Shifting the Mindset for Productivity: Measuring Technology’s Value and Impact in a Hybrid Work Era
Much has been written about creating employee value, especially in a post-pandemic world where most employees prefer flexible, virtual environments. Employees have found their voice as well as their feet – they’re willing to walk away from a company that doesn’t allow them to work on their terms.
At the same time, the technology landscape has undergone significant changes in recent years as companies migrate to the cloud and are leveraging on-demand SaaS services. One of the most critical aspects of this transformation is the need to reassess how we measure the value and impact of workers in the technology field. Traditionally, performance evaluations have been centered around the number of tickets, tasks, and non-quantifiable projects that employees undertake. However, it’s time to move toward an era where we focus on the tangible value employees bring to organizations.
In analyzing the post-pandemic workplace, Forbes reported:
What if the (leadership operating) model in your organization is about making it easier for your employees to express their highest potential individually and collectively? The workplace then becomes any place where value is created. It would mean creating purpose-driven cultures where employees find meaning in their jobs, make their highest contributions, and deepen relationships. The (leadership operating) model would increase work flexibility, productivity, well-being, employee satisfaction, and engagement.
If you’re running a technology business or team, you may also be wondering how you can get more value from your employees, and if you can tie this to making your employees feel valued as well, then you’ve found a formula for success in the post-pandemic world.
How do we determine an employee’s true worth? How do we place a monetary figure on a person’s time? These questions demand particular consideration in the technology industry because as data grows, headcount grows, and optimizing your human resources becomes just as important as optimizing your technology resources.
The Importance of Measuring Impact
In a hybrid work environment, it’s crucial to instill confidence in management; executives want to know that employees are working efficiently and effectively. The old adage “If you cannot measure it, it cannot be managed” holds true in technology. Imagine being able to measure the health, efficiency, and financial impact of technology using algorithms. This would enable us to assess the real impact of production changes on systems and applications, going beyond mere impressions and truly reflecting differences in enterprise KPIs.
Currently, developers are evaluated based on the level of effort and quality involved in designing, developing, and optimizing code. However, the future calls for changing what we assess to include measures of efficiency, resource consumption, workload impact, and financial cost.
This perspective shifts the narrative from Developer A optimized the code in two hours and deployed it without issues compared to Developer B who increased the code’s efficiency by 25%, reduced CPU resource consumption by three milliseconds, and lowered the Total Cost of Code by $.00001. Not to mention, this code is executed 2.5 million times a day which saves the company $9,125 per year, which, over three years, is $27,375 more towards the bottom line.
Shaping the Future of Technology Workforce Management
By changing the metrics we use to measure success in technology, we can revolutionize how we manage, value, and plan our teams and resources. The future of technology workforce management lies in identifying changes with the greatest potential impact and measuring the difference these changes have on applications and technology as a whole.
This new approach will empower senior management to better understand and showcase the success and impact of their teams and technology initiatives. In the future, performance evaluations should be centered around the impact and value teams deliver to organizations, rather than the tasks individuals complete.
As we transition to hybrid work models and adapt to changing workforce dynamics, it’s essential to reassess how we measure the value and impact of employees in the technology sector. By focusing on the tangible contributions individuals make to organizations, we can foster a more equitable and efficient work environment where everyone wins. By embracing this new mindset, we can create a future where employees are recognized and compensated based on the true value they bring to their organizations.