Productivity is the essence of every organization. It doesn’t matter what sector you’re in or what sort of product or service you provide; if your employees aren’t productive enough, your company will suffer. Customers would be unhappy and would go to your rivals who provided a better service. Prolonged inactivity in the company will result in a waste of both people and capital resources. That is something that no business owner or management wants to happen. Considering the significance of productivity, how can managers assess their employees’ performance to ensure that they provide high-quality results? Every business is unique. Even firms in the same industry and servicing similar consumers differ in several critical ways. Hence, a one-size-fits-all strategy to measure productivity won’t suffice in the long term. Furthermore, your company is likely to have distinct divisions with different people performing different activities.
Productivity KPIs
The productivity statistics for one part of your firm would be different from the metrics for the other aspects. In a restaurant, for example, waiters are just as essential as salespeople, yet you can’t reasonably gauge their success using the same metric. It’s disappointing to realize how many project managers fail to accomplish this. Your staff would appreciate it if you tell them what you expect of them, especially in this day and age of remote work. Even if your firm isn’t far away, you can’t rely exclusively on your employees working 9 to 5. Many individuals work 8 hours a day but are only productive half of the time. Thus, the remaining hours are squandered, and you pay for it. However, when you establish clear expectations, your employees will know how to execute properly. If your project is time-sensitive, you might also establish deadlines.
COMMON METHODS TO MEASURE EMPLOYEE PRODUCTIVITY:
The techniques you use to assess employee productivity will be determined by the size of your firm, its work environment, your department, and your overall management style. For example, the sales staff may assess employee productivity based on the number of deals closed every month or quarter. Productivity may be measured by the number of bugs resolved, tickets closed, or features shipped by the engineering team. Alternatively, some measures assess the productivity of their staff based on the number of hours worked utilizing time tracking software.
- Requesting daily updates and round-ups.
- Employee feedback
- Defining and setting up the goals
(DO’s) TO MEASURE EMPLOYEE PRODUCTIVITY:
1. SET CLEAR OBJECTIVES:
Setting clear objectives for each job you want your staff to complete is one approach to boost productivity across your teams. When you establish these standards, employees will always know what is expected of them, which will provide clarity for both you and your team. It will also serve as a point of reference for the team’s performance measurement, which will keep them accountable. These goals might be deadlines, time spent working on a project, emails sent, or any other productivity indicators you’d like to track.
2. BUILD EMPLOYEE TRACKING TOOLS TO HELP EMPLOYEES BE MORE PRODUCTIVE:
What is effective for one employee may not be effective for another. As a result, consider developing procedures to assist staff in staying on target, being more productive, and achieving better success. You may accomplish this by establishing a checklist for your workers to use when they complete specific duties. These checklists might specify what the manager anticipates on a daily or monthly basis. You may also use daily stand-ups, either in a meeting or in a team-wide Slack channel, where employees discuss their daily goals. If you use this approach and an employee says the same job they want to complete for more than one day in a row, it may indicate that something is preventing them from being their most productive selves.
3. ENCOURAGE TEAMMATES TO IMPROVE THEIR TIME MANAGEMENT ABILITIES:
Time management might look quite different depending on your job or the size of a company. However, it’s critical to get it right if you want to see increased production. If you notice a team member or employee struggling with time management, make an effort to assist them. If you see an employee is losing productivity or missing deadlines, it is in your best interest to provide honest and constructive criticism. Make sure to conduct this type of open chat or feedback session in private, since you don’t want to call out members of your team in front of others for missing deadlines. Employee morale and engagement may suffer as a result.
4. LET PRODUCTIVITY MEASURING SOFTWARE HELP YOU:
Don’t allow your workload to get unmanageable. It is up to you to streamline your chores, but luckily, there are a variety of internet solutions available to you. RemoteDesk, a remote workforce management and productivity tracking tool, helps measure employee productivity and engagement securely.
(DON’TS) TO MEASURE EMPLOYEE PRODUCTIVITY:
No matter how excellent your intentions are, you may wind up committing one of these three frequent errors when assessing employee performance. Keep an eye out for this habit so you can avoid it and the associated consequences.
1. INCREASING FOCUS ON THE NUMBER OF HOURS WORKED:
One of the most typical errors managers make when attempting to assess staff productivity is focusing on the number of hours their team works. The quantity of output depending on input refers to production. So, if you just evaluate time, as in hours spent, resources, and money, you are not assessing productivity. Because someone works longer hours at the office than everyone else does not imply that they are the most effective member of your team.
2. MICROMANAGING:
We’ve all had a micromanager as a boss. They double-checked every detail, kept track of every hour in our calendar, and asked for updates on a regular basis. Did you become more productive as a result of this? It’s likely that it made it more difficult for you to complete your tasks. When you do this to your team, you not only show them that you don’t trust them to get their job done on their own, but you may also spend so much of your own time micromanaging that you fall behind on your own projects and to-do lists. Furthermore, because they spend so much time reporting you on their progress, your staff has even less time to focus on their responsibilities.
3. NEGLECTING PERSONAL FACTORS:
There are a variety of personal reasons that might contribute to someone’s inability to focus at work. Perhaps they are dealing with a difficult situation at home, such as moving or assisting a family member with a health condition. Besides, they might also feel exhausted by their never-ending to-do list.
Your workers are individuals too, and occasionally pressures from outside the office interfere with their productivity levels. If you’ve worked hard to have a solid rapport and an open and honest connection with your team, they’ll feel comfortable telling you when they’re not feeling well and that you may see a drop in productivity for a period of time.
Want to learn how RemoteDesk ensures work-from-home productivity? Book a demo with us: https://www.remotedesk.com/demo
