5 Ways to Measure Productivity in the Workplace

Introduction

As more organizations are pivoting to remote and hybrid work models, it has become challenging for employers to assess the productivity levels of their employees. Workplace productivity is the cornerstone of an organization’s success or failure; therefore, it is imperative to measure it with the appropriate techniques. In this blog post, we have garnered the five most pertinent ways to measure productivity in the workplace. But before that, let us understand its meaning and how to calculate it.

What Is Productivity?

Productivity is calculated as the amount of work done against the stipulated amount of time. This means workplace productivity refers to the efficiency with which tasks are performed and goals are achieved in any organization. Therefore, employees' overall efficiency in the workplace directly influences the combined productivity of an organization.

Why Is Measurement of Productivity Important?

As per the data from bamboohr, an average worker is productive for only two hours and 48 minutes in a day. Further, it has been stated that most employees are not even 60% productive during their workday. Another data from RescueTime reveals that employees spend 21% of their time on social media, entertainment, or other news channels.

Such daunting data gives a cogent reason why the measurement of productivity is imperative.

Employees are the building block of any organization. Hence, their productivity plays a big role in determining an organization’s feat.

Significance of measuring productivity:

• The measurement of workplace productivity gives an insight into whose performance is up to the mark and who is slacking off their work.

• It is hard for a manager to estimate the time that a project will take to complete if they are not acquainted with the productivity of different employees.

• Measurement of employee productivity helps make prudent decisions, like if there is a need to augment more resources to meet an organization's goals.

And, as it says, anything that cannot be measured cannot be improved. So, it applies to productivity as well. Hence, it is necessary to have precise metrics for its measurement.

Calculation of Workspace Productivity

Workspace productivity denotes the efficiency with which goals are completed in an organization. Generally, organizations evaluate productivity through the output obtained per hour of work.

There is a simple productivity formula that can be used to measure the productivity of your employees numerically. The formula is:

Productivity = Output ÷ Input

Here, the output is the value of the goods or services produced, and the input is the time taken to produce that service/product.

For example, a team in the manufacturing department of an organization produced goods worth $72,000 in 1200 hours. Then, Output = $72,000, and Input = 1200 hours.

Putting these values in the formula mentioned above, we get:

Productivity = $72,000 ÷ 1200 hours

Productivity = $60 per hour

This numerical value of productivity can be less or more, depending upon the type of industry, work hours per day, usage of machine tools, etc.

5 Ways to Measure Productivity in the Workplace

1. Assessing the Profitability

One of the most effective ways to measure productivity is by vetting an organization's overall profitability. Most of small to mid-sized companies evaluate the productivity of their employees via this method. The industries that require more time for creative thinking benefit the most from this method. In simpler words, you can keep a tab on revenue generated to trace the productivity levels. If the revenue increases consistently, then it indicates the utmost productivity level of employees and vice-versa. This method considers profitability made against the total salary spent instead of time.

2. Measurement by Tasks Done in a Specified Time Frame

In this method, the whole project is split into small tasks. Then, those tasks are assigned to employees. Now, employees’ key performance indicators (KPIs) are maintained as they mark how many tasks they could finish against the stipulated time frame (per hour/days/weeks). Here, productivity is analyzed by assessing how many tasks are completed in a specific period. Furthermore, if a project is quite large, then it can be divided into interim micro goals or milestones. These micro goals will work as touchstones to determine if the project is on track and give insight into the productivity graph.

Three rudimentary parameters of this method are:

• Number of tasks completed in a certain time

• Interim milestones

• Periodic assessment to monitor if the work is on schedule or not

Here, productivity is evaluated by the number of tasks done on a stipulated time regardless of the number of logged-in hours. The motive of this method is the completion of the whole project within a timeframe.

3. Utilization of Time Asset

For any company, time is the foremost resource that needs to be utilized in the best possible manner. Earlier, employees used to manually fill in the time that they took to complete each task on a spreadsheet. Managers used to analyze that spreadsheet to vet the productivity graph.

However, with the evolution of modern time-tracking software, this process has been streamlined. Organizations can avail of time-tracking tools to monitor the time taken by individuals to complete a particular task. This software provides a holistic view of the time spent by every employee in the workplace. With the help of its collective data, one can discern where productivity is lacking and can identify the areas of a bottleneck. Furthermore, these software tools give clear visibility into time distribution across various projects that helps managers compare the estimated time to complete a task versus the actual time taken to complete it. This way, such tools assist in analyzing the productivity trend from various aspects of time.

4. Productivity Analysis From Customer Feedback

Organizations that provide services to customers can measure productivity via a customer survey. For instance, in any call center, once a call is over, the customer can be requested to complete a customer satisfaction survey that can have questions like whether their query could have been resolved earlier or not, how was the behavior of the agent, etc. To evaluate productivity, this data can be incorporated with the total number of customers that the agent has handled over a stipulated span of time.

However, there is an exception to this case; for example, if an agent is handling more calls than other agents but getting more complaints about service, then it may lead to repeated calls. However, in the other case, the agent may be handling fewer calls but with better feedback from customers. In such cases, the quantitative analysis will not be given preference. But, an agent with a greater number of satisfied customers will hold all the aces.

Besides, to streamline this type of measurement methodology, some modern CRM tools work wonders as they provide a complete overview of customer engagement rate, customer retention rate, customer complaints and other such parameters that help in determining employee performance and productivity.

5. 360-Degree Feedback Method

Not every organization likes to embrace this method; however, this technique can help you divulge the actual productivity of every employee. In this technique, reviews from peers or co-workers are taken regarding an employee’s performance. These co-workers are the ones with whom an employee interacts on a regular basis at various job levels. It can also be done by asking everyone to fill out feedback forms, in which they would need to rate each other's work on a scale of 1 to 5.

However, prior to implementing this method, it needs to be ensured that co-workers give honest feedback about their colleagues, putting aside their personal relationship with the individual.

Conclusion

All these techniques are helpful in finding the average productivity in the workplace; however, none of these methods can be perceived as a sure-shot way of its measurement. Such metrics provide a general picture of productivity levels in the workplace; still, it is suggested that one should consider the contribution made by an individual employee in an organization.

Rahul Kumar is a Content expert and writes for Software companies. His expertise is in productivity and project management applications.