Glossary: Workforce Utilization

Definition

The percentage of active users within a team whose productivity metrics fall below their assigned productivity goals during a specified time period.

Calculation

(Number of users below their productivity goal / Total number of active users in the team) × 100%

Example

If a team has 20 users total and 5 of those users have productivity metrics below their assigned goals, then the % of Team (Below Productivity Goal) = (5 / 20) × 100% = 25%

This metric helps team leaders identify which members may need additional support or intervention to meet expected productivity levels.

Where to find it

Plan availability

Essentials Plus and Professional/Premium

Definition

The percentage of users whose average productive hours per day falls below a specified goal (e.g., less than 6 hours per day) within the selected time period, calculated relative to the total number of active users in the filtered selection.

Calculation

(Number of users with average productive hours below goal / Total number of active users in the selected filter) × 100%

Example

In a 5-person marketing team:

• Alex averages 5.3 productive hours/day
• Blake averages 6.2 productive hours/day
• Casey averages 4.8 productive hours/day
• Dana averages 7.0 productive hours/day
• Ellis averages 5.7 productive hours/day

With a 6-hour productivity goal:

• Total users: 5
• Users below threshold: 3 (Alex, Casey, Ellis)
• % of Total = (3 / 5) × 100% = 60%

This metric quickly shows that 60% of the marketing team is working below the expected productivity threshold, which might prompt a team discussion about workload distribution or potential barriers to productive time.

Where to find it

Plan availability

Essentials Plus and Professional/Premium

Definition

The percentage of users in each recurrence category (2-4 months, 5-8 months, or 8 months below goal) relative to the total number of active users in the selected time period or filtered selection.

Calculation

(Number of users in a specific recurrence category / Total number of active users in the selected filter) × 100%

Example

In a sales organization with 80 total users:

• 12 users have been below goal for 2-4 months
• 8 users have been below goal for 5-8 months
• 4 users have been below goal for > 8 months

Calculation:

• 2-4 Months: (12 / 80) × 100% = 15%
• 5-8 Months: (8 / 80) × 100% = 10%
• > 8 Months: (4 / 80) × 100% = 5%

This metric enables leadership to quickly identify the percentage of their workforce that is consistently underperforming. It is further broken down by duration to distinguish between short-term productivity dips and chronic underutilization issues.

Where to find it

Plan availability

Essentials Plus and Professional/Premium

Definition

A financial metric that quantifies the estimated monetary cost of productivity gaps, calculated by converting underutilized workforce capacity into concrete financial terms based on employee salary data and productivity shortfalls for a specified monthly period.

Calculation

Unused Capacity FTE x (Average Salary / 12)

Example

A marketing team with:

• Average salary: $90,000
• Unused Capacity FTE = 0.15

Financial Loss calculation:

• Financial Loss (Monthly) = 0.15 x ($90,000 / 12) = $1,125

This metric enables leadership to quickly identify the financial impact of productivity shortfalls and implement targeted interventions to recapture lost value.

Where to find it

Plan availability

Essentials Plus and Professional/Premium

Definition

A classification of a user's working location pattern over a specified time period (e.g., last 30 days, quarter, or custom date range).

Hybrid Users worked from a mix of locations (at least one day in the office and at least one day remote) during the period

Example

During March 2025, John logs productive hours from three different locations: his home office on Mondays and Fridays (remote), the company headquarters Tuesday through Thursday (office), and occasionally from a co-working space (other location). Since John's activity spans multiple work locations, he's classified as a Hybrid User for that month.

This classification enables executives to understand whether productivity gaps are correlated with flexible work arrangements and inform workplace policy decisions.

Where to find it

Plan availability

Essentials Plus and Professional/Premium

Definition

A metric that quantifies how long an employee has been underperforming by counting the number of months their productivity has fallen below target. Results are categorized into three ranges: 2-4 months, 5-8 months, and more than 8 months below the goal.

Example

In a finance department with a productivity goal of 6.5 hours/day:

• Emily has missed her productivity goal for 3 months, falling in the 2-4 months category.
• Michael has been below goal for 7 months, placing him in the 5-8 months category.
• Sarah has underperformed for 9 months, placing her in the category of those who have underperformed for more than eight months.

This metric helps managers quickly identify the persistence of productivity issues, with longer durations (higher months below goal) indicating more serious concerns requiring more intensive intervention.

Where to find it

Plan Availability

Essentials Plus and Professional/Premium

Definition

A classification of a user's pattern over a specified time period (e.g., last 30 days, quarter, or custom date range).

Office Only Users work exclusively from designated office locations during the selected time period, with no recorded activity from remote or other work locations. This classification identifies employees with traditional, location-fixed work patterns.

Example

Throughout March 2025, Lisa works exclusively from the company's downtown headquarters, logging all her productive hours from her assigned desk. She has no recorded activity from home, co-working spaces, or other locations, making her an Office Only User for that month.

This classification enables executives to assess whether centralized work environments are associated with different productivity patterns compared to remote or hybrid arrangements.

Where to find it

Plan availability

Essentials Plus and Professional/Premium

Definition

Categories that segment users based on their average daily Productive hours, using benchmarks of less than 5, 4, and 3 hours per day. These thresholds help identify varying degrees of underutilization across your workforce.

Calculation

Users are placed into cumulative categories based on their average productive hours per day. Someone working 2.8 productive hours daily appears in all three thresholds, while someone working 4.2 productive hours only appears in the "less than 5 hours" category.

Example

In your sales team during March 2025:

• Tom averages 2.5 productive hours per day, placing him in all three categories: < 3 hrs/day, < 4 hrs/day, and < 5 hrs/day
• Jessica averages 3.8 productive hours per day, placing her in the < 4 hrs/day and < 5 hrs/day categories
• Carlos averages 4.2 productive hours per day, placing him only in the < 5 hrs/day category

This approach enables you to view the full scope of productivity gaps at each level, with lower thresholds indicating more severe underutilization that requires immediate attention.

Where to find it

Plan availability

Essentials Plus and Professional/Premium

Definition

A classification of a user's working location pattern over a specified time period (e.g., last 30 days, quarter, or custom date range).

Remote Only Users who work exclusively from remote locations during the selected time period, with no recorded activity from the office or other designated work locations. This classification identifies team members who are fully distributed.

Example

Mike works entirely from his home office during March 2025, participating in all meetings, completing projects, and logging productive hours without visiting the company office or other work locations. This makes him a Remote Only User for that month.

This classification enables executives to evaluate whether fully remote work arrangements show different productivity trends compared to office-based or hybrid work patterns.

Where to find it

Essentials Plus and Professional/Premium

Definition

An organizational unit in ActivTrak that groups users together based on shared characteristics such as department, function, reporting structure, or project assignment. Teams (also known as Groups) serve as a primary filter for analyzing productivity data and enabling comparative analysis across different groups within an organization.

Teams in ActivTrak:

• Created and managed by administrators
• Allow for hierarchical structures (teams within teams)
• Serve as filters for dashboards and reports
• Enable team-level goal setting and benchmarking
• Provide context for productivity comparisons

Example

A financial services company has structured its ActivTrak teams to match its organizational hierarchy:

• The Accounting team consists of 8 members, averaging 6.2 productive hours per day, which is above their 6.0-hour benchmark.
• The Investment Analysis team comprises 12 analysts, who currently average 5.8 productive hours daily, slightly below their target of 6.0 hours.
• The Client Services team, the largest group with 15 members, maintains a productivity level of 6.5 hours per day, exceeding its 6.0-hour goal.
• The IT Support team of six specialists averages 5.7 productive hours daily, exceeding their lower benchmark of 5.5 hours, due to the reactive nature of their work.

Using these team designations, executives can filter dashboard data to compare performance across departments, while team leaders can view only their specific team metrics. This structure enables appropriate goal-setting based on different job functions and provides meaningful context for productivity analysis throughout the organization.

Where to find it

Plan availability

Essentials Plus and Professional/Premium

Definition

A workforce optimization metric that quantifies the equivalent number of full-time employees (FTE) whose capacity is underutilized due to productivity gaps. This metric converts productivity shortfalls (based on goals) across multiple employees into a standardized measurement of unused labor resources.

Calculation

abs((Productive Hrs/Day - Goal) / Goal)

Example

Let's say Sarah has a productivity goal of 7 hours per day, but only achieved 6.0 productive hours on average during the selected month.

• Productive Hrs/Day: 6.0 hours
• Goal: 7.0 hours

Unused Capacity FTE Calculation:

• Unused Capacity FTE: abs((6.0 - 7.0) / 7.0) = 0.143

This means Sarah represents 0.14 FTE worth of untapped capacity. In other words, her productivity gap is equivalent to about 14% of a full-time employee's expected output. When aggregated across all users, these individual FTE values help executives understand the total workforce capacity available for reallocation or improvement initiatives.

This insight helps leadership determine whether they can take on additional projects with existing staff, need to reallocate work, or should address productivity barriers before considering new hires.

Where to find it

Plan availability

Essentials Plus and Professional/Premium

Definition

A metric that tracks the number of employees who consistently fall below their productivity goals over multiple months. This metric categorizes underperforming users based on the duration of their productivity shortfall: 2-4 months, 5-8 months, or more than 8 months below goal.

Calculation

Count of Users with Productive Hours/Day below goal

Recurring Users are categorized into three severity levels:

• 2-4 months below goal
• 5-8 months below goal
• More than 8 months below goal

Example

A sales team of 12 people has a productivity goal of 6 hours per day. After analyzing six months of data:

• Three team members have been below goal for 2-4 months (shorter-term recurring issue).
• Two team members have been below goal for 5-8 months (medium-term recurring issue).
• One team member has been below goal for more than 8 months (long-term recurring issue).
• The remaining six team members either met their goals consistently or had only isolated months below goal.

This analysis reveals that half of the team (6 out of 12) are recurring users with persistent productivity issues, with one employee exhibiting particularly concerning long-term underperformance.

This information enables the sales manager to prioritize coaching efforts and identify common barriers that affect multiple team members, resulting in recurring productivity gaps.

Where to find it

Essentials Plus and Professional/Premium

Definition

A workforce productivity metric that counts the number of employees whose average daily productive time falls below the 5-hour threshold. This metric helps identify individuals who may be significantly underutilized, struggling with their workload, or experiencing barriers to productivity.

Calculation

Count of Users where (Average Productive Hours/Day < 5)

Example

A customer support department with 20 agents tracked their productivity over the past month. Analysis shows that 4 out of 20 agents (20% of the team) averaged below 5 productive hours per day.

Jordan Smith recorded 4.7 productive hours daily, while Alex Rivera averaged only 4.3 hours. Taylor Johnson came close to the threshold with 4.9 hours, and Casey Wong showed the lowest productivity at just 3.8 hours per day.

The remaining 16 team members maintained 5 or more productive hours daily, with 9 agents falling between 5 and 6 hours and 7 agents exceeding 6 hours of productivity per day.

This metric enables the support team manager to identify which specific employees require additional support, engage in targeted coaching conversations, investigate common barriers, and track improvements following interventions.

Where to find it

Plan availability

Essentials Plus and Professional/Premium

Definition

A productivity metric that counts the number of employees whose average productive hours per day fall below their assigned productivity goal. This metric helps organizations identify the extent of productivity gaps across their workforce and track the effectiveness of productivity improvement initiatives

Calculation

Count of Users where (Average Productive Hours/Day < Assigned Productive Hours Goal)

• Productive hours goals may vary by team, role, or individual
• The comparison is made over a selected time period (day, week, month)

Example

A software development company with 35 employees has set productivity goals that vary by role: developers are expected to maintain 6.0 hours per day, Project Managers 5.5 hours per day, and QA Testers 6.5 hours per day.

Monthly analysis reveals that a total of 12 users are below their respective goals. This includes 7 out of 20 developers (35%), 1 out of 5 project managers (20%), and 4 out of 10 QA testers (40%).

Overall, 34% of the company's workforce is currently falling short of their productivity targets. With this information, the company can focus improvement efforts on the QA team, which has the highest percentage below goal. Compare this month's results to those of previous months, and set targets to reduce the number of users below the goal by the end of the next quarter.

Where to find it

Plan availability

Essentials Plus and Professional/Premium

Definition

A metric that counts the number of employees whose productivity falls below specified hourly thresholds (such as < 5 hours/day, < 4 hours/day, or < 3 hours/day) to identify different levels of productivity concerns. These thresholds help prioritize interventions based on company-specific productivity standards.

Calculation

Count of Users where (Average Productive Hours/Day < Defined Threshold)

Example

A financial services firm with 60 employees has configured two key productivity thresholds in its ActivTrak system: less than 5 hours per day and less than 4 hours per day.

Their monthly analysis reveals that 12 employees fell below the 5-hour threshold, representing 20% of their workforce with at least mild productivity concerns.

Within this group, five employees are also below the more serious 4-hour threshold, indicating more significant productivity issues that require prioritized attention.

These thresholds enable the company to segment its productivity interventions. All 12 employees with productivity levels below 5 hours receive standard productivity coaching, while those with productivity levels below 4 hours are enrolled in a more intensive performance improvement program. The company tracks these numbers monthly to gauge the effectiveness of its productivity initiatives and identify any departments with consistently higher numbers of employees who fall below the threshold.

Where to find it

Plan availability

Essentials Plus and Professional/Premium