What Is The Best Way To Measure The Productivity Of Our Managers?

Look at how leadership behaviors affect group performance. Also keep in mind that different management roles will be defined and measured according to the job.

 How do we define productivity for managers?

—Precision Wanted, assistant HR manager, nonprofit, Singapore

Dear Precision Wanted:

The most important measure of an individual manager is found in the collective productivity of employees. The generally accepted definition of productivity—productivity equals production output over production input—is not that meaningful for management jobs.

Because of this, most organizations measure management performance instead of productivity. That way, the leadership behaviors and how they affect the team's productivity also can be monitored and improved as necessary.

Although it is true that productivity is affected by the manager's personal output, the much greater impact comes from how well the manager aligns and engages people in the unit to work together to accomplish a defined objective.

Productivity for a management position is defined and measured in different ways. For a sales manager, it is usually defined in volume of sales of the entire team, but those sales must be profitable. For an operations manager, it can be defined as the speed to deliver a product to the customer, or the quality of service, accomplished by the department. For a plant manager, it most often means how much the plant produces and at what cost, provided quality standards are achieved.

Taking all of this into account, the best definition of a manager's productivity/performance is: the results achieved by the team versus the goal or standard established.

This definition may on occasion allow the manager to experience a "windfall" benefit from an exceptionally strong team. More often, though, the manager has had a hand in building positive energy within the team to accomplish the goals that have been established.

SOURCE: Jay Scherer, BPI group, Chicago, February 24, 2010

LEARN MORE: Please read why it is important for companies to focus on results when assessing the performance of leaders.

The information contained in this article is intended to provide useful information on the topic covered, but should not be construed as legal advice or a legal opinion. Also remember that state laws may differ from the federal law.

Thanks to Crain Communications Inc. / Work Force