Significant disruptions have occurred for employees and organisations’ decision-makers in the last two years. Due to the evolving workplace, more organisations are progressively adapting their operations to a hybrid work environment. As the workplace changes, organisations are equally rapidly reimagining how productivity and performance are measured.
In the new wave, organisations increasingly invest in specific tools that help measure productivity. By September 2021, according to Pew Research, 41% of employees in the United States of America who previously worked in an office reported they engaged in an exclusive working-from-home model, while 26% spent some time in the office. 54% of these remote workers prefer to divide their time between the office and their home, known as “HYBRID WORKING.”
Despite the emergence of fully remote options, the pandemic forced organisations worldwide to adapt to remote and hybrid business models almost overnight, while physical work locations remain critical. The pandemic disrupted how we work and was also accompanied by different dynamics. Typically, employees value the autonomy and flexibility that hybrid and remote work provides. However, they subsequently miss human social interaction. For employers, the biggest bane is how to measure performance and productivity in a hybrid work environment.
Reimaging KPIs for Business Performance in the New Normal
In the last two years, hybrid and remote work has become increasingly popular. Working from home necessitates changes in how managers track employee productivity. Employee productivity is one of the most important aspects of a successful business or organisation. As employee productivity evolves, managers must embrace new tools, enhance employee engagement, set clear expectations, and track progress.
To usher in this new phenomenon, human resources managers and administrative personnel should reimagine the fundamental principles of their organisations to develop new performance metrics for the evolving workplace. Such metrics will help businesses and organisations thrive in an increasingly evolving workplace.
Emerging models should be creative, adaptable, and antifragile regarding reimagination. This would fuel corporate purpose while encouraging technical work (labour) and collaboration. With the influence of digital transformation, collaborative operation plays an important role in employee experience, reducing the emphasis on “hierarchy” and emphasising team collaboration, making work more enjoyable and value driven.
To keep driving this initiative, business leaders should further implement strategies to mine data to retain, train, and hire the right talents for the job. To this end, the data collected will be used to inform staffing requirements by the executive management team. This data-driven intelligence system will be used to analyse the new work models and then incorporate them into compensation and performance decisions within the organisation.
The New Possible: 6 Metrics To Set KPIs For Hybrid Teams
In these uncertain times, individuals, families, and businesses are embracing new directions of change and adapting with resilience and agility. Companies across all sectors and industries are utilising various metrics to determine whether prospective employees fit into the new hybrid work paradigm for business continuity while transitioning from a rigid in-office setup to a full-time remote and hybrid work arrangement.
Employee growth and productivity are the outcomes of an organisation’s success. As a result, teams will juggle multiple work and life responsibilities; hence performance management strategy is required in organisations. It is advised that organisations seek to develop new strategic plans and playbooks to drive employee performance and ensure productivity.
To effectively manage employee engagements, there are Six key metrics that organisations can use to assess the impact of Hybrid/Return to Work programmes on their workforce:
A. Aligning Hybrid Work with Company Policies and Procedures:
Managers and decision-makers must collaborate with strategy teams to develop and integrate hybrid work models into company SOPs. This significant transition is essential for re-boarding and re-briefing across teams/divisions for effective collaboration.
As the new work model is widely announced at all levels, team leaders will be able to manage their units better.
B. Develop S.M.A.R.T. KPIs
Curating KPIs that are S.M.A.R.T. aids in measuring productivity with precision and objectivity. This approach will help set project milestones and track the progress that way.
- Specific: a KPI should be precise, specific, and actionable.
- Measurable: setting KPIs that can be measured and interpreted through data & tools.
- Achievable: the KPI objectives you set must be achievable under the conditions you have.
- Relevant: setting time-relevant and valuable KPIs for your business is critical.
- Timely: all KPIs must have an allotted time and be subject to regular reviews.
C. Cross-functional Team Partnership
Deconstructing structural silos is critical for reducing productivity bottlenecks. As team operations evolve, office arrangements shift from remote to hybrid, fostering collaboration in the long run. Managers should investigate and ensure adequate interactions beyond teams, and collaborations should be cross-functionally focused to drive and break down silos.
D. Trackable Project Milestones
Project milestones are essential components of a project’s life cycle. Managers should utilise strategic initiatives to measure productivity in employee performance throughout the life cycles of projects. They should engage data-driven metrics as this provides intelligence to interpret employee performance on tasks assigned and project output. Managers can determine failure and success at each milestone and analyse how productivity affects productivity.
E. Employee Satisfaction Poll
Measuring employee satisfaction metrics plays an integral role in employee retention. The Employee Satisfaction Indicator (ESI) (Myskova, 2011 ) indicates employee fulfilment at the workplace. Managers and business leaders should track progress over time and engage in a comparative analysis to weigh the success rate of remote work and hybrid work systems.
To efficiently deduce intelligence in measuring employee engagement, data intelligence is to measure employee satisfaction through ESI assessments.
This assessment will rely on 3 key indicators:
- Employee satisfaction with workplace/job
- Impact of hybrid work on job expectations?
- “The Ideal Workplace”
F. Data-Intelligence Dashboard for Project Management and Development
A data-driven dashboard for project managers will help make valid decisions on measuring productivity. When a data-driven metric is developed with the right technology, leadership support, and effective project management, KPI dashboards will succeed in bringing business value.
As hybrid teams work in this new era, managers and decision-makers should consider developing data-driven key performance indicators (KPIs) to provide intelligence during project timelines. This assists project managers in measuring overall productivity and value delivery in business operations.
The new work dynamic is set to come with its wins and losses. Despite this, working together in a team will require managers not only to be logical in setting work parameters for organisation profits but also to set and manage the KPIs and metrics by replacing the old ones with more innovative ones to deliver inclusive value-driven results.
By advocating for a data-driven culture to manage expectations through KPIs, these six metrics have a heavy demand potential for managing the performance of reliable and sustainable hybrid teams to achieve organisation objectives.
Written by:
Olayide Eleso
Senior Analyst
