How to Track Employee Performance? 5 Ways Revealed

Discover in this piece the 5 best ways to track employee performance to identify underperformers, overperformers, and outliers.

Last week, Stephen failed to attend to customer tickets. Mary is flustered because she missed meeting client deadlines.

Are you seeing such patterns of inefficiency in your in-house or remote staff too?

Does it mean you hired incompetent staff? Well, that’s not the case. Your employees are simply failing to strike a balance between over-promises and under-performances.

It’s just that you are not monitoring employee performance that well. You are not sharing employee performance reviews as well. Maybe your staff is overwhelmed with workload or isn’t feeling that competitive to work harder.

It’s time you start tracking employee performance with 5 effective ways, discussed right after the importance of employee performance tracking.

Why Track Employee Performance?

Imagine having tons of employees, all working like fanatics (or maybe not). Nobody is there to gauge their productivity or performance. There is no employee performance tracking process or tools. Can’t even imagine, right?

Tracking employee performance is imperative for several reasons, mainly because of how it helps:

• Identify daily to monthly productivity levels.
• Explain areas for improvement.
• Acknowledge underperformers and top performers.

Furthermore, monitoring employee performance aids in:

✔️Clear goal setting.

✔ ️Aligning Indiviauls’s objectives with the company’s vision.

✔️ Creating a culture of accountability.

✔ ️ Facilitating fair compensation, career advancement, and training opportunities.

Let’s understand how, in just 5 ways, you can start monitoring staff performance – without investing much time and energy!

5 Clear Ways to Track Employee Performance

Here are some proven ways for monitoring staff performance.

1. Identify Measurable “S.M.A.R.T” Goals

To begin with employee performance monitoring, you need to set goals that are achievable and measurable. You cannot just start tracking employees’ productivity and efforts if you are clueless about what exactly they need to act on.

Setting unplanned and unrealistic goals, metrics, or KPIs will lead you nowhere. Ensure you go for S.M.A.R.T goal-setting, which is further unfolded as:

Goals	Meaning	Instance
S – Specific	Set specific goals and convey the same to the employees.	Instead of saying we need to increase sales, say we need to increase sales by 10% in the next quarter.
M – Measurable	Ensure goals you wish to set and track are quantifiable and not just hard statements.	For instance, say we need to close 15 tickets out of 30 this week.
A – Achievable	There is no harm in dreaming about big goals, but ensure they are realistic and achievable.	Imagine saying to your field staff, you have to complete 80 client visits in a single day. That’s a very unrealistic thing to expect.
R – Relevant	Make sure you set goals or metrics that align well with your organisation’s vision and mission. They should have a direct impact on your company’s bottom line.	—
T – Time-bound	Set a clear timeline for achieving your goals. This adds urgency and accountability to your objectives.	—

Once you are set with goal-setting, further try to split the employee performance metrics into the following 4 categories.

• Work quality metrics → These deal mainly with the accuracy, efficacy, and quality of work that matches the standards, benchmarks, and client/customer satisfaction.
• Work quantity metrics —> These deal with quantifiable tasks.
• Work efficiency metrics —-> These deal with how effectively and efficiently tasks were performed.
• Organizational performance metrics —> These deal with how tasks impact the organisational output.

The above metrics will help you in monitoring employee performance.

2. Onboard Employee Performance Management Software

There is no way you can manage to perform monitoring all through just on Excel or paper sheets. Are you still sticking to this old school way of tracking and monitoring your employees? 

This is a very cumbersome way to manage your employees’ tasks, especially if you have 100s or 1000s of in-office or field employees to manage.

There, you need a holistic workforce/employee performance management software like TrackoField that simplifies task management and takes performance management to a broader level.

The software helps you access concise reports around remote or field employees’ geo-coordinates, task progress, no. of orders completed, and other variables. It lets you view the concise report around different aspects of work, defining the efficiency, and productivity of your remote staff with the following information:

Automated Performance Reports Possible with TrackoField

Types of Reports	Data Inside Reports
Employee Tracking Reports	Distance travelled reports Employees live location data with geo-coordinates
Order Management Reports	Total orders taken or placed Ad-hoc orders  Custom discounts & pricing
Leave and Attendance	Shift-wise leave & attendance data Leave Quota
Task Reports	Total tasks allocated Total tasks pending, completed or cancelled Real-time task progress status
Expense Reports	Visual expense evidence Categorised expenditures  Real-time status of claimed expense Hierarchy of approving managers

The above data helps you plan effective employee performance review and timely identify inefficiencies.

3. Gather Key Employee Data

Once you are aware of your goals and have a performance tracking tool like TrackoField in hand, what’s next? Now, it’s time to start collecting employee data that can be further scrutinised for evaluation. This way you can efficiently start tracking employee performance.

The employee data can differ across business verticals and industries. And clearly won’t be the same for your in-house teams and field employees. In the process to monitor employee performance, collect the following employee data.

Data for In-house Teams	Data for On-field Employees
Daily to monthly productivity. Work quality & accuracy. Time taken to complete tasks or projects. Team collaboration & responsiveness Capacity to respond to challenges/changes. Attendance and Punctuality. Initiative and Innovation Teamwork & collaboration Openness to learning and development	Frequency of taking orders on time Window to close tickets Sales achieved Total tasks completed Work Quality Attendance and punctuality Timely client or field visit Clear communication & interaction

4. Start Analyzing the Collected Data

The next step is to start analyzing and interpreting trends from the above data. There are several methods that you can use to analyse the data. Mainly as:

Descriptive analysis	A summarized or detailed version defining an employee’s performance.
Comparative analysis	Comparing employees, teams, or departments – in terms of productivity. To identify top or outliers or average performers.
Trend analysis	To spot patterns of employee performance; revealing whether it’s growing, decking, or constant.
Correlation analysis	Assessing the correlation between employee satisfaction levels and performance metrics.
Cost-benefit analysis	Identifying how financial spending on employee training, development, and other performance improvement aspects are adding to ROI (return on investment).

5. Communicate “Thoughts & Notes” with the Team

Do you know employees are 3x more engaged when they receive daily feedback from their managers – compared to annual feedback? Almost 43% of highly engaged employees receive feedback at least once a week.

Make sure to share constructive feedback consistently with your staff. Positive feedback for good performance and constructive criticism for lagging performance — can speak volumes. This will positively help you track employee performance.

You can do this through:

—> Organizing 1-on-1 meetings with either individuals, teams, or departments.

—-> Send performance reports (highlighting areas of improvement and sharing resources to do so).

🔍 Remember when going for 1:1 meetings, ask your employees…

• How they feel about the entire performance improvement process.
• Is there anything that they see that can be improved?
• Any performance metrics that are overlooked?

Talking honestly and openly with your employees will let you know if there is any scope for improvement.

How to Track & Improve Employee Performance? – (Some Inside Tips)

To improve your employees’ performance, you need strategies that can motivate your staff and build a very conducive work environment for them. Here are some strategies on your way!

1. Set Clear Expectations

Ensure employees are pretty sure about their roles, responsibilities, and goals. From day one, they must be aware of what’s important and what’s expected of them.

2. Invest in Training and Development

A dynamic work environment demands opportunities for constant learning and skill development. Make sure to offer opportunities for learning and skill development. Hold training programs and workshops to let them expand their on-the-job skills and cognitive abilities to handle any challenging task with ease.

3. Recognition and Rewards

Remember to acknowledge good work. Recognize your staff’s hard work through either verbal praise, incentives, or awards. Motivate even the staff that failed to perform highly.

4. Goal Alignment

Make sure you timely share organisational objectives with your staff. Show them the bigger picture and let them know how their work is contributing to this bigger picture. They will feel more engaged.

5. Supportive Work Environment

Provide a positive and supportive workplace culture. A culture where you:

• Foster teamwork
• Encourage open communication
• Offer a collaborative work-life balance.

6. More Flexibility

Giving employees autonomy to take ownership of their work gives them the power to make decisions which can boost morale and performance.

7. Regular Check-ins or meetings

Make sure you schedule frequent meetings with your employees to discuss their progress, challenges, and land support if needed. Doing this helps convey that you are particular about their progress and growth.

🔍 Must Remember…

Every employee or staff is different. You must prepare strategies or approaches by keeping individual needs and preferences in mind. Plan, implement, and assess what works for you and what doesn’t. And accordingly, refine your strategies that support employees’ welfare. And in the end, choose the best employee performance tracking/management tools.

Here’s Your Final Takeaway!

With the above methods to track employee performance, your organization can significantly identify gaps or areas of improvement in employee productivity levels. The above methods including goal setting, measuring metrics, and using employee tracking tools can help maintain a clear vision for in-office or field employees.

If you are considering integrating an employee tracking and monitoring tool, Trackofield could be the best choice for you. Not sure?

Did you hear, we are giving a 7-day free trial?

FAQs on How to Track Employee Performance

• What are the best employee performance tracking ways?

  Whether your employees are remote or on-site, here is how you can track employee performance:
  - By identifying “S.M.A.R.T” Goals
  - Onboarding workforce management software like TrackoField
  - Gathering employee's key data
  - Analyzing the employee data
  - Sharing feedback with the team

• What metrics to consider for Employee Performance Tracking?

  Divide on-the-job or remote employee performance tracking metrics into the following categories:
  - Work quality metrics
  - Work quantity metrics
  - Work efficiency metrics
  - Organizational performance metrics