How to successfully track employee performance

If you want a clear picture of how your team is doing, tracking employee performance is key. You don’t want to rely on guesswork when it comes to understanding how well your team or organization is hitting goals, how long it takes, and who’s overperforming or underperforming. Luckily, this blog post is here to give you the best tips on monitoring employee performance—why it’s important, what metrics and tools to use—so let’s get started!

Why should you track employee performance

Every organization wants its employees to perform at a high level. This doesn’t mean overworking them—the goal isn’t to squeeze every last bit of effort from your workforce, as this can lead to diminishing returns in the long run. However, it’s reasonable to expect employees to work their contracted hours and generally add value to the organization. To determine whether employees are meeting expectations, their performance needs to be tracked in some way—it’s that simple.

Consider the story of a Spanish man who managed to skip work for six years while still collecting a paycheck. Clearly, his performance wasn’t being monitored—if it had been, his impressive feat would’ve been discovered much sooner. While this is an extreme case, the same principle applies to most organizations: if you don’t track employee performance, you risk being left in the dark. With that in mind, let’s dive into the best tips for effectively monitoring employee performance.

1. Establish a fair and transparent framework

An important aspect of showing respect to your employees is taking the time to communicate with them openly and honestly. Be upfront about what you’re tracking and why. Let them know how the monitoring ties into their work and the company’s goals. Give them a chance to share their thoughts and feedback on the process.

This kind of open and inclusive approach helps ensure that monitoring is not only relevant but also fair. It also shows employees that their input matters, which can increase buy-in and reduce any resistance to performance tracking. You want to create a sense of trust and ensure that employees feel heard and valued in the process.

2. Choose the appropriate metrics

The next big question is how performance is tracked—that is, what kind of metrics are actually used to measure it. Broadly speaking, metrics can be divided into these categories:

• Goal-based metrics: These metrics translate company goals into specific targets for each employee based on their role. For example, a customer support rep could need to resolve 50 cases a month, a copywriter might be expected to finish a certain number of articles, and so on. Goal-based metrics help align individual goals with company success and ensure employees know exactly what is expected of them.
• Time management: Tracking how well employees manage their time is another crucial metric. This can include data on attendance, time spent on meetings, projects, and various apps. These metrics can help both employees and managers gain a better understanding of how time at work is actually spent and identify areas for improvement.
• Quality of work: It’s not just about getting tasks done—it’s about doing them well. Quality can be measured by customer satisfaction surveys or having supervisors or a dedicated QA team review completed work. This metric is useful for identifying which areas of the business or individual employees excel at their work and which may need improvement.
• Personal growth and training: Metrics like the time dedicated to personal development can help track growth and show how employees are progressing beyond their day-to-day tasks. Companies can also track how much employees engage in training or education programs. This helps identify whether employees are committed to learning and improving their skills.

The relevant metrics for tracking employee performance will depend on the kind of work your company does. While time management is a somewhat universal aspect of work, and tracking it can benefit most organizations, some may not have easily quantifiable goals or targets to achieve, for example. The key is to make sure that the way you monitor employee performance helps your company reach its broader goals.

3. How to monitor employee performance? With the right tools

With the rise of remote work, the idea of a manager checking like a hawk in the morning to see if staff is coming on time and then looking over their shoulder while they work is a bit outdated. These days, there are various tools for tracking and measuring employee performance, and there are compelling reasons to use them. Let’s take a look at time tracking, survey, and project management software that can make the task of monitoring work performance more accurate, efficient, and insightful.

Time tracking software

The first destination for anyone interested in monitoring performance in the workplace is comprehensive time tracking software—tools designed to track time and offer data-based reports and performance evaluation.

Luckily, you don’t have to look far—DeskTime offers exactly that and more. At the core of DeskTime’s features is precise automatic time tracking: work hours, clock-in and clock-out times, and breaks based on precise real-time information. Both managers and employees can at a glance see the relevant stats and keep their finger on the pulse of productivity, eliminating any guesswork.

Managers can also take a look at in-depth productivity insights of their team—how much time exactly is spent in certain websites and apps, since each can be marked as productive, unproductive, or neutral. That way, productivity patterns can be easily spotted, revealing who is performing well and who might be struggling—offering a hands-off way to monitor staff performance. All of that is better seen working in practice—so don’t miss the opportunity to check out the free demo.

Survey and feedback tools

Another important aspect of successful performance tracking is getting employees on board—making sure they understand why it’s being done and what the data they might be presented with actually means. In order to do that, employee feedback is invaluable.

Tools like SurveyMonkey and Qualtrics are super handy for managers wanting to check in with their teams. They make it easy to gather feedback from employees about their work experiences, challenges, and how things could improve.

With these platforms, managers can create tailored surveys to explore specific topics, whether that’s overall job satisfaction, roadblocks employees are facing, or ideas for changes within the company. This feedback can help improve overall workplace culture and shape policies—including the way you track employee performance, for example.

Project management tools

If you’re involved in project-based work, project management tools are a must, unless your team consists of multitasking geniuses. This dedicated software aids managers and teams in overseeing the progress of their tasks. 

By using project tracking tools, teams can arrange tasks, monitor progress, establish deadlines, and collaborate with colleagues more effectively. For teams that handle a lot of projects, performance monitoring will heavily rely on these tools.

Have a look at our list of best project tracking tools, offering a variety of choices for different workflow scenarios. Pro-tip: DeskTime connects with various popular apps so you can get the best of both worlds with comprehensive project management and accurate time tracking.

Final thoughts: Monitor team performance without becoming Big Brother

Sometimes, the idea of their performance being tracked can receive pushback from employees. That’s why it’s important to establish what is being tracked and for what purpose from the get-go. Ideally, it should be a transparent process where employees know what is expected of them and how the relevant data will be gathered. This way, both sides of the equation gain something: organizations can monitor their staff performance in the context of a broader business perspective, and employees get a clearer idea of their role in that. 

The idea of tracking employee performance is certainly not to monitor absolutely every little thing they do—it’s about taking stock of the relevant data that actually drives business. Keep that in mind when you choose the goals, metrics, and tools you need to track the performance of your team.