Presenteeism, Outputs or Outcomes?

Future of work: Presenteeism, Outputs or Outcomes?

As we look to move away from presenteeism as a measure of performance what should we measure instead?

Should it be outputs or outcomes?

Let's understand the terms.

There are 3 levels of achievement outlined in programme management which we can leverage here.

1. Outputs

   • the results of a specific activity
   • the quantifiable results of a person’s work
   • the deliverables, products, solutions created by the project work
   • the actions or items which result in achieving an outcome
   
   

2. Outcomes

   • these are the impact of the outputs
   • the change brought about by the outputs
   • the results the business aims to achieve
   
   

3. Benefits

   • The business value delivered from the outcomes

If we want to measure the work a person is achieving then that measure should be outputs and not outcomes.

Outcomes are dependent on outputs, and on the collective outputs of the wider team.

Outcomes are realised after the outputs have been delivered and implemented.

So if we want to consider how to replace presenteeism, the answer lies in

• Individual outputs
• Which are broken down from team outputs
• Which are derived from desired deliverables
• In order to effect outcomes (change)
• Which result in business value (benefits).

And this is how we can evolve for the world of hybrid and remote work.


The document below gives a working example.

Towards an outputs and outcomes based future of work.