Resource Projection Best Practice 4 – 80 Percent Efficiency Estimate

Human beings are social creatures having both emotional and physical needs. Businesses able to satisfy these needs will be better positioned to attract and retain talented personnel; giving these businesses a much needed advantage in the increasingly knowledge driven marketplace where human resources are increasingly limited. Such organizations will further benefit from increased worker engagement because employees feel more connected and valued.

Meeting these very personalized needs requires an ongoing time investment, social time to build and maintain co-worker relationships, to connect with customers and clients, to contact family and friends, as well as time to physically relax, refresh, reflect, and rejuvenate. This time investment varies day-to-day and person-to-person making it extremely difficult to measure. Time studies, project management research, and this author’s managerial experience suggest that knowledge workers, on average, require a twenty percent time investment in these personal activities. Stated another way, professionals spend about one and a half hours of an eight hour workday on non-productive but personally necessary activities. Hence, professionals, those whose breaks are ill-defined, can be assumed to work at eighty percent efficiency when fully engaged.

You need to be logged in as a Premium Member to see this part of the article. Login using the box in the sidebar. Not registered? Click here to register

   Email This Post  |    Print Post