Tracking and Measuring Productivity

When we talk about ‘workplace productivity’ what exactly do we mean? In the broadest of terms, productivity means:

”the efficiency of an organization or its employees to convert inputs, such as capital and labor, into outputs, like services or products.”

Technically, that definition is correct, but it’s the kind of “help” that does nothing to guide the reader toward creating an effective productivity strategy within your own organization.

When we talk about ‘workplace productivity,’ what we’re really describing is how well a team or individual gets their work done. It’s all about doing things efficiently and effectively.

Think of it like this: if you can produce more high-quality work in less time, that’s being productive. And when productivity increases, it often means more profits and growth for the company.

With so many definitions, many of which can be totally subjective, many organizations now recognize that one of the best methods to track and measure productivity is to encourage individuals, teams, and companies to more fully embrace the full capabilities of their collaboration and communication technology.

In other words, for most organizations, including Microsoft, Productivity means Adoption….which makes sense. Teams that collaborate and communicate better have a distinct advantage over those that do not. When there is strong adoption, there is a higher volume of output and innovation.

In a Rencore webinar earlier today, I was supposed to join my fellow MVP Ragnar Heil (@ragnarh) and discuss “How to Measure & Improve M365 Productivity: Best practices to locate and improve productivity metrics” but was unable to connect to Teams Live due to an authentication issue that popped up this week….and has not yet been resolved. Ragnar did a great job without me, but since I built the deck and was supposed to drive the conversation, I thought I’d pull together a blog series and share my thoughts on each of the tools and resources that Ragnar covered in the recording.

Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll discuss the Microsoft Adoption Score, M365 Reports in the Admin Center, PowerShell + PowerBI Reporting, Viva Insights, Copilot, and finally Rencore Governance to help you better understand what is available out there to help your organization create your own comprehensive productivity strategy.

And for those that missed the webinar, you can find it here: