It’s that time of the year where everyone just had or is about to have their annual performance review. We look back at our performance over the past year and analyze where we did well and where we could do better. With all the feedback you receive you know where you can improve and perform even better this year.
You are most ambitious now to make this year count. But by the end of the fiscal year, you and everyone around you forget your accomplishments. To get recognized for your contributions and accomplishments, you not only need to highlight them but also need to portray them in a quantifiable way.
Here is a step by step formula that I use to help me keep track of my contributions and effectively quantity them in terms of the business value they provide.
Track
To be able to quantify your contributions, the first step is to track them. Right from the start of the year, you need to track and list the highlights of your work, for your review down the year. This is a very important step and this list will serve as an easy reference for you and your team.
There are several tools out there that you can use for tracking. It could also be your organization’s performance tracking tool (PTT). I prefer to use a simple excel sheet for my reference. I then later use this information in the official PTT.
Keep in mind that these items should be something that is a result of your contribution; not just you doing what was asked of you.
To help you identify such tasks, ask yourself the following questions.
- Are you Creating something new (product or a service)?
- Are you refining/replacing or enhancing an already existing process, product or a service?
- Are you maintaining or supporting a product or a service?
If you answer “Yes” to any one of the above, then that task should be on this list.
The rule of thumb is to identify the tasks that are repeatedly done. The more often they are used, the more worth your contribution could be.
Example
Task – You are a Human Resource associate and you are tasked to conduct the New Hire Orientation.
Your Contribution – You notice that there is no documented process on the New Hire Orientation. You come up with a document that lists all of the steps in the process and also identify the responsible person for that step.
Benefit – Since it is now documented, everyone has a clear understanding of how the process works and is easier to change the process and communicate the change in future. It also helps members in your team learn the process easily.
You need to quantify your contributions for others to recognize them.
Time Value
The next step in the process is to calculate the time value of your contribution. That is, you need to quantify the benefit in terms of time you saved by your contribution.
Calculating Time Saving
Calculate how much time you save to perform this task with your contribution. To get this number, take the difference between the time it takes to perform this task before your contribution and after your contribution. This should be a positive number.
- Determine how long it takes to complete this task before your contribution.
- Determine how long it takes to complete this task after your contribution.
- Time Savings is the difference between step 1 and step 2 above.
- Multiply it by the number of times it happens per year
- Ex: If this task is a weekly task, then multiply it by 52
- If this is a monthly task, then multiply by 12
Cost Savings
In this step, you need to calculate the Cost saving of your contribution.
Cost savings is the employee time saved doing this task in dollar amount. To get this number, you need to multiply the time savings with the average hourly rate of an employee.
- Multiply by the hourly dollar amount for an employee (person performing the task).
a. You can get this figure from your finance department or use your best judgment.
b. If you have a range for this dollar amount, take the lower number and subtract 10% to be conservative.
You then use the Time Savings metric and/or the Cost savings metric to quantify and project your contribution. Even though these are estimates, it gives a concrete number and is a better way to gauge your work.
Downloadable Spreadsheet with this calculation- Track and Quantify Your Contributions
In addition to Time and Cost savings, there are certain other factors such building/enhancing Customer Satisfaction that will account towards contributions, which are not part of this calculation.
Selecting Projects
This formula can also help you strategically choose from a myriad of projects or tasks at hand and help you decide which ones to act on first. You would pick the ones that have the most Cost Savings first.
If you are an employee, you can starting using this formula and also modify it to best fit you. If you are a leader, you can have your team use this as well.
What are your ways to highlight your contributions?