Tracking team member performance is invaluable. Talented employees want feedback to help them grow and improve. Not only that—understanding performance at your company can help you plan and achieve more in terms of output and revenue.
However, quantifying and measuring performance metrics is easier said than done. Traditional metrics such as productivity can present a moving target and can often be misleading. As an article in Inc notes: “measuring is important, but measuring what you need to measure and measuring it the right way is critical.”
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There are a number of different methods you can choose to track performance metrics. The Houston Chronicle outlines regular appraisals, productivity tests, 360-degree feedback, and management by objectives as a few common forms of measuring individual performance metrics.
The most effective metrics for measuring team member performance will depend on your business and on different team member roles. Here are five possible metrics for measuring team member performance.
Team Member Performance Metric #1: Attendance
First and foremost, it’s important to look at whether a team member shows up to work or not. Automating time tracking is a great way to keep an eye on attendance. If a team member is consistently showing up late, leaving early, or taking an unusual number of sick days, they’re likely not showing their full potential.
Poor attendance can be caused by a number of things, including a lack of motivation, health issues, or burnout. There are a number of indirect costs of absenteeism such as extra pressure put on other team members, which can affect work quality and safety. Furthermore, if your organization is understaffed and team members are overworked in general, it’s best to address the problem as soon as possible to avoid putting your employees’ health and well-being at risk.
Team Member Performance Metric #2: Helpfulness
Helpfulness is important for fostering a culture of teamwork, allowing your team to perform better when tackling difficult tasks together. It might be difficult to measure helpfulness, but consider having employees fill out an anonymous survey asking who in their department (or another department) has been the most helpful over the past six months. This will help you identify top “helpers” across your organization.
Team Member Performance Metric #3: Efficiency
Team members need to be able to complete their work on time. They should have a good handle on the limitations of the time and resources available and should be able to prioritize getting things done as efficiently as possible. Look for missed deadlines or work that suffers as a result of tight deadlines for clues as to how efficiently a team member is working.
Attendance is important here too: if you see a team member clocking large amounts of overtime every day, you may need to speak to them about time management.
Team Member Performance Metric #4: Initiative
Employees who ask for help or jump in when they see help is needed are the ones that show initiative—and an employee who shows initiative is a sign of team satisfaction and engagement.
Looking at team members who take initiative is also important for rapidly growing businesses that require people who can adapt and be proactive. Initiative-taking is definitely a difficult metric to measure. A good place to start would be by keeping track of the times you see a team member taking initiative, but also can be a part of your performance reviews with self, peer, or manager ratings.
Team Member Performance Metric #5: Quality
The quality of work your employees put out is perhaps the most important metric, but it can also be the most difficult—and subjective—to define. Team members who care about what they do and are engaged at work will likely perform better, and it’s a good idea to recognize their achievements.
Productivity is more complex than simply looking at the number of sales calls put out or the number of blog posts published. How many meaningful connections did your salesperson actually make with those new leads? How much of your content actually gets viewed and shared by your audience? One suggestion is to measure the amount of work that gets rejected or needs to be redone as a proxy for the quality of work, but it’s best to pick and design the method that suits your business.
People and culture experts have their work cut out for them when it comes to measuring and assessing team performance. How do you quantify the performance of a rockstar member of the team? Certainly, while quantification is important, it’s also important to not get too caught up in numbers and details.
At the end of the day, team members are people and not just resources to be consumed. Some qualities—such as the propensity for relationship building—are worth their weight in gold and should not be overlooked. It’s important to evaluate your employees in a way that takes into account their measurable contributions but also examines the individual value that they bring to your organization.
Download our free ebook: The positive effects of an effective performance management process, to learn how performance management plays a critical role in employee engagement and retention.
