To become more developed and productive, measuring your productivity is essential. However, it's not as easy as it seems. Most of the time, even the company's Human Resources department finds it difficult to evaluate the productivity of each employee.
The number of working hours is often cited as a measure of productivity, but what about the tasks completed? But none of them can tell you how productive you have been. Here are some ways you can measure your productivity.
1. The Input-Output Ratio
This is one of the easiest ways to measure your productivity, which most companies use as their primary method. To get this right, all you have to do is determine your total output—for instance, the total cost of the goods produced or the cost of services.
Then, find out what's your input. It can be the number of hours you put in or the number of employees or team members who worked to produce that result. Finally, get the cost-efficiency ratio of output and input.
For example, if you made a total of $ 10,000 by working for 160 hours. Then your cost efficiency ratio will be 10,000/160 = 62.5. It means that you created $ 62.5 per hour, and that's your productivity.
Now, if you start making more money within that same amount of hours, your productivity is increasing. For instance, $ 12,000 for 160 hours = $ 75 per hour. Your productivity increased by $ 12.5 per hour. Most industries use this method to calculate the productivity in the form of total products created, such as productivity rate: 100 products per hour.
If you own a small business, or you're working in a corporate company, you can measure your productivity by different means. For example, you can use this ratio to determine the amount of money you're making or the number of tasks you're completing within a particular amount of time.
However, it may be hard to use this method for bigger companies or in complex working environments.
2. A Complete Circle Feedback Method
This is a method of measuring productivity that you can use if you have a business with multiple employees or work on a project with several team members.
All you have to do is get all the people working on a particular project and ask each of them to give feedback about the rest of their team members. It may sound a little overwhelming at the moment, but it's really effective.
However, you may need to prepare your people before starting with it, so that everyone gives only genuine feedback. No personal feelings are welcome during this session.
Once everyone has given their opinions, you can evaluate all the feedback about each individual and average them out to get the best results.
This strategy will help you find out how productive each team member is and evaluate the team's overall productivity too. Plus, this way, you can also advise if anyone needs to work on their strengths and weaknesses.
3. Time and Tasks Tracking
If your team or employees work remotely, then the best way to measure productivity is to track progress via time management software. You can use it to track:
- How many tasks do they complete in a particular time period?
- How much time do they take to complete each task?
- How much exactly do you need to pay them (billable hours)?
Besides that, it can also help your team members improve their productivity by:
- Increasing their efficiency
- Enhancing their focus
- Reducing unplanned absences
- Managing multiple projects at once
4. Profit Is the Measure of Productivity
Profitability is directly related to productivity for anyone looking to make money. Despite your profession, the more profit you gain, the more productive you are.
- If you're a student, you can measure your productivity based on your performance, which has long-term advantages. You have a better chance of going to a good college and working for a good company if you earn good grades.
- If you're a business owner, you know that the better returns you get for your business, the more productive you have been all this time.
- Likewise, if you run an entire organization, you know your company can accumulate better profits with the increment of your employees' productivity each day.
Many people, including students, employees, small business owners, and new entrepreneurs, waste their time daydreaming, perfecting already completed tasks, or switching between multiple social media apps.
The better way is to limit this time wastage by trying different methods, and invest those hours in creative thinking or completing the tasks resting on your to-do list for the longest. It can help you increase your productivity tremendously.
5. The Daily Check-In Technique
Most people find it hard to stay on track while working on a project. If you're someone like this, or you have such people in your company or team who often do this, consider a regular check-in strategy.
In this method, you do not have to worry about the final outcome just yet. Instead, you make sure that the person works on that task each day and reaches a milestone. You may ask them, or get yourself asked, several questions on a daily basis, like:
- What have you achieved so far?
- How much work have you completed today?
- What's due for tomorrow?
This way, it'll become easier to complete tasks on time and stay productive throughout the day, week, and month. You can use different methods to check your daily productivity, such as:
- Emails
- Google Meet, Zoom, or Microsoft Teams
- Time management software
- Phone calls
- In-person meetings
Measuring Your Productivity Is as Essential as Being Productive
If you need to change anything, the only way to get started is to find out its current position. The same goes for your productivity. Otherwise, if you have no idea how productive you are, how can you expect to improve it over time?
So, measure your productivity using any of the methods suggested and find out how productive you were this whole time.
