Though there is movement to bring workers back to the office, there are still many reasons to continue the work from home model. It may be due to the nature of the business, a reduction in available office space and even considered an employee benefit. As a business owner or manager it’s important to measure the productivity of remote workers. There is software to help capture utilization however each business will have its own requirements. With a little thought fair metrics can be developed. A good employee won’t mind being measured knowing the benefits of showing their level of work.
Let’s consider some business roles and how they may be measured. A sales rep selling a product should be easy. How much revenue did they bring in a day, week or month? But how about those who spend their time cold-calling in order to generate volume. They can keep a record of the sales cycle that includes every call’s time and day, response from the potential customer, follow-ups and eventually closing the deal. This will demonstrate how busy they’ve been and success rate.
Project managers spend much of their time individually planning and attending meetings. This time can be tracked but a sure sign of productivity is the number of deliverables coming from each meeting. If numerous meetings are missed, it’s time to ask why. A productive project manager will start with a plan that includes a schedule of tasks to complete. Regular reviews of the plan will show progress. If there are multiple date slips then analysis needs to be done asking for the cause. It may be a productivity issue or scope creep.
Customer service representatives can be measured starting with documenting their call volume and time to closure. Depending on business need, other metrics may be captured showing productivity. The after-the-call survey is a common tool used to receive feedback with the main question being, was your problem resolved today? If it’s not, a post incident review may be in order.
Keeping track of the remote workers productivity can keep the business growing and help with the remote worker model justification. Measuring one’s own productivity is a good exercise even if you are the sole owner of a business. I do this to ensure I’m making the best use of my time.
Ted Saul is a business coach and writer that assists with Business Plans, Project Management and Career Management. He earned his MBA from Regis University along with a Masters in project management. Ted can be reached on LinkedIn or by emailing TedSaulbiz@gmail.com.
