28 of February, 2025

If you are a businessperson, you have likely looked for a work productivity indicator on more than one occasion to measure the performance of your company. After all, productivity can be quantified in various ways at different levels.

Today, there are numerous examples of indicators that are used to assess the performance of workers. Also, there are many guides available on how to be more productive at work. If you need to consult them, visit us at Sesame HR.

What is business productivity?

As a leader of an organization, you probably know that work productivity helps you identify those areas of your company that need improvement, as well as work teams or departments that are performing below expectations.

Thanks to this information, you will be able to take the necessary measures for your company to continue growing. Productivity is a decisive factor in any company, so it is essential to know the indicators that will reveal it.

For this reason, it is not surprising that 6 out of 10 companies in Spain implement policies aimed at improving their productivity. Of these, about 17%, focus heavily on efficiency and productivity, while 7% place extreme importance on it.

How can productivity be measured?

The way productivity is measured can vary from one company to another. Some think that allowing their workers to use social media during their workday can be productive. Others, on the contrary, believe it justifies adopting disciplinary measures.

Thus, it is important for you to take into account the appropriate measurements. Without them, it will be more difficult for you to argue a statement. And for this, you need work productivity indicators.

Work productivity indicators

A work productivity indicator can be completely customized for each of your company’s departments. Alternatively, it can be shared generally.

Next, we will provide some examples of indicators to quantify productivity in each of the departments.

Overtime

An excellent way to measure the performance and cost of employees individually is by considering overtime hours. Here is an example. If the organization has a sales peak, employees will have to work more hours.

If these hours are the result of an increase in work, it can be a work productivity indicator. In fact, it can be the signal that indicates the need to hire more workers.

On the other hand, when evaluating overtime, more examples of indicators can be combined, such as the existing workload. In this way, you will be able to work on the prevention of mistakes that occur in a team that is overwhelmed with tasks.

For this, you will need an overtime pool that accurately records your staff’s working hours.

Work efficiency

This work productivity indicator is a metric that connects different details such as shift effectiveness or number of staff. To calculate it, all you need to do is divide total sales by the number of workers.

Although it is a relevant indicator, other factors that will influence the production performance should also be kept in mind. One of them is the quantity of product delivered or quality control.

Project progress

It can be very useful for the different departments of an organization to identify how ongoing projects are progressing with the help of a project manager.

This achieves a common vision of the tasks carried out for all workers. This is very motivating, as it reflects the situation according to the work done by the different departments.

Quality control

Another work productivity indicator is quality control. With this, you collect information that is worth sharing with the different departments of the company.

This action has a very beneficial effect on the productivity of workers, as they will feel part of the team.

Initiative, a highly valued work productivity indicator

Of course you like having workers who ask you what you need or if they can help you. However, you probably prefer it when they anticipate your needs and take the initiative.

For this reason, proactivity is a wonderful work productivity indicator.

Sales growth

In most companies, and probably yours as well, this is an example of an indicator that should be considered.

In this case, you will have to perform an individual follow-up for each employee dedicated to sales. You will have to observe both what works and what doesn’t, and adjust it according to needs.

High-performing workers

If you have talented employees, you should trust in this indicator to recognize them and determine which ones are the best. You can resort to some of the following:

Average calls per hour.
Resolution during the first call.
Sales success.
Customer satisfaction surveys.

With these examples, you can identify which are the members of your company that are more suited to certain positions. Similarly, you will find out who might need a little extra training in specific areas.

Time it takes to fill a job

When you are in search of your ideal employee, the work may start piling up. This will cause the rest to take on more tasks and they may start to feel overwhelmed. In turn, this implies a low work performance.

That’s why and for establishing a good reference point, the average time to fill is an excellent productivity indicator. You just need to register the time spent from the creation of a job to hiring.

There isn’t a standard time for this. The number can always vary as long as the right workers are chosen at a limited cost to the company.

Did you find this article interesting? We hope so. If you want to start measuring the performance and productivity of your company, we encourage you to access our guides at Sesame HR.

You will get a more comprehensive and intuitive view of any work productivity indicator for your organization thanks to the help of our HR software.

Customer-oriented, both internally and externally, specializing in the definition and implementation of HR policies, as well as talent management, recruitment, and retention. Strong leadership, communication, negotiation, organization, and team coordination skills. Over 12 years of experience in Human Resources.

Do you want to rate our article?

Average rating:

5 stars (1 votes)

★★★★★

iriserrador

HR Content Specialist

What are the best indicators of a company’s labor productivity?