How many times have you heard that question? Over the course of my career, I must have asked or answered that question thousands of times.

When asked in relation to their workday, people will provide you with a variety of answers: good, bad and otherwise. But most responses (at least initially) are not based on the work. A good day may be based on everybody being in a good mood. A bad day could be based on the boss or a co-worker being in a foul mood. If you probe a little deeper, some are able to define their day in terms of their work. Some may claim to having a great day; completing all of their work and moving on to something new. Others may claim to have had a lousy day; nothing seemed to go right. These are both good answers. It shows they understood what was expected of them and how closely they meet those expectations.

The response that concerns me is “Ok, I guess”. Now sometimes this can be a ploy to end the conversation or the day had its high points and its low points. But all too often, it is because the person doesn’t really know if they had a good or bad day.

A point in case . Not long ago, I was having dinner at the bar after spending the day with a client. A young man sat down next to me and began to engage me in conversation. You will never guess what his first question was. You’re right. “How was your day?” (I didn’t respond “OK, I guess”, although I did think about)  I replied that I had a great day. Everything had gone better than expected. Being polite, I inquired how his day went. And yes you guessed it; he responded “OK, I guess”. When I probed a little deeper, he explained (and I paraphrase) he hadn’t been kicked in the butt or patted on the back, so it was an OK day.

When employees cannot determine if they had a good or bad day at work, it is basically an indictment of management. No job expectations have been established against which the employee can measure his /her performance nor was any performance feedback been provided.

When I broach the subject of job expectations with my client’s, they often respond “They should know what to. I shouldn’t have to tell them.” But in the next breath, they complain that their employees don’t perform tasks they way they want them. In the absence of performance expectations or methods of execution employees still may know what needs to be done (the goal), but may not be certain of how it should be performed (the method of execution). And without proper feedback, they probably will continue to utilize methods of execution other than those preferred by their owner or manager.

Let’s use a baseball analogy. A player goes to the plate with a runner on first and no outs. You, as the manager, don’t provide him with any instructions nor does the third base coach give him any signs. Now everybody in the ballpark (including the hitter) knows the hitter’s goal is to move the runner into scoring position. Looking at the situation you note that the second baseman is shaded towards second base and the first baseman is holding the runner, leaving a big hole on the right side of the infield. You think the hitter should try to drive the ball through the right side; potentially advancing the runner to third with the hitter safely on first. But you haven’t communicated this.

The hitter decides the best way to advance the run is to bunt and lays down a respectable bunt. The runner is advanced to second but the hitter is thrown out at first. The goal was achieved but not how you envisioned it. When the hitter returns to the dugout your only comment is “Why did you bunt?”

Later in the game, the same hitter comes to the plate in the same situation; runner on first and no outs. The goal is still the same. But again you have provided no instructions and the third base coach has given no signs. This time the defense is aligned differently. The second baseman is playing straight up and the first baseman has moved up on to the infield grass. No big hole on the right. You think bunt is the best option. Having been questioned on his decision to bunt the last time, the hitter decides to hit away. He grounds into double play. Neither was the goal met nor did the player decide on the expected method of execution.  Whose was at fault?

Now that was a rather long winded analogy, but I hope the moral of the sorry wasn’t missed. Employees need to know not only what needs to be done but also how you expect it to be performed.

To ensure you and your employees are on the same page, you need to develop performance standards and expectations and provide the necessary training and feedback.

Quantitative Standards / Measures

Establishing quantitative standards /measures informs your employees of how much work they need and/or how much time they have in which to complete the task or assignment. Otherwise, your employees will produce the quantity they believe to be sufficient or use the amount of time they have available.

We all know work expands to fit the time allowed. I witnessed this first hand early in my management career. One Friday afternoon shortly after transferring into the division, I was sitting in my office waiting for the parking lot to clear out. As I set there, I observed one of my supervisors neatly stacking files in piles on a work table. I inquired what she was doing and she responded that she was getting the “girls” work ready for Monday. I inquired how she assigned the work and was informed that she assigned each of the “girls” six files with a mix of complexity. Being curious, I inquired why 6. She explained that six was the quantity the “girls” could handle. I requested she add a seventh file to each of the piles. Of course, she was opposed. After all the “girls” could only handle 6 files per day. I asked her to humor me. I was new to the job and “still wet behind ears”. If the additional file per day caused any problems, I would back off.

I did not hear anything from her during week, so on following Friday afternoon I checked with her to see how things went. There were no problems associated with assigning the additional work. The “girls” were able to complete the work each day. Error rates had not increased and there was no negative impact on morale.  So, I requested she had an eighth file to each pile. Again she balked; accusing me of putting too much pressure on the “girls” Again I requested that she humor me and committed to back off if there were any problems.

We met each of the next of the ensuing two Fridays and had the same discussion. Each week was the same. No problems, so add a file. After 4 weeks, our experiment had resulted in a 67% increase in productivity. The error rate remained unchanged and morale was still high.

The supervisor had mistakenly assumed that her employees had reached their capacity at 6 units. The employees were consistently achieving the goal but were only processing 6 in the time they could have been processing 10. I subsequently ran similar experiments in the remaining units in the department. In a matter of months we were able to increase overall department output by 50%.

You need to establish standards for your employees and test the validity of those standards. Start with basic, easy to measure standards. But make sure that achieving these standards contributes to the success of your business. Measuring for the sake of measuring is a mistake. It contributes more to employees not knowing what is important than it does to moving your business forward.

Here are some examples of simple quantitative measures.

1. Actual vs. Estimated Hours – This a good measure for project related work such as construction. You can measure the actual hours it took to perform a task or phase of a project versus the number of hours that were contained in the project estimate. Often my contracting clients are reluctant to provide their field crews with the hours on which the estimate was based. They fear that the crews will use all the hours available, if provided with this information. This may be true, but it is just as likely that they will exceed the hours if they are not advised.  If the hours in the estimate differ from the hours in which you expect them to complete task or phase, provide them with the hours in which you expect the task or phase to be completed.
2. Parts/Pieces/Units per Hour or Day – This is a good measure in a processing operation. You can also measure units per hour or day in an office or sales environment. In establishing these measurements, make sure there is sufficient work to allow employees to meet the standard. For example, you may set the standard at 100 parts per day per employee. If you don’t have sufficient orders, your employees may not be able to achieve this standard on a daily basis. You may want to look at the standard differently. You may look at time per part versus total number of parts produced.
3. Contacts per day – This is a good measure for sales or collection contacts. In both areas, the more contacts made the greater the likelihood of success. Tracking contacts per day will assist you in determining if a sufficient volume of contacts are being made to achieve your sales or collections goals.
4. Orders Received – This may be a more appropriate measure of sales performance than the customer contacts made cited above. I once had a client tell me he had established an objective of 100 customer/prospects per week for his sales person. When I inquired why 100, he advised that 100 per week equaled 20 calls per day and at 10-15 minutes per call he was certain to get 5-6 hours of work out of his sales person per day. The sales person was routinely making the required contacts per week but very few orders were being received.  

These are just a few examples. Others may be more appropriate for your business. Whatever quantitative standards you decide upon, ensure that they actually measure

Qualitative Standards / Measures

Quantity alone is not sufficient. The volume of activity is only meaningful, if it contributes to producing results.  You have to provide your employees with qualitative measures if you want them to perform the job or task in the way in which you intended.

1. Actual versus Estimated Labor Costs – Often projects are completed in the number of hours allocated or less, but still result in labor overruns. This may result from only providing half the equation. Given the objective of completing a project in 100 hours, employees will respond and doing what they can to achieve this goal. With no cost goal in place, they may resort to using overtime or using highly skilled employees to perform tasks requiring unskilled laborers.

I worked with electrical contractor that was baffled by his project results. Most if not all of his projects had been completed in less hours than contained in the estimate, but the actual margins were significantly lower than had been estimated. When we reviewed the labor reports for each of the projects, we noted that on many projects, all of the work was being performed by master electricians. The estimates had been based on 1 master electrician and 2 laborers, in most cases.

1. Percentage re-work or scrap – This is a good measure in a variety of business environments. And the beauty of establishing measures of rework and/or scrap is you typically see immediate improvement. Often waste and rework are considered the necessary evils of doing business and are not controlled.

Back when scrap metal prices were going through the roof, I worked with a manufacturing firm that used a significant amount of steel in its products. They considered themselves a “green” company and were proud of the amount of scrap they were recycling each month. After all, they were receiving a very large check from their steel recycler each month. But how much was the scrap really costing them? We announced to the production staff that we were going to start tracking scrap and that they would share in any savings realized. Within two weeks, the scrap rate had been reduced by 25% and within a month by 50%.

1. Dollars per Sale/ Order – This may be a good indicator of the quality of the sale or the ability of your sales person. The higher the ratio of dollars per sale/order, the greater the likelihood your sales person(s) has an understanding of what you want them or need them to sell.  A sales person may be able to take a high number of orders for your lowest priced item or service, but not be contributing significantly to the total sales goal in term of dollars.
2. Gross Margin per Sale/Order – This measure is indicative of the profitability of sales being made. As I referenced in my hub “Beyond the Field of Dreams, anyone can sell price. It is one thing for a sales person to bring a high volume of sales dollars. If these sales are not achieving the required gross margin, they really aren’t contributing to your profit goal.

I worked with an independent office supply business a few years back. There was a young sales man who routinely met his goals each week in terms of sales contacts made, number of orders taken and dollars/order. Unfortunately, he was only selling one item – paper – which was my client’s lowest margin product. Although, he was meeting most of his objectives, the client was realizing no profit from his efforts.

As was true with quantitative standards, there are many others that may be more appropriate for your business. The key is to measure what is important to your business.

Both quantitative and qualitative standards need to be items you can track and report upon daily or at least weekly.  Standards that you can only measure and report upon on a monthly basis are of little value. You have little opportunity to influence behavior and affect results.

Providing routine feedback is also key. Employees may be able to determine how effectively they have met the standards on their own. Your sales person may be able to say “I had a good. I made 10 contacts and received 2 orders:” Your office manager may be able say “I had a bad day. I made 10 collection calls but wasn’t able to collect any money”. Other standards may require you to provide feedback. You may have to review weekly reports with your staff on actual vs. estimated standards or scrap rate.

Establishing standards and providing feedback on how closely they have been met will allow your employees to determine what kind of day they had. It will be very unlikely they will respond “Ok, I guess” when asked how their day was.