t been clearly agreed, documented or communicated.
The issue isn’t usually the fact that someone is working from home. The issue is that no one has clearly defined how the arrangement should operate day to day.
This can include:
- Unclear start and finish times
- Vague availability expectations
- Inconsistent response times
- No agreed regular office days
- Limited guidance around meeting attendance
- Unclear deliverables, standards and timelines
Without that level of clarity, leaders can become frustrated, employees can become uncertain, and the rest of the team can be left carrying pressure that could have been addressed much earlier.
These gaps become more noticeable in smaller teams, where each person’s contribution has a direct impact on the workflow around them. If one employee is difficult to reach, unclear on priorities or missing agreed deadlines, the effect can quickly flow through to colleagues, managers, the business owner and clients.
Fairness can also become an issue when flexibility is handled informally. Not every role can support the same type of flexible arrangement, and that is a practical reality for many businesses. Each role comes with its own operational requirements, and those requirements should guide what flexibility can reasonably look like. The difficulty arises when employees don’t understand how those decisions are being made, recorded and reviewed.
Working from home can also change how support, communication, workload and boundaries are experienced. Safe Work Australia recognises that it can create or change risks, including poor support, low role clarity, fatigue and being “always on.” This is why informal arrangements can become difficult to manage over time.
Flexibility can work very well, but it needs to be set up in a way that supports productivity, wellbeing and sound business decision-making.
Building a Flexible Work Framework That Supports People and Protects the Business
A well-designed flexible work model sets out where, when and how work happens, while protecting productivity, communication, compliance and team connection. To succeed long term, it needs to move beyond informal habits, assumptions and goodwill.
This starts with a clear working from home or flexible work policy that turns uncertainty into a practical pathway for everyone. It explains how requests are made, who can request flexibility, what information is needed, and what the business will consider before approving an arrangement. That may include the duties of the role, client needs, supervision, workflow, equipment, privacy, work health and safety, and the practical impact on the wider team.
Keep the process balanced so it gives leaders clarity without becoming heavy, overly formal or creating more work than necessary. No one needs a policy that becomes a paperwork monster.
The aim is to give leaders a fair and reliable framework for decision-making, particularly where employees have a legal right to request flexible working arrangements, including changes to hours and work patterns or location.
Approved arrangements also need to be managed over time, not filed away and forgotten. They should be recorded, reviewed and adjusted when the needs of the employee or business change, with sensible boundaries around after-hours contact included from the start. This is especially important now that the right to disconnect has been legislated for small business employees.
At its best, flexibility helps people do great work while giving the business confidence that standards, communication and accountability remain firmly in place. Use flexible work as a practical leadership tool, not another source of frustration.
Leading in a Way That Keeps People Connected, Engaged and Thriving, Wherever They Are
Leadership works best when practical foundations are already in place, including agreed expectations, clear policies and consistent decision-making processes. Without them, even well-intentioned leaders can find themselves managing confusion instead of leading people.
Connection, feedback, support and trust all need to be created more deliberately when teams are working across home and the office.
Regular one-to-one check-ins help leaders stay close to the work without slipping into micromanagement. They create space to clarify priorities, identify pressure points early and keep communication open.
Team meetings also need to earn their place.
Before sending a calendar invite, be clear on what the meeting needs to achieve. It may be to solve a problem, align priorities, mentor people, make a decision or strengthen team connection. Without that purpose, meetings can become “productivity theatre".
Avoid booking meetings just to prove that people are online and focus instead on the quality of feedback you are giving your team. It should be timely, specific and documented where appropriate, particularly when expectations aren’t being met or performance concerns are beginning to emerge.
AHRI’s case study on Sydney-headquartered technology company OneStop shows what is possible when flexibility is designed with intention. Its “ultra-hybrid” work model formed part of a broader employee experience strategy that helped reduce turnover, lift engagement and improve how employees experienced the workplace. The strategy went on to win Best Employee Experience Strategy at the 2024 AHRI Awards.
The physical office is not redundant. It still has an important role to play. Rather than being used as proof of attendance, it can become a place for collaboration, mentoring, problem-solving and culture-building.
Working across home and the office asks leaders to rethink how productivity, accountability and connection are managed. The discomfort many leaders feel is understandable, especially when visibility has long shaped how work was assessed.
The answer lies in practical foundations, clear expectations, fair decision-making and leadership habits that keep people connected to the work and to each other. If your business needs help creating a flexible work model that supports your people and protects your business, Seed HR can help you put the right approach in place.