But what does that even mean?<\/p>\n
What is productivity, exactly? Most importantly, how do you measure it? Today, we\u2019ll answer those questions as clearly as possible. Better yet, we\u2019ll show you a simple way to measure productivity in your organization, as well as how to improve it.<\/p>\n
Get started with monday.com<\/a><\/p>\n First, we need to define what productivity is. In short, productivity measures the efficiency in which you can produce different outputs.<\/p>\n For instance, let\u2019s say you\u2019re an artist and want to start selling your paintings. Let\u2019s also say that it takes you 3 days to produce a painting and you need the following materials:<\/p>\n To increase your productivity, you\u2019d need to find a way to either reduce your production time or use fewer materials.<\/p>\n For example, by improving your painting skills, you might produce a painting in 2 days instead of 3. Or by finding more durable paintbrushes, you can reduce waste, time spent buying new brushes, and material costs, since you\u2019re replacing them less often.<\/p>\n Productivity indicates how efficiently you can turn your inputs \u2014 materials, time, people, and any other resource \u2014 into a final result, typically a product or service. The fewer resources you use, the more productive you are, and vice versa.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Get started with monday.com<\/a><\/p>\n Whenever you want to improve at something, the first step is to understand your current performance level. As Peter Drucker said: \u201cWhat gets measured gets improved.\u201d<\/p>\n You see, this is crucial.<\/p>\n In a recent study, 79%<\/a> of employees admitted they weren\u2019t productive \u201cthroughout the entire workday.\u201d In fact, the same study indicated that the average employee is only productive for 2 hours and 53 minutes per day.<\/p>\n What does this mean for you?<\/p>\n Today, your team is probably wasting time and resources on inefficient processes, and the only way to know for sure is to measure your current productivity level.<\/p>\nBy performing a productivity analysis in your organization, you can spot potential bottlenecks and inefficiencies before they start snowballing, and better optimize your core operations.<\/span><\/a>\n Other benefits of productivity measurement include:<\/p>\n Now, keep in mind that not all productivity is created equal.<\/p>\n So, before we step into the actual process of measuring productivity, let\u2019s answer a major question.<\/p>\n We can split productivity into 4 main categories:<\/p>\n Note: <\/strong>Some people might include additional categories, like technology or managerial productivity. For the sake of brevity, however, we decided to focus on the most important and widely-used.<\/p>\n That\u2019s the question, right?<\/p>\n So, now that you understand what productivity is and why it matters, let\u2019s talk about how to measure it in the real world, starting with the basics.<\/p>\n Performance metrics, also known as Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), help you monitor the efficiency of your team at getting different tasks done or achieving certain results.<\/p>\n (Image Source<\/a>)<\/p>\n For instance, let\u2019s say you\u2019re comparing 2 team members.<\/p>\n One of them works extremely hard, putting in some extra hours every night, while the other prefers to go home early and spend time with their family.<\/p>\n Which of them is more productive?<\/p>\n Traditional wisdom would say the first one is more productive \u2014 but that\u2019s not necessarily true. Because time worked doesn\u2019t, in itself, indicate higher productivity.<\/p>\n To determine which employee is more productive, you need to define what success means for you and then compare time spent with actual results.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n For example, let\u2019s say you\u2019re trying to measure sales.<\/p>\n If the second team member is producing more sales than the first one, that person is more productive, regardless of how many hours the other team member spent working.<\/p>\n That\u2019s why setting a specific KPI (or KPIs) is crucial to measure productivity. Otherwise, your results won\u2019t be accurate.<\/p>\n More examples of productivity metrics might include:<\/p>\n At the end of the day, these metrics will look different for you, depending on what you\u2019re trying to measure.<\/p>\n Need help choosing the right metrics? Check out this guide<\/a> which further explains KPIs and gives you 41 concrete examples, grouped by department.<\/p>\n Now that you\u2019ve defined your metrics, it\u2019s time to calculate your productivity. To do it, you should divide your outputs by your inputs.<\/p>\n The formula looks like this:<\/p>\n Productivity = Total output\/Total input<\/strong><\/p>\n For example, let\u2019s say you\u2019re a clothing manufacturing company that produces 800 shirts every 3 hours, with 10 employees.<\/p>\n In this example, those 800 shirts represent your outcome. To calculate the input, you need to multiply the number of employees by the number of hours worked.<\/p>\n The final formula would read:<\/p>\n 800 \/ (3 * 10) = 26.66<\/strong><\/p>\n This means that every employee produces, on average, 26.66 shirts every hour. That\u2019s your employee productivity index.<\/p>\n But what about economic productivity?<\/p>\n Well, let\u2019s imagine that producing 800 shirts costs you $647, derived from the following areas:<\/p>\n The formula would be:<\/p>\n 800 \/ 647 = 1.23<\/strong><\/p>\n This means that your economic productivity is 1.23 shirts per dollar input.<\/p>\n Depending on the type of productivity you\u2019re trying to calculate, you might need to consider different elements (e.g., multifactor productivity may involve labor hours and costs, material used, overhead, etc.).<\/p>\n Once you know your current productivity, you can compare it with your goal productivity and consider what you might need to change to address any gap.<\/p>\n Get started<\/a><\/p>\n Even though the formula we outlined previously works great, it\u2019s simply too manual for modern teams. Besides, if you don\u2019t have access to all your data, the results you get from that formula can be inaccurate.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re looking for a simpler way to maximize your efforts, reduce costs, and improve your overall productivity, then a platform like monday.com might be right for you.<\/p>\n monday.com is a Work Operating System (Work OS) where you can streamline all your processes, monitor progress, and optimize your operations.<\/p>\n The best part?<\/p>\n Our platform is fully customizable.<\/p>\n From the start, you get access to dozens of building blocks you can move around at will to design a platform that fits your exact needs, regardless of your vertical.<\/p>\n Some of our core features include:<\/p>\n To get a more complete overview of our platform, why not check out our product overview page<\/a>.<\/p>\nWhat is productivity measuring?<\/h2>\n
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Why should you measure productivity?<\/h2>\n
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What are the different types of productivity?<\/h3>\n
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How do you measure productivity?<\/h2>\n
Step 1: Define a core productivity metric<\/h3>\n
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Step 2: Use this productivity formula<\/h3>\n
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How to skyrocket your team productivity with monday.com<\/h2>\n
What is monday.com?<\/h3>\n
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Why monday.com?<\/h3>\n
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