Employee Performance Metrics: Measure What Helps Your Team Succeed

Teams can appear to be working hard while they are actually not making any true progress. Managers cannot rely on their “gut” to determine if work is moving forward. Rather, managers require quantifiable metrics to demonstrate results, quality, and the overall development of the team.

The best employee performance metrics are used by leaders to identify the areas of strength of their employees, to identify problems before they occur, and to assist in improving performance. Too many performance metrics can cause confusion. The best way to use performance metrics is to track the things that matter most.

Start With the Outcome

One question before you choose a metric: “What will successful performance in this job look like?”

Sales teams typically monitor their sales performance by tracking revenue generated from new customers and how long customers stay with them. Support teams usually measure the effectiveness of their customer service by evaluating the amount of time it takes to answer customer questions and whether customers are satisfied with their service. Software development teams assess the success of their products based on the speed at which they deliver new features to users, the rate at which defects occur in the product, and the overall quality of the code used to develop the product.

Metrics should match the work. A single set of measures will not fit every role.

Four Types of Performance Measures

Productivity

Productivity measures demonstrate the amount of work completed within a specific time frame. Such as completing tasks, processing orders, or delivering on projects.

These figures will aid teams when planning their workloads. However, speed does not indicate how effective or correct the work being done is.

Quality

Quality measures assess the quality of an individual’s work. Quality measurements may consist of such things as the frequency at which errors occur, how often customers complain about the quality of service they receive, and the amount of work which needs to be re-done.

When you combine quality and productivity, you get a more complete view of what’s happening. Productivity is useless when there are too many errors requiring correction.

Reliability

Employee performance on meeting expectations (e.g., being present at work, delivering products/services in a timely manner, and/or meeting project deadlines) can be measured by reliability metrics.

These should be used with caution, as many times the length of time taken to complete a task depends upon variables that are not within the employee’s control.

Growth and Collaboration

Performance assessment does not just focus on individual outputs, but also on how well employees are developing their skills, sharing what they know with others, and working together in teams.

The use of specific examples and continuous feedback will be more effective than general descriptions like “good team player.”

Build a Balanced Scorecard

Several employee performance metrics can be brought together through a simple scorecard, and this will help to keep employees from being overwhelmed.

Employees should review the metrics to understand the significance of each metric and how the metric is used.

Turn Data Into Better Conversations

Coaching is about guiding with metrics, not replacing them. While numbers can show a shift, a conversation will help understand why that shift took place.

When reviewing results frequently, considering the employee’s work environment, and deciding upon achievable action items, you can create a positive outcome for both the individual and the team. Fair and well defined metrics allow individuals to continuously grow while allowing teams to accomplish their collective objectives.