How Measuring Employee Productivity can Maximize Business Growth?

We can define employee productivity as the amount of work done by an employee in a set period of time. But, we often picture someone who is busy all the time as productive– but that may not be always true. A productive person will stay ahead of deadlines when compared to an unproductive person who might seem busy, but still be lagging behind the schedule.

When it comes to businesses, employee productivity is the major factor that determines its success, growth and profitability. But the key here is to accurately set, align and measure employee productivity in different levels - using data or tools like employee monitoring software . In this article, let’s discover how measuring employee productivity can maximize business growth.

Importance of measuring employee productivity in the workplace:

From understanding business growth to revamping business ideas, productivity measurement helps businesses in several ways. Here we’ve listed some of the notable benefits of measuring employee productivity.

1. Spot inefficiencies in the workplace:

You might have noticed how some employees keep missing out on deadlines or take too long to respond to any query. The underlying cause could be lack of focus or disengagement in the workplace.

Measuring employee productivity will help you detect such workplace in-efficiencies, so you can align your employees’ key competencies to your business objectives and improve their focus in the workplace.

2. Improve employee productivity:

Measuring productivity and involving your team in the process gives them a sense of accountability over the outcome of tasks that are assigned to them. Regularly checking your employee (business) performance and working along with your team makes them feel involved and motivates them to contribute their fair part in improving business growth.

3. Effective resource and time management:

Measuring performance gives you a clear picture of employee activity, workflow and how long it’s taking for them to complete certain tasks. Based on that you can plan on future projects’ timeline, make changes to the existing strategy and decide whether you need to ask for a deadline extension or allocate additional resources. In simple words, measuring productivity helps you improve project schedules, streamline the resource allocation process and gets you the desired business outcome much faster than expected.

4. Deliver timely feedback:

Measuring employee productivity also helps you deliver timely feedback with respect to areas where corrective action is necessary. Be it positive, negative or constructive – feedback helps employees to identify strengths, work on weaknesses and develop skills required for their professional growth. In addition to that it gives managers an opportunity to celebrate employee strengths and achievements – which in turn improves the overall company culture.

5. Revisit and update business plans

It’s vital to assess your business performance and review its progress in terms of achieving short/long term goals. In case of dip in performance or if you fall short on your goals – you might want to work on your existing strategy. Measuring employee productivity gives you an opportunity to revisit business plans and make the necessary adjustments to ensure you hit your goals faster.

6. Increase your area of expertise:

Measuring productivity gives you a clear picture of your business performance during a certain period of time. Once you’re aware of the business stats, you’re in a better position to redefine your competitive strategy and work on metrics to create brand awareness or expand your skill set to other areas.

7. Improve your company’s bottom-line:

Measuring employee productivity also means effective time management, project management and increased business growth. In addition to this, you can make decisions faster as you have the required data and reports readily available for you to check and take action. This reduces the amount of time you spend on your employees and gives you more time to focus on meaningful tasks that could convert to profits.

To sum up, measuring employee productivity eliminates guesswork and makes the decision making process a breeze. It allows you to conduct a proper evaluation based on evidence and real-time data. Let’s now take a look at the different methods you can use to measure employee productivity.

How to measure employee productivity?

There are different metrics to understand progress against intended productivity goals – but having a well-defined process can help you validate performance and growth in real-time. Here are few suggestions;

1. Set goals and targets for each role:

Setting goals and targets for each role within the company gives clarity on what is expected and from whom and when. This will help employees as well as managers have a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities, targets and quality standards and so on. Secondly, setting goals and targets will give you an idea as to what factors you need to measure in order to determine employee productivity.

2. Request daily timesheets:

Educate your employees on the importance of timesheet reporting and ensure they share task updates for each day or week. Let your employees know that accurate time sheet reporting is not only for client billing and payroll processing, but these data are crucial to measure employee productivity and sustain business growth.

3. Track employee progress:

Monitoring progress regularly will help you identify what your employees are up to in terms of productivity, work-life balance, team collaboration and so on. Based on the information available you can measure your employee productivity, detect/eliminate productivity bottlenecks and motivate them to deliver results.

4. Conduct frequent employee check-in meetings:

Conducting regular check-in meetings is an effective way to measure employee productivity – because it gives you an opportunity to directly interact with employees and understand them at a deeper level. It will also help you realize employee strengths and weaknesses – so you can extract the best out of them.

5. Use employee monitoring software:

With the change in working model, employers are relying on employee monitoring software to measure productivity and to devise future business plans. It is because monitoring tools give businesses a competitive edge while delivering accurate time stamped data to evaluate employee performance on a much granular level.

This is exactly what employee monitoring software Handdy does. Using Handdy, you get analytical reports and data which could be used for various purposes including;

• Measuring employee productivity
• Understanding employee computer usage and daily activities
• Measuring employee, team and overall business performance
• Helping in resources and time management
• Helping in tasks, projects and client management

To give you more information on this, take a look at some of the sample employee productivity reports and find out how you can utilize them to measure your employee productivity and maximize business growth.