Naturally, you will wish to build a winning team, and you can’t do that without making sure that all of its members are winners. This means routinely monitoring your employees to assess whether they are all reaching their capacity in their roles.

Here is how you can measure that capacity – and how you should react if some people in your current team are struggling to reach it.

Defining “capacity”

In this context, what do we mean by “capacity”? It is, as defined by Dictionary.com, “actual or potential ability to perform, yield, or withstand”. Corporate capacity can be mental, emotional and physical.

So, when measuring your employees’ capacity, you are determining the extent to which they can deliver what you require when you require it.

Measure for measure

There are three simple procedures to follow if you wish to measure workforce capacity. Firstly, clarify what is needed. Then, you should impart this information to an employee in a manner that leaves them in no doubt as to what they need to do. Thirdly, you will need to measure how well they perform to make sure they consistently deliver what is necessary.

If you struggle at the measuring stage, you have likely failed to define your expectations clearly. When managing, for example, a salesperson, you may clarify how many presentations a week and what average gross margin you expect them to deliver. Meanwhile, for a designer, you may specify how many designs you want to see them produce.

If these workers hit the desired targets within the timeframe you have predetermined, they are meeting their capacity.

Tackling instances of poor capacity

Once you have recorded capacity in this way, you should check whether your organisation’s needs are genuinely being met. If not, you could move a problem worker to a post in which they can perform effectively. If, however, this is not an option or you would have to create a non-vital job just to keep this employee, they should be removed from the team.

Alternatively, you could leave them in their role – but only for as long as it takes for you to find a suitably capable worker who can take their place.

You could find our applicant tracking system, Webrecruit ATS, invaluable in helping you to source the right candidate, so don’t be afraid to contact Webrecruit today about the assistance that we can provide with your organisation’s hiring processes.