Why metrics matter and why they don’t
Where I work, I have a unique situation where another associate and I co-manage a team. We each have different strengths. Together, we leverage our individuality to make the team stronger. We recently brought in two seasonal employees to help us out in our busy season. At six weeks, we decided it was time to perform a check-in with them. We keep performance metrics for our full-time team members and we ended up debating whether it was necessary to provide those metrics for their performance. Ultimately, we decided to share those metrics with them and I’m glad we did. In today’s post, I’ll break down why I think metrics are important and why I think they are not everything.
When I talk about metrics, I’m talking about the measurable performance elements that indicate how well an employee performed. Think of these measurements as sports stats. For example, a pitcher’s ERA is a measurement of how good of a pitcher they are.
We have multiple variables that we measure on my team. At the end of the month, I’ll review the metrics to see how each employee performed among the different variables and against the group average. Also, gathering this data has been immensely helpful in setting expectations for the performance of new hires and onboarding.
For some roles, it’s easier than others to come up with meaningful metrics, but I encourage you to find the metrics that matter and start to gather that data. How else will you have an understanding of what good performance is?
A word of warning: the metrics your gather are not the only measurement of an employee’s performance. Metrics aren’t everything. There are still unmeasurable aspects of an employee’s performance. Things like, do they show up on time, do they get along with their peers, do they embrace the values of the organization, all contribute to an employee’s overall performance.
Essentially, I use two questions to evaluate employee performance.
- Do they get their job done?
- Do others enjoy working with them?
When we had our six-week review, the metrics we shared were helpful. The metrics allowed us to show the employees how their performance compared to the team and we were able to set clear objectives for the employees going forward.
How do you use metrics where you work? Are you able to find clear and measurable variables that indicate performance?