A calendar view is a useful tool which gives you a comprehensive view of monthly performance metrics for a team member. Let’s see how you can access the view and all the metrics that you will get in it.

How to access the calendar view for a team member

At the very top of the window, you will get a strip bar with tabs that include the sprints for current projects. Click on the sprint of your choice. This reveals the list of the team members who are part of the sprint- their names and picture.

Each member’s status will be displayed beneath their name. If they are currently working on a task, it will be mentioned as ‘Active.’ If not, the status would be ‘A while ago.’

Simply click on the member for whom you want the calendar view of performance for it to appear.

Metrics in the calendar view

The calendar view has the following parameters:

Month and year- This will be displayed above the top right corner of the calendar. The arrow buttons to move to the following or preceding months are provided above the top right corner.

The number of hours worked- Within each day of the calendar, you will find the number which represents the number of hours someone has worked. If s/he was on leave on a particular day, it will be marked as ‘On leave.’

Total productivity- View the total hours worked during the whole month, listed beneath the calendar.

Average productivity/day- Another parameter that you can get beneath the calendar. The average productivity is given in the number of hours.

Time efficiency- Yet another element listed under the calendar is efficiency for the month, expressed as a percentage.

Color coding

A key design principle of I’m Productive is to help make sense of metrics as easy as possible. To this end, the elements are represented in a visual manner whenever practicable. Color coding is a tool frequently used in the process.

This can be seen in the calendar view.

Above the calendar: As mentioned before, above the calendar, each member’s status is mentioned as ‘Active’ or ‘A while ago.’

An active employee’s picture would have an accompanying green dot while someone who is not currently active will have a red dot beside their picture.

Within the calendar: In the calendar, ‘On leave’ will be marked in red. If the number of hours worked for a particular day is lesser than the Average productivity/day, that’s marked in red too. If that number is equal to it, it’s marked in orange. If it is higher than the average productivity/day, it’s marked in green.

This helps you get an overview of a team member’s monthly performance simply by glancing through the calendar view.

Why use the calendar view?

While a list view or a daily task view is possible- and sometimes beneficial- a calendar view brings its own set of benefits.

Rewarding the right team members

It is easy for project managers to get blind-sided by the current project or task performance while evaluating the effectiveness of a team member. But more important than performance in any one task is a member’s consistency. That’s something you will get to know only if you take a longer view of things.

A calendar view that brings performance metrics for an entire month is a good tool for evaluating the same. When it’s time to reward team members for their efforts, instead of going by the metrics for the latest task, you can judge based on performance over a period of time.

Mentoring

There are times when you should intervene to help a team member who may be struggling with their performance for a while. Or maybe, you see a consistently performing team member and wish to upskill him or her, equipping them with

In high-performing organizations, it is common enough for a Manager to mentor or guide his or her subordinates. The trick is in knowing which members need it and who can be left alone to guide their own tasks.

The productivity metrics in a calendar view wouldn’t be all that you need to make this differentiation. For instance, a member may be showing good productivity but struggling with inter-personnel relations in the workplace, something you would get to know only from other channels. But at the same time, without the metrics in the calendar view, you would not be able to make the differentiation either.