While the pandemic brought many positive changes to the world of work, it has also led many employees to lose their sense of structure and routine. Ed Johnson looks at how HR can help teams rebuild this vital foundation.

As a tech startup entrepreneur who built a business focused on mentorship, I’ve been fortunate enough to have countless conversations with some incredible professionals, HR directors and managers, learning specialists, and business leaders over the past few years.

One topic that comes up repeatedly is the struggle to regain a sense of structure and routine after the pandemic. And while remote and hybrid work may have become the “new normal”, the truth is that, for a lot of people, they have still not rebuilt the routines that once anchored their productivity.

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We saw, through mentoring demand, that the number of people looking for support in “time management” related topics has skyrocketed. Before the pandemic, time management was important, but it wasn’t a crisis.

Now, it’s one of the most common concerns I hear from professionals across every industry. Many people are struggling to manage their schedules, balance priorities, and find the discipline to stay productive in an environment with fewer built-in structures.

The reality is that when the pandemic hit, I believe that we all lost something essential – routine.

And as painful as we may have thought it to be – whether it be the daily commute, regular office hours, scheduled lunch breaks, or in-person meetings – the routine that we had gave us something that, in hindsight, was extremely valuable.

Some people adapted well, but many are still trying to rebuild a structured way of working. The result? A widespread drop in focus, efficiency, and ultimately, productivity.

What has this cost us?

The impact of this lack of structure is more serious than many realise. Without clear routines and external accountability, distractions multiply, motivation dwindles, and inefficiencies creep in.

Many employees feel overwhelmed and under-supported, struggling to navigate workloads without clear guidance. This isn’t just an individual problem – it’s an organisational one.

According to a report by Asana in 2024, over half of UK employees’ time is spent on “work about work” – low-value tasks like unnecessary emails and meetings that do little to drive real progress.

Employees reported spending an average of four hours per week in meetings that didn’t need to happen. That’s twice the amount compared to 2019.

What’s more, 68% of employees felt their managers lacked a clear understanding of their workloads, leading to inefficiencies and burnout.

These figures paint a stark picture. If employees are spending half their time on non-essential work and managers don’t have a clear grasp of what’s happening on their teams, it’s no surprise that many organisations are struggling with productivity.

So, what’s the root cause? A lack of structure and routine, which has led to fragmented focus, poor prioritisation, and a reactive rather than proactive work culture.

Social accountability

So, what’s the solution? In my view, it lies in reintroducing routine – but not in the way we used to think about it. The old model of rigid nine-to-five schedules doesn’t necessarily work in a world where flexibility is valued more than ever. Instead, we need a new approach that combines structure with autonomy, and the key to making this work is social accountability.

One of the biggest benefits of in-office work was the natural social accountability it created. When you’re surrounded by colleagues who are focused on work, it’s easier to stay productive.

Many employees feel overwhelmed and under-supported, struggling to navigate workloads without clear guidance.”

As an entrepreneur, having to have the discipline to sit down, strap in and get to work, I know that doing so in a co-working environment is, immediately more effective than in a solo, home office.

There’s an unspoken expectation to be engaged, responsive, and contributing. Without that environment, it’s much easier to fall into patterns of procrastination, distraction or inefficiency.

I hope that my new platform uRoutine, designed to help individuals and teams rebuild structure, set clear goals, and stay accountable to each other, will leverage this community-driven motivation to encourage consistency in work habits.

Giving people the tools to create and stick to a routine, rather than micro-managing them, can drive meaningful results.

Productivity priorities

From the countless conversations I have had in the last few weeks and months, it seems that organisations today have two major productivity priorities:

Increasing output (productivity growth) – Organisations need employees to be more effective with their time, eliminating wasted effort and focusing on high-impact work.

Scaling capacity (doing more with the same resources) – Businesses are looking to optimise processes so that they can handle increased workloads without simply adding more headcount.

Routine-tracking tools, combined with strong HR strategies to engage employees with these, will play a crucial role in both of these priorities.

If HR and people specialists can help employees manage their time better, stay on track with priorities, and build repeatable habits, they should quickly see measurable improvements in performance.

A routine doesn’t have to be rigid, furthermore, it just needs to be intentional and, ultimately, it has got to work for the people it is designed to embrace.

Future of work

The pandemic, and government responses to it on a global scale, forced us into an experiment in flexibility, and while it had many benefits, it also exposed the risks of losing structure.

Structure and routine that most of us grew up with from a very young age – fixed bedtimes, mealtimes and school timetables to support maximisation of our time.

Now, as we move forward, we need to be intentional about rebuilding what was lost – but in a way that works for the modern workplace.

There has been a lot of discussion about raising productivity from employers and government departments alike. But productivity isn’t about working more hours; it’s about working smarter. That requires routines, structure, and accountability.

The question isn’t about whether routine matters – it’s about whether we are willing to rebuild it in a way that supports both productivity and wellbeing.

The organisations that invest in helping their employees regain these foundations will be the ones that thrive in the years ahead.

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