Working performance is an important factor for any company. When employees are able to perform their tasks well, it leads to a more productive organization. And because performance affects the overall performance of the company, there are many different ways that companies can measure performance in order to ensure that they have both high-performing and low-performing employees on staff. But how does one know whether or not performance is being measured correctly?
According to research by Google, performance management systems should be based around three key areas: goals, feedback loops, and recognition & rewards practices. These three components will help organizations meet their objectives while also providing motivation for workers who might otherwise feel undervalued or unappreciated by the organization as a whole.
Are you spending your workday doing the best that you can? If performance is something that’s important to you, then it might be helpful for you to see some real-time productivity insights, because they offer an accurate representation of the workflow. Here’s a list of all the statistics commonly found in workplaces today!
1. The Number of Steps Taken per Day
This one is simple enough- just put on a pedometer before walking around at work and keep track of how many steps are being taken each day! The average person takes anywhere between 65,000 to 75,000 steps per week, so this number will let you know if there are any changes necessary during the course of applying this statistic. One study showed that employees with higher step counts (above 40,000) were found to be more likely to receive performance incentives than their lower-performing counterparts (with lower step counts). It was also found that employees with higher step counts had fewer days absent due to workplace injuries.
2. How Long You’re Spending on Each Task
Do you find yourself giving most of your time and attention to specific tasks, or are you doing a little bit of this and a little bit of that? If so, it might not hurt to use the data in order to pinpoint your focus. For example, if an hour passes without any progress being made towards one particularly difficult task, then it’s probably worth investing some time into finishing up. You can even track when these work stoppages happen!
3. The Longest and Shortest Amount of Time Spent on A Task
Having an idea of the longest and shortest amount of time spent working on any one task can be helpful in showing progress or lack thereof. For example, if it seems like the same amount of time is always wasted throughout the day when you’re supposed to be working, then there might be some changes that need to take place in order for this statistic to improve.
4. How Many Times Do You Take Breaks
Breaking through a mental block might require taking a little break! It’s not uncommon for employees to need at least 15 minutes each day dedicated towards personal time, and even more than that on occasion. This can usually fit into the time of a coffee break, so in a way, many companies already have thought of this.
5. How Often Do Your Performance Levels Change
Is performance fluctuating throughout the week? If it is, then this could mean that some kind of change (like adding more team members) needs to take place in order to make sure that work gets done without performance dropping off too dramatically. A study found that performance during the first 50% of the week was about 60-80%, but performance during the second 50% was only around 30%.
6. Your Reaction To Changing Situations
If performance levels are dropping off drastically in some areas, then it might be helpful to identify the reason for this change. For example, performance drops may be related to not having enough employees on hand to help get all of the work done- adding more employees could keep performance at a steady rate throughout the week! Additionally, performance can drop when there aren’t any clear goals or incentives put into place; performance will increase when there’s evidence that progress is being made towards agreed-upon goals.
7. How Much Time Is Being Spent on Personal Internet Use per Day
A lot of people spend time surfing online while they’re supposed to be working, which can lead to performance dropping off (cyberslacking). If employees feel like there’s a lot of work necessary to be done, then performance might remain stable- but if the opposite is true and it seems that all of the tasks have been completed for the day, performance will drop as time spent on personal internet use increases.
8. How Much Time Is Being Spent With Other Employees per Day
In general, performance is higher when working with others than alone. The more time is spent collaborating with coworkers, the better performance will be. If you want to maintain a certain level of performance during work hours, then a possible solution could be having team meetings after work hours so it doesn’t interfere with any other daily activities!
Best to Keep Track of This Yourself
There are plenty of performance trackers that can give you the information you need to see how efficient you’re being, but it’s often best if employees keep track of this by themselves. Unless a performance is actually suffering (which would then require some level of outside intervention), performance should be regarded as something personal and not subject to constant oversight by supervisors. Employees should be in control of performance and performance-related tasks.
When performance is tracked in the workplace, employees are more likely to feel like their performance is subject to judgment and performance-related stress. This will cause performance to suffer when only a few days of high performance are needed. Additionally, performance statistics are not something that should be shared with coworkers because it can cause some employees to feel left behind or even unwanted by the collective.
Make the Necessary Adjustments
There are many ways to improve how productive employees are in the workplace, but by following some of these basic guidelines it should be much easier to see what’s happening at work and make necessary adjustments. Track your own performance when possible- if not, look online for different trackers that can help you monitor things without making you stop working. After all, if tracking your own or others’ performance was to make the said performance worse, then there really would be no point in doing it.
It’s important to track your activity and productivity, as it can be a simple way of assessing how you are spending your time. Tracking statistics about the average number of steps taken per day or the amount of time spent on each task is just one example of this type of tracking. By taking these indicators into consideration, you may find that there are some changes you need to make in order to become more efficient at work.
In the above article, you have seen a few statistics you can track in order to assess your efficiency. The next step is to grab a pencil and a piece of paper and start tracking the numbers that matter! Once you have these numbers, you can then begin to see what changes need to be made in order to become more efficient, or, if you do not have such an old-fashioned, a smart algorithm can do that for you.
