KPI's of effective team management measure people’s performance. How do you achieve that? There are straightforward ways, like:
- Counting how many tasks an individual team member finishes within a week
- Measuring the average completion time needed for a medium-sized project
However, are those real indicators of effective team management?
Although they provide you with hard numbers (number of completed tasks, exchanged emails, and given feedbacks), exact KPIs of effective team management are based on something less measurable. According to Bernard Marr, the author of Key performance indicators (KPI): 75 measures every manager needs to know, to determine these KPIs measure:
- Team satisfaction
- Team engagement
- Perception of each other's efforts
- Employees identification with the company
You are well on your way to achieving efficient team management, If those numbers are satisfactory.
"There is a strong link between happy employees and happy customers, and another one between happy customers and profit." - Bernard Marr
SMART Objectives and KPIs
The first thing to do is evaluate the relevance of a KPI you want to use, to measure progress toward a particular objective. This objective should be SMART: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound.
Your objectives are SMART if you answer "yes" to the following questions:
- Is the objective specific enough?
- Is progress to the objective measurable?
- Am I realistic while setting goals?
- Is the objective relevant to our organization?
- Is there a well-defined time frame for the goal accomplishment?
If your objectives are SMART, it is time to define the KPI by answering a different set of questions.
- What is your desired outcome? E.g. We want to improve our team efficiency by 20%.
- Why does this outcome matter? E.g. It enables us to take on an additional project each year.
- How are you going to measure progress? E.g. Determining how much time is required for each project.
- How to influence the outcome? E.g. Optimize the processes your team uses and provide them with better equipment.
- Who is responsible for the business outcome? E.g. The team leader will take on the responsibility.
- How will you know you’ve achieved your outcome? E.g. Four major projects will be completed between January and October.
- How often will you review progress towards the outcome? E.g. We will review our progress monthly.
Once you determined the KPIs, evaluate them, and continuously keep reevaluating them throughout the process. For example, it turns out that your team managed to handle not four but five major projects over ten months. Reevaluation of the KPI will help you determine whether you’ve set the bar too low, or some other factor influenced their success.
However, while measuring team efficiency is one thing, measuring “employee engagement” is a whole different. Although KPIs like “employee engagement” or “employee satisfaction” sound very appealing, they are not quickly boiled down to a single numerical value. So, managers had to invent a way to measure KPIs like those.
Measuring KPIs of Team Effectiveness
Even though people are the driving force behind every company, most companies don't know how to measure performance meaningfully. Most of the time, businesses will use oversimplified metrics (like the days of training or absenteeism) to determine if their employees are performing well while disregarding the most critical KPIs in a people-run company: people happiness, engagement, and productivity.
According to Marr, you have to measure several things to determine a team’s performance:
Employee Satisfaction Index (ESI)
Employee Satisfaction Index (ESI) answers the question: “To what extent are employees happy on their job?”
If you want to find out how your team feels about their managers or development opportunities, the best way is to use a survey: anonymous, short, and Likert scale based. Even though many companies conduct this survey once a year, it’s advisable to interview 10% of the workforce every month.
You have two more months to make corrections and address issues your employees pointed out. Make sure you find the solution to the problems at hand - doing nothing will lower the morale and cause even more dissatisfaction.
Employee Engagement Level (EEL)
Employee Engagement Level (EEL) answers the question: “To what extent are employees ready to devote themselves to the mission and the vision of the company?”
Similarly to Employee Satisfaction Index (ESI), Employee Engagement Level (EEL) is measured with a survey. Even though some companies make their questionnaires, Gallup’s survey is most commonly used. It consists of 12 YES/NO questions and provides you with an insight into the percentage of the employees that are engaged, actively engaged, disengaged, or actively disengaged.
If you choose to do your own survey, keep several things in mind: be short and concise, conducted by an external provider (if possible), result in a change in behavior - keeping the status quo will only result in further disengagement.
360-Degree Feedback
360-degree feedback answers the question: “How well do your employees perform in the eyes of the colleagues, supervisors, and clients?”
Instead of questioning immediate superiors only, question everyone, but anonymously. That means including the supervisor, coworkers, clients, and even the employee who’s being evaluated. By providing numerous inputs, you get an objective performance review which form a base for a pay rise or give an insight into employee further career development needs.
There is no secret formula for creating perfect 360-degree feedback. A good survey focus only on observable behavior and question one behavioral pattern at the time.
The key of 360-degree review is confidentiality, as the reviewer is more likely to be objective once they realize there is no personal confrontation because of their feedback.
Employee Advocacy Score (EAS)
Employee Advocacy Score (EAS) answers the question: “Do our employees want to be our public representatives?”
Very similar to Net Promoter Score, Employee Advocacy Score (EAS) is a KPI closely linked to staff satisfaction and loyalty.
Measuring it is straightforward and comes down to answering one question: “Would you recommend this company as an employer to a friend?” Answers vary from 0 (not at all) to 10 (most definitely) and will divide all respondents into three categories:
Advocates (9-10): Loyal, enthusiastic employees who will gladly promote the company;
Passives (7-8): Satisfied but unenthusiastic - hardly the promoters for the company, and more likely to leave the business;
Detractors (0-6): Unhappy employees who potentially damage your brand by badmouthing it.
Once you get raw results, get staff advocacy score by using the formula:
Employee advocacy score = % of advocates - % of detractors
Negative employee advocacy score is a red flag that indicates the need for a complete system overhaul.
Companies with excellent reputation usually have EAS over 30.
To increase the efficiency of this method, try surveying at least several times a year. Include a few additional questions to determine the pain points of your employees. Address them - solving just one problem turns a hardcore detractor into a passionate advocate.
Conclusion
Determining the KPIs of effective team management helps you to figure out how close you are to achieving desired objectives, and clearly define the steps you need to take to increase your employees’ satisfaction and engagement.
Even though your team is not producing desired results at the moment, investing in them gives you a strong foundation for future successes.
Humans are ever-changing and ever-evolving, and some adaptations are needed. Be patient and persistent, and your team is going to repay your trust tenfold.
