Stay Home, Sicky!

Since when did going to work sick become a badge of honor? If I had to guess, it was right around the time that employees began to recognize that supervisors and managers did not care about what they actually accomplished, only that they showed up.

See, not so long ago in a land not so far away our work output became less tangible. No longer were we sewing garments, molding candles, or otherwise producing widgets. All activities that can be measured by the number completed. Blame it on technology, or simply process improvements, but either way, our work shifted to developing programs, processes, and even motivating others, things that were not so easily measured. Well, that sounds like progress! Isn't that a good thing? It is. However, it would be great if we had taken the time to teach managers and supervisors how to measure productivity in this new age. It's not too late, but it won't be easy.

First, an organization must have realistic goals.  There must be something to be achieved.  Not your run-of-the-mill, daily grind activities, but goals that improve something.  Maybe it's increased revenue or increased market share or even reduced defects.   The goal must be finite and able to be measured.  If we are going to increase revenue, we need to know by how much and when.  We must also have tools in which to measure the goal. 

Next, we must identify activities that will help us achieve the goal.  Everyone on the team is responsible for some element of the activity or even an entire activity.  Like the goal, it must be measurable. 

Finally, progress toward goal achievement must be tracked.  We will have no idea if we are close to meeting the goal if we are not tracking our progress. 

With these three elements, leaders can focus on what's getting done and not whether Flo with the Flu shows up to share her germs with the rest of the staff.  If we focused on getting work done rather than showing up at a specfic time, we might accomplish much more.  Or maybe we'd have more productive hours, thus work less time.