How to Measure Workplace Productivity

Today, competition is cut-throat and people are turning out to be the core competitive advantage especially in a knowledge and services economy. Organizations are constantly striving to do more with less, and the same applies to employees. To ensure employees are productive it is important to know where they stand currently in terms of performance and the overall organizational goal. Only when this is assessed right, can HR and business leaders take the right steps to up the productivity.

Here are some best practices to help you assess productivity levels at an employee and macro level:

1. Establish a baseline: Every race begins at a starting line, and so does the race for high productivity. Knowing where you currently stand in terms of how employees are adding value to their jobs, functions, and the organization at large is the starting point in this case. Calculate the achieved output for an average day of work for a team, function, and pan-organization, dividing it by a number of employees. Make sure you consider outlier contributors who outperform and underperform to know where the action is needed. 

2. Identify benchmarks: It is good to know the average productivity levels in your industry so that they enable you to set target productivity levels. These benchmarks will also vary as per the nature of role, function and other factors. For example, you may need to consider that a customer service representative has no control over his or her workflow, whereas an HR professional does. Productivity parameters will, therefore, vary for these jobs.

3. Define tasks: Tasks are of two types, i.e. tangible (for example assembly line production) and intangible (for example managerial output). As far as possible, define tasks in terms of inputs and outputs; this will help you arrive at a performance standard. It is important to know that knowledge tasks will be a mix of various variables.

4. Lay down fair comparison rules: Comparing different employee groups may not be a fair proposition due to differences in the nature of work. For example, all jobs cannot be measured by hours worked. It is, therefore, important to lay down comparison rules by defining similar job buckets, which allow the employer to compare one employee’s daily activities against a comparable peer group and thus arrive at a true productivity comparison. 

5. Track individual employees’ progress: Employee performance and productivity are closely knit, and one cannot be determined accurately without knowing the other. Refer to performance management data for individual employees, teams within functions, and entire departments and then scale these up to pan-organizational metrics. Tracking individual progress can give you a micro view of productivity levels.

6. Encourage employee participation: Driving productivity must be a shared responsibility with all employees. Ask employees to share daily or weekly updates about achievements and progress. It is important to balance freedom with some degree of monitoring. Employees must know accountability is expected, so communicate the same clearly. 

7. Motivate your employees: Make productivity a shared responsibility and enthuse the team to achieve it. Put through HR interventions to motivate your people to strive for productivity—done the right way, it is a powerful engagement tool. Set up a productivity dashboard to provide them the desired visibility to their performance, and design HR interventions to reward and motivate productivity-led behavior. Ask employees for feedback about how to be better. It is important to involve employees in the race for productivity.

8. Consider unusual circumstances: While it is important to focus on productivity, certain difficult times may make some other agendas take on more importance. Especially when the organization and its employees are going through a large change, the focus may shift to building resources rather than going for productivity. For example, if a new system upheaval has taken place, give your employees the opportunity to learn the new work ways and settle down to be their best selves.

The key to sustained productivity is to treat it as one of the levers of organizational success, the others being employee engagement, steering through change, learning and adaptability, long term growth and so on. HR must know how to balance the organizational priorities to be able to make productivity a way of life rather than a forced outcome.