17 February 2020

Productivity indicators to boost business performance

group of five people walking down interior stairs, laughing and chatting, in a modern office with natural light

Measuring employee performance is an essential part of assessing the financial health of the business. Productivity indicators reveal trends before their consequences become apparent. Since people are a company's greatest asset, it is important to make sure that your investment in them is really paying off.

Interested in some productivity and effectiveness indicators that you can start measuring?

Table of contents

The importance of collecting metrics from productivity indicators

Employee productivity measures the effectiveness of the workforce over a given period. In addition to offering a realistic view of staff efficiency, indicators also highlight different factors such as employee satisfaction and engagement.

These are important aspects, which is why there is Productivity techniques Workforce. Understanding your staff's productivity is paramount to improving operational outcomes and more accurately guiding any efforts designed to improve satisfaction.

Productivity is also an indicator of the level of happiness and Job satisfaction, employee commitment and conviction to the company's mission. Low productivity in itself can indicate that the existing structure does not lead to a positive workflow, but it can also highlight more serious cultural or corporate issues.

These employee productivity indicators are an invaluable measure for understanding the best strategies that can be put in place for Help the team achieve its full potential and forgetting about having to do overtime.

Examples of such indicators

KPIs can study team performance, employee efficiency, absenteeism and attendance rates, as well as turnover and attrition rates. One of the most common ways to measure employee productivity (as an average) is:

  1. To account for a company's total revenues over a specific period.
  2. Divide them by the total number of employees.

While basic, it can be a good starting point for measuring this variable. More comprehensive indicators would allow for metrics on employee work quality, production rate, management satisfaction, and employee efficiency.

In practice, it might so happen that a company, after several months of solid production and growth, begins to notice that production considerable decreases on one of its main pieces of equipment.

A closer examination would show that, despite producing much less than usual, the amount of resources allocated and their accompanying workflow have not been adjusted significantly.

Employee productivity can be measured to determine where the problem lies and whether current performance compares favourably with the established baseline.

References on worker productivity

Indicators of employee productivity can be the first step in discovering where the problem lies and hinting at how to resolve it. with examples such as the Flexible remuneration.

For example, if the hours worked haven't changed, but you observe a significant increase in absence rates, it could be a problem with satisfaction or poor scheduling.

Some useful landmarks include:

  • Absence rates or work absenteeism
  • Dropout rate
  • 360-degree employee reviews
  • Satisfaction rates

Management based on metrics obtained from productivity indicators promotes more objective and realistic decision-making, which is action-oriented and minimises the margin for error.

Edenred Spain