Many companies struggle to track employee productivity, whether because they don’t have the right tools or don’t use adequate performance metrics. To effectively evaluate how employees spend their working time, there is a tool called the employee productivity report.

The suitable template can become a game changer for your business, not only to increase employee productivity but also to build strategies for task optimization.

In this article, we will show you how to create the perfect template to track the productivity of your employees. Follow all the steps carefully to ensure a document fits your needs and delivers the desired results.

An employee productivity report template is primarily responsible for tracking what employees do during working hours and how much they produce. But these documents can actually be adapted to perform numerous other tasks, like time tracking.

At the end of the stipulated time period, the productivity reports will generate data regarding the employee’s work and how they performed. With this, the business owner can better address a strategy to increase performance and productivity, if necessary.

The productivity reporting task becomes way easier and optimized with the proper categories and information. Everything will depend on your objective with the document.

There’s a reason managers from various industries create templates to track productivity. As we mentioned, these documents tell how many hours were dedicated to work and how many for personal productivity, but these are just the basics.

A well-structured template can also show aspects of the company and workspace that might be affecting the performance of all employees. Also, productivity measurement can lead to more flexible work schedules by team management.

It is a versatile document that, with simple data, can impact numerous aspects of your business. But, since it’s a document used by different industries, the categories featured might differ depending on the business model and teams’ organization. Make sure to include the information your company needs for its project management.

Although the employee productivity template might have different categories depending on your business industry, there is some information that should be included in every document. These categories are essential for a precise evaluation of employee performance and the time dedicated to the assigned tasks.

Here is what you should include in your template:

Name of the Employee

Of course, your productivity reports must start with proper identification. Especially when working with multiple employees, it can become difficult to track their performance and time dedicated to each task manually. 

Your tracking document should feature clear identification of the evaluated employee and additional information you consider necessary, like job title or any other.

By creating a name identification, you also optimize your time. Instead of looking through all files, you can effortlessly search for the desired one by typing the employee's name.

Task Done

Another indispensable piece of information in a productivity report is the task done during the day. Especially when making daily reports, having them listed can help the company to evaluate the employee and create actions to improve productivity when necessary.

The task performed also helps the company owner to understand what each employee did during the day. It helps with organization and also impacts the planning phase. 

You can also have other types of reports, like a weekly document or a report done on a monthly basis. Everything will depend on your business goals and kind of business.

Hours

The most crucial data when evaluating the team’s productivity and employee engagement in each task is the number of hours dedicated to the task. With the correct documentation, you can tell exactly how much time the person worked that month, making it even easier to pay your employees.

It is also the perfect tool to calculate an employee's overtime hours in the month. It is also common for team managers to use automation for this calculation. This way, you avoid mistakes during the payment.

Effort

You obviously can’t base your measurements only on the time since each task demands a different period for conclusion, depending on what needs to be done. That said, most employee productivity templates also feature a category called effort.

This field will be responsible for categorizing the task in terms of how much time the person is expected to dedicate to it. For example, long activities, like drawing logos or projecting a new UI, are considered deep tasks because of their nature and time to be concluded. 

On the other hand, there are also so-called shallow tasks. They are usually more straightforward jobs that can be done in a few hours. Some common examples are sending an email or contacting a client.

This way, you can evaluate if the time an employee worked on a specific task is compatible with what it demands. They are directly related and should be listed close to each other for better visualization when collecting data from the productivity levels.

Activity Level

This one can be a little harder to track and will directly depend on having employee productivity tracking software. Especially when working with remote employees, you can’t monitor what they are doing and if the working hours were spent on the project mentioned.

To collect information about employees' activities during working hours, there is a type of data known as the "activity level." This data encompasses various programs designed to monitor and track employee actions. These programs can range from screenshot applications that keep an eye on computer usage to app timers that record the amount of time spent on each task.

This happens exclusively when dealing with remote workers. During offline time tracking, the business owner can personally check what each employee is doing and the time spent on each app.

Result From the Task

Each business will have different ways of measuring the results and the employee productivity on a task. It is important to point out the main results gathered and its impact on the business.

One of the most common examples of measuring productivity by the results is in the sales business. In this field of the sales template, you can tell how many leads were generated and how many of these leads converted into sales for the company.

This information is directly related to the performance of a task, and having a field to highlight this information is vital for a precise evaluation of employee productivity.

Notes and Additional Information

It is also important to always leave a blank field for the employee to write anything they want about the working day or the date range the document regards. It can be problems in the workspace or any factor that might impact their productivity.

This information is precious for the business owner since it might be a general concern or something that can easily be solved. As the manager of a company, you’ll always want good results and more productivity. These feedback sections are the perfect way to take note of strategies and actions that will deliver this desired result.

Choosing between physical or digital format can be challenging when creating your employee productivity report templates. Each one has its pros and cons, and the final decision will depend directly on your organization and the final objective of the document.

A physical document is good because you can always rely on it and avoid problems like corrupted files or not having it saved on the cloud service of your preference. On the other hand, the physical document also has some interesting features.

First, any unauthorized party can’t edit the digital spreadsheet, so you ensure that you’ll receive all data correctly. You avoid anyone trying to do alterations. Moreover, if you work with remote employees, this is your only option, so choose suitable software for this situation.

Digital files have a clear advantage over physical ones and are the most used type. You can easily upload the file to the cloud and have access to it from any device, wherever you are. 

There are also tons of programs that offer a large number of automation processes, making the job even more optimized and quick. For example, you can have a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and add automatic calculations for the total hours of each employee.

If you don’t know which one to choose, we recommend using online platforms. They are safer 

and make the work easier for you.

If you want to get the best results out of each template you make, here are some tips for you. Follow them to increase optimization that will directly impact your employees and the effectiveness of your templates.

Here are two critical tips:

Restrict the Access to the Document

All team members will answer the document, but the overall results and data gathered should be restricted only to specific parties. By leaving the results open to everyone, you increase the chances of someone accessing data they are not supposed to.

Not only that, but it also increases the chances of someone accidentally altering the information on them. If your document is restricted, you avoid these problems and make it more organized when analyzing them.

Create the Right Categories for Your Type of Company

The fields and categories listed above are the most critical for your document, but you can add as many others as you want. But when doing that, make sure to choose items that fit your type of business and somehow gather relevant information for the productivity of your employees.

Also, don’t make extensive documents since they can be time-consuming to answer. Doing this will make it harder for you to analyze what really matters as well.

When it comes to the creation of an employee productivity spreadsheet, there are tons of options available. From known programs to specialized employee productivity tracking software, each one has its own tools and features to help with the task.

Among all the options available, we highly recommend using Microsoft Excel for the creation of your document. MS Excel has the best tools and features on the market and is also an industry standard. This means that you won’t need extra software for your business tasks.

If you don’t have a Microsoft Office activation key, you can find one at RoyalCDKeys for a considerably lower price. This way, you get access to all features and still save money.

If you don’t want to create your document from scratch, there is no problem. Here are some free templates you can download and use.

Choose a template that reflects your objectives and use Microsoft Excel to make any necessary alterations. Here are some examples for download:

Template #1

Employee productivity document with a simple layout. Feature all the necessary categories for precise measurement of the employees’ performance.

Get this template

Template #2

Calculator for employee productivity. Template focused on measuring the performance of each employee based on numbers. Indicated for sales businesses.

Get this template

If you’re a company manager, you might face problems evaluating employee productivity. To avoid these issues and gather effective results, creating a solid employee performance template is vital. 

Everything will impact the data acquired, from the categories created to the type of business you have. Make sure to align all this information with what you want to achieve. 

Now that you know everything you need, it is time to start tracking your employees’ productivity. Use MS Excel to create the perfect template for your business, and use the numerous automation tools available. This way, you’ll quickly notice positive impacts on your business.