Tracking Employee Productivity – Friday Distraction
(Editor’s Note: Today’s post is brought to you by our friends at Kronos, the global leader in cloud-based workforce management solutions. More than half of the Fortune 1000 uses Kronos to control labor costs. Enjoy the post!)
Managers are given high praise for hiring talented workers. They are equally admired for building great teams and retaining key staff. But all of the accolades are predicated on one thing – employees achieving maximum productivity.
If the company has incredible talent on paper but the business isn’t maximizing employee productivity, well…that’s a problem. Let’s not forget the reason the company is in business – to make profits.
I once worked for a company that tracked labor costs and productivity to the nth degree. Tremendous detail. They also produced a report by location of everyone’s productivity numbers. Every location could compare themselves and see which sites were the most productive and least productive. And to make things even more noticeable, the company set a benchmark productivity standard. If your location was below the standard…well, let’s say you had a lot of explaining to do. And it typically involved creating a SMART matrix with action steps to fix the situation.
I thought the symbolism of labor tracking and “putting out fires” was spot on in this cartoon from our friends at Kronos. It’s easy to “think”, “guessimate” and “approximate” labor costs. Does your company really know exactly what their labor costs are? And does the cost change depending upon the product or service your organization provides?
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