Since so many of you asked, I thought it would be best to post this
information on how we calculate productivity standards for incentive
programs.  Prior to setting the standards, we evaluated business
processes, equipment, software, supplies, and personnel required to
process EACH document type.

When looking at equipment, consider scanning speeds, age of computers
and how long it takes to open and close documents, etc.  When evaluating
software, see how much of the process is automated vs. how much has to
be manually done in order to manipulate documents (example: do the
fields autopopulate or not, how many fields are required, does the
software level the workload automatically into queues or not, etc.).
Evaluate supplies (staple pullers, tape, stamps, forms, labels, number
of copiers needed to "enhance" faded documents, markers, etc.).  When
evaluating personnel, look at typing speeds, grammar and spelling
skills, experience with detail work, imaging experience, ability to
cross train, etc.  We created many reference guides when evaluating our
business processes and conducted training classes so that each employee
would know how to process every document type.  That took about four
months of solid training because we took in people from other
departments and some were not sure that this transition was a good thing
for them.

We created a productivity sheet and asked each employee to log breaks,
lunches, equipment down times, phone calls (we do not keep phones on
employee desks, but there is a common phone area that is covered by one
person), equipment cleaning and maintenance, printing labels or bar code
sheets, administrative tasks, etc.  We recorded each day what document
types were done by each person and how much "productive" time was spent
doing a prep, scan, imaging, or quality assurance task.  At the end of
two weeks, we came up with individual productivity standards for each
person as well as an overall team standard.  As we consolidated the
imaging department, improved our business processes, replaced old
equipment, cross trained our staff, and trained our customers upstream
to make some positive changes to their processes, we were able to keep
bumping the standards up.

After that we rewrote the job descriptions so that our staff had
incentive to hold to the team standard or improve if they demonstrated
that they could meet the standard consistently for 90 days, plus meet or
exceed their personal standard consistently.  Imaging Technician I and
Imaging Technician II were the first two stages.  An Imaging Specialist
is someone who can meet or exceed the team standard consistently, plus
meet or improve their own personal standard on a regular basis.  The
standards get tougher and the requirements get higher as you get
promoted, but the pay also gets better.  Imaging Specialists are allowed
to do QA.  I also have Imaging Coordinators who do a lot of special
stuff and back up the Imaging Services Manager in her absence.

Our first "real" team standard after one year of hard cross training and
consolidation became:
Preparation: 700 pages/hour
Scanning: 1200 pages per hour
Indexing:  150 barcodes per hour for standardized documents and 85
barcodes per hour for nonstandard documents

Standardized documents were defined as documents that require quality
review only as index is barcode populated, or documents where a key
field is in a standard location, or documents where there are minimal
keystrokes required.

To calculate production percentages, the team keeps individual
productivity sheets daily:
Process volume divided by the hourly standard = Earned Time
Earned Time dividied by the actual time spent processing = Production %

These scores are used to award raises, bonuses, prizes, promotions, and
ensure retention of employees with the correct skill sets.  Not only
does this system reward people who perform well consistently, but it
quickly weeds out people who have productivity issues or attendance
problems.  We post scores for each employee in their cubes and meet with
them quarterly to share feedback so that there are no surprises at
performance evaluation time.  The high performers constantly stick their
scores on the OUTSIDE of their cubicles and the challenge is ON to be
the TOP GUN.  Having a team score also forces the group to work together
and help each other solve problems, correct errors, and police
themselves.  

It has been a very positive and rewarding outcome, but requires a lot of
communication, nurturing, and handholding in the beginning.

Angie Fares, RHIA, CISA, CRM
Director, Corporate Records & Information
RadioShack Corporation
300 RadioShack Circle, WF4-130
Fort Worth, TX  76102
Phone: 817-415-4925
Fax: 817-415-9742
Email: [log in to unmask]




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