Is your company stagnating? Stuck at the same level year after year?
The solution may be in the question. Ask yourself instead: Is your team consistently improving their output and productivity week over week? If not, you may be overlooking a crucial management strategy – integrating statistics into your daily operations.
By closely tracking key metrics and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) you can pinpoint areas for improvement, reward top performers, and foster a culture of continuous growth within your organization.
A great business is based on your people doing more this week than they did the last.
What Are Employee Statistics?
Employee statistics are the concrete deliverables your employee produces daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly. Their ‘post’ or position determines what this statistic should be, but every single position should have one.
Questions arise sometimes. What if your role is ‘not trackable’? We often hear that positions like Human Resources or Events claim that they cannot be tracked on the same scale as the rest of the company. But, if a position is not trackable, it doesn’t exist.
For example, an HR Department post may have their statistic be…
- Number of training modules produced.
- Number of cases closed.
- Employee satisfaction as rated by survey.
- Number of candidates interviewed.
- Number of employees who passed qualification exams.
- Cost per hire metrics.
These are just a few examples of how you can apply statistics to personnel-based positions.
Why Track Employee Statistics?
The two primary reasons for employee underperformance are:
A: They don’t know how to improve (a lack of training)
Or
B: They don’t want to improve (attitude/motivation issue).
One of these reasons is something you can remedy. The other means they simply may not be a proper fit for this position. However, there is no way to know when an employee is struggling without being able to track these dips.
By assigning specific statistics, an employee has goals they can work towards improving, and tailor their training accordingly. If your sales department is judged by a number of closed calls vs. cold calls, they’ll tailor their skill development towards improving their closing rates.
Statistics also serve as the most powerful form of accountability. Dips in production become visibly obvious, which motivates the employee to avoid them.
As a bonus: by focusing on objective metrics rather than self-promotion, you take subjectivity out of the equation. It’s a data-driven way to decide promotions, and bonuses, and measure performance independent of personality.
Why Care if Statistics Go Up?
When you crunch the numbers, it becomes obvious. Even a 1% improvement per week can compound into 50% more output by the end of the year.
By promoting a culture of improvement, you incentivize the right behaviors – hard work, dedication, and a hunger to perform at a higher level consistently.
How to Raise Statistics Over Time
The first step is ensuring your training protocols are comprehensive and effective. This is where your “Personnel” department comes in. They are responsible for increasing the overall statistics of the company by establishing regulations and SOPs for the company to follow.
For example:
- Documenting procedures and producing work instructions for all roles/tasks
- Initial and ongoing skills training
- A “hatting” process to verify competency
- Mentorship programs pairing new employees with experienced staff
The second is addressing motivation and attitude challenges.
Even with solid training, some employees may still underperform due to motivational or attitude issues. Be it problems in their private life, feelings of “burnout”, or other forms of reluctance: this requires a different approach focused on:
- Counseling and positive reinforcement
- Addressing personal issues impacting work
- Instilling the right cultural mindset
- Performance incentive programs
By integrating statistics into daily processes, you gain powerful insights that allow you to optimize performance across your organization.
About Management….
This system only works if accountability is not just for the lowest level producers: your managers are equally beholden not only to their own statistics but that of their teams.
A great leader is one who consistently inspires their staff to improve. A company as a whole only survives if its leadership has the same growth mindset. This hunger for higher statistics is a necessary one.
Why is this skill so invaluable?
- It aligns the entire workforce towards a unified goal of continuous improvement
- It provides an objective, measurable way to identify top talent deserving of higher pay/responsibility
- It promotes accountability and ownership of one’s own metrics at all levels
- It allows quickly identifying and addressing negative trends before they become entrenched
While tools like Excel and dedicated statistics software can help capture the raw data, it takes a skilled leader to interpret those numbers and drive positive change.
Why it Matters
Embracing a statistics-driven management mindset may require a shift in perspective, but it offers a proven framework for propelling your team’s performance to new heights.
By combining robust training, motivational support, and keen statistical analysis, you can build a workforce that consistently delivers more output and higher quality with each passing week.