Measuring the productivity of remote workers is a little different, as there is no daily in-person interaction. Various tools help to make measuring productivity easier. Employers can look at metrics such as hours worked, tasks completed, whether goals are met and other factors in assessing productivity.
However, productivity can be an intangible quality and in some cases, it’s more difficult to measure. Here are five methods you can use to measure productivity of remote workers.
- Use quantifiable metrics
It is difficult to evaluate employee performance without clear and specific expectations. Using an online calendar can help managers to plan out goals and strategies. Each employee needs regular communication with a manager to ensure that expectations are clear.
If every employee has quantifiable metrics a team plans to hit and checks tasks off in a timely manner, managers know productivity goals are being achieved. This ensures that an entire team is involved with where the company as a whole is headed and everyone is on the same page.
TrackTime24 allows you to build the ideal schedule for remote workers and works on any device or browser. You can monitor clock-in and clock-out, overtime and break times. It’s great for both employers and employees to track work hours, overtime hours and even for teams to plan days off. TrackTime24 seamlessly integrates with the most popular payroll apps.
- Evaluate results
Performance is often evaluated by results. Outcomes for sales reps are easy to evaluate as they need to meet specific quotas. For other departments, performance may be based on being able to meet deadlines and produce results.
For a customer-care business, one of the primary measures of productivity may be increased customer satisfaction. Of course, this is more difficult to evaluate than hours worked but there are ways for companies to measure customer satisfaction.
When remote employees manage to build deeper relationships with customers and passionately advocate for their needs, their efforts should be recognized and rewarded.
Some software helps employees to log the hours they spend with clients. The clients are able to log in too and see tasks accomplished on their account. This offers transparency, builds trust, and helps to address any issues about productivity.
- Assess work quality
The quality of work produced is another aspect of evaluating productivity. Employers need to know that employees are giving their all when working on projects.
The quality of the results they achieve can be a good indication of how much they have put into a project. For example, when evaluating the productivity of developers, the quality of the code they produce is essential.
- Ask for internal feedback
When evaluating remote employees, some companies employ internal feedback. Quick surveys about team leaders, managers and colleagues are easy to complete and provide insight into how employees are interacting, how they feel about those leading them, where they might need more training and so on.
- Schedule performance reviews
When you hold regular performance reviews, this removes the anxiety of once-a-year reviews. It is a good way to keep track of the performance of remote employees and make any adjustments before too much time passes.
Some companies conduct weekly work audits and in any instances where it is clear that productivity and/or quality are suffering, consultations are held to address this.
Evaluating the productivity of remote employees is important in order to see if your goals are being met and so they can see how their work aligns with completing the goals. It helps them to see the big picture and continuously improve their performance no matter where they work.