Perfect human efficiency? Not likely. How then should personnel resources be estimated?

Human beings are social creatures with both emotional and physical needs. Businesses able to satisfy these needs will be better positioned to attract and retain talented personnel; giving them 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 our collective 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.

The StrategyDriven 80 Percent Efficiency Estimate whitepaper provides business planners with an easy to follow set of rules to help them appropriately factor personnel efficiency into their project and business plan resource estimates. These rules are detailed with supporting principles and philosophies; helping users understand the reasoning behind each recommendation.

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