How to Measure Employee Productivity

Are your employees fully productive in the workplace? A 2017 survey by Gallup revealed that 85% of employees are “not engaged or are actively disengaged” at work, leading to losses in productivity worth $7 trillion globally. The reasons for this range from distractions caused by social media, to personal commitments that interfere with work.

Here are 6 methods you can use to measure employee productivity at the workplace.

1.    Setting objectives

Management by objectives is a time tested method where both management and employees agree on clearly defined goals that meet the organization’s overall objectives. Apart from giving employees clear productivity goals to work towards, management should also provide them with the tools and information they need to meet the targets. There should also be a periodic review of employee progress to find out whether the goals have been achieved.

2.    Measuring Productivity Quantitatively

In this method, each employee is given an allocation of the number of products they must produce in a given period of time. Measuring productivity this way is especially suitable for construction companies that may wish to measure construction productivity. However, in order to be effective, factors that could affect your employees’ productivity, such as the timely arrival of materials, or the working condition of equipment must be taken into account.

3.    Time Management

Time management, as a tool for measuring productivity, is concerned with how much work is done in a particular period of time. This method tries to limit how much time employees waste on activities that aren’t related to their work, like chatting with workmates or time spent on the internet.

Different tools have been designed to help track employees’ time management productivity, including:

  • Employee time tracking software that measures how much time it takes them to complete given tasks.
  • Use of daily updates that reveal employees’ progress on a specific task or project.
  • Attendance management systems where employees clock in and out of work.

4.    Measuring Productivity by Profit

This is fast becoming the favorite method of measuring productivity for many small to medium-sized businesses. Unlike the other methods which track how employees use their time and do their jobs, measuring productivity by profit is more concerned with the company’s bottom line. Only the higher-level functions are closely monitored. Simply put, employers check if the revenue generated matches the money spent on employees’ salaries.

5.    Quality of Work

This method breaks down projects into individual tasks, which are then assigned to the employees who are most capable of handling them, which continues until the project’s completion. This method is also suitable for measuring construction employee productivity because of its project-based approach.

6.    Customer Feedback

In service businesses, such as call centers, there may not be any tangible products or outputs to measure with respect to your employees. Reviewing customer feedback in such a scenario may be the best method of assessing employee productivity. This can include things like how many customer complaints are received in a given period.

Have tips on measuring employee productivity? Let us know in the comments section below!

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