Do your workforce investments deliver the value you expect? If you’re like many leaders, you might collect workforce data but not know if it’s driving productivity improvements.
The good news? Leading organizations achieve 20-30% productivity gains and quantifiable ROI. In our recent live training, “Unlocking Productivity & ROI,” ActivTrak’s Chief Customer Officer and Head of Productivity Lab Gabriela Mauch and Senior Sales Engineer Leah Ivory, shared exactly how top-performing companies turn workforce analytics into real business results.
Here’s how to transform your productivity data from “nice to have insights” into measurable impact with three proven strategies.
1. Embrace transparency
The most successful organizations don’t just collect productivity insights — they share them strategically. Transparency doesn’t mean giving everyone access to everything. It means moving beyond where only a handful of executives see the data.
What transparency looks like in practice:
- Managers have access to team-level insights to inform coaching conversations.
- Employees understand that productivity tracking exists to enable better performance, not catch poor behavior.
- Leaders provide clear communication about how data will be used to support improvements, not punish.
As Gabriela noted during the session, “When we have open and honest conversations about productivity, we see a 20 to 30% uptick in productivity in those organizations that are transparent.”
The key insight? Organizations that give managers access to their team’s data see an 18% greater improvement compared to those that keep insights locked away.
Quick win: Start with your managers. Provide team-level Activity Breakdown reports that show productive time allocation and identify coaching opportunities. This empowers them to have data-driven conversations about work habits and efficiency.
2. Set clear goals to eliminate guesswork
Without clear targets, you leave productivity improvements up to chance. Setting specific goals turns casual monitoring into active efforts to improve performance.
Effective goal setting includes:
- Customized goals: A field sales rep might have a 4-hour digital productivity goal because they should spend more time with prospects than on their computer.
- Activity alignment: Monitor not just hours worked, but time spent on core activities that drive business results.
- Healthy boundaries: Clear expectations prevent the “longest hours wins” mentality that leads to burnout.
During the demo, Leah showed how teams can set different goals — like 6 hours for sales reps who spend significant time in client meetings — rather than defaulting to an 8-hour expectation that doesn’t reflect actual work patterns.
Why goal setting makes a difference:
- Provides clear targets for improvement
- Enables progress tracking and ROI measurement
- Counters unhealthy work habits
- Helps employees understand expectations
3. Identify cost opportunities for measurable ROI
The most advanced organizations go beyond basic productivity tracking to uncover significant cost savings. This requires shifting from “we can see if people are working” to “here’s exactly how much value we’ve captured.”
High-impact ROI opportunities include:
- Contractor billing reconciliation: Compare actual productive time against billed hours to identify discrepancies.
- License optimization: Cross-reference software usage data with license costs. Leah highlighted a common scenario: paying for 50 Salesforce licenses at $100/month per user, but discovering through activity data that 10 users only access it for 5 minutes monthly — representing significant savings potential.
- Capacity utilization: Access untapped workforce capacity in dollar terms with ActivTrak’s Financial Loss Analysis Dashboard. As shown in the demo, even a 26-person organization with 13 employees below productivity goals could represent $130,000 in costs.
- Smart hiring decisions: Use utilization data before approving new headcount. If existing team members aren’t meeting productivity goals, adding more people won’t solve efficiency problems.
- Rebalanced workloads: Run the Financial Loss Analysis to see your untapped capacity in FTE and dollar terms. Use this information when headcount requests come in — you might find you have existing capacity rather than needing new hires.
Boost your productivity
Ready to move beyond basic activity monitoring? Here’s your action plan:
- Audit your current approach: Are you just collecting insights or sharing them strategically with managers?
- Set team-specific goals: Don’t default to 8 hours for everyone — customize goals based on role requirements and work patterns.
- Quantify your opportunities: Run financial analysis reports to understand your untapped capacity in dollar terms.
- Train your managers: Equip team leaders with coaching skills to turn insights into improved performance.
Organizations that see the biggest productivity gains aren’t just collecting data — they’re using it strategically. With transparency, clear goals and focus on ROI opportunities, workforce analytics are a powerful driver of business results. Can you afford to leave that kind of improvement on the table?
Want to see these strategies in action? Join an upcoming webinar to learn how to manage remote and hybrid teams.
