How to Calculate Weekly Work Productivity for a Salaried Employee

Different salaried employees can produce different levels of output.

Salaried employees are paid a set amount in base compensation each week regardless of the number of hours they work or how productive they are. Because of this, it can be more challenging for employers to gauge the productivity of salaried employees than those paid by the hour or on a piece-work system. Calculating weekly productivity for salaried employees can reveal how much your company pays for each unit of output produced by different employees and can assist in setting productivity goals.

Instructions

1. Determine a standard unit of measurement with which to gauge the employee's output. This can be relatively straightforward or challenging, depending on the nature of work the employee performs. For a manufacturing employee working on an assembly line, for example, you could consider each product coming off the line as a single unit of output. For administrative employees like accounting assistants or data-entry clerks, it can be difficult to quantify output. Consider using actual working hours as a metric (40 hours per week, plus any overtime, less time for breaks or non-productive work time), or use a metric relevant to the type of work performed.

2. Create a method of monitoring and recording the number of units produced each day. The ideal type of monitoring system also depends on the nature of the work performed. Recording sales calls made by a salaried salesperson, for example, could be accomplished by asking salespeople to submit reports on their sales activities each day or week. Recording a data-entry clerk's output could be accomplished by creating custom reports from the software used for data entry, as another example.

3. Monitor output for several weeks. Evaluate your monitoring system after the first week or two to asses how effective it is at recording output. If you find large discrepancies in output per day, check to ensure that the system is reliable. Add up the total units produced each week, then divide the sum by the number of working days per week to calculate an average number of units produced each day. Multiply this daily figure by the number of working days per week to determine the average output per week.

4. Divide the employee's annual salary by 52 to determine a weekly salary figure. Divide the weekly salary figure by the average number of units produced per week to determine how much of the employee's salary can be pegged to each unit produced. Repeat this calculation several times per year to analyze increases or decreases in productivity. Watch for decreases in the per-unit salary cost, which can be a signal of increased productivity.

References

• Sophisticated Edge: Ways to Measure Productivity in the Workplace
• CNN Money; Measuring Minds at Work; Saheli S.R. Datta; February 2007