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" While the amount of time spent at work was cut dramatically, productivity — measured by sales per employee — went up by almost 40% compared to the same period

" While the amount of time spent at work was cut dramatically, productivity — measured by sales per employee — went up by almost 40% compared to the same period the previous year" Is sales per employee really an appropriate proxy for 'productivity'? The original report is entirely in Japanese, so I'm not really sure exactly how they are calculating productivity... is this a sales office? https://news.microsoft.com/ja-jp/2019/10/31/191031-published-the-results-of-measuring-the-effectiveness-of-our-work-life-choice-challenge-summer-2019/ https://news.microsoft.com/ja-jp/2019/10/31/191031-published...

Tarsul 6y ago
if they compare to the last year, they could have at least gone so far and compare to last month as well (probably did, but not in the cnn article, maybe someone who speaks japanese can say). It's a little daunting to just believe a 40% increase only due to cutting 1 day per week, would be quite phenomenal. Also, they cut down on meetings which was probably more decisive regarding improved productivity :) Article is from 2019 btw.
getoj 6y ago
The productivity claim has been removed from the Japanese report you link. An erratum at the bottom of the page dated November 8, 2019 says this: "In the announcement dated October 31, one of the listed "improvements" from the 2019 Summer Work-Life Choice Challenge was an increase of 39.9% in labor productivity (sales revenue per employee) in August 2019 compared to August 2018, with a graph below. While this number is factual, it is not solely the result of this challenge, and was achieved due to a number of different factors. To avoid misunderstanding, we have removed that claim from the above summary of the direct effects of the challenge." Edit to add: >is this a sales office? "Every Friday in August 2019 was designated an office holiday. Permanent employees received special leave for those days, and all of the offices were closed."
- ajcp 6y ago
  You should post this in the main thread, it is incredibly germane and enlightening.
paxys 6y ago
For a sales team I think counting number of sales per employee is the perfect measure for productivity.
- stjohnswarts 6y ago
  It would have to be weighted by size of the sales too. 1 sale that you worked really hard on could be worth 20+ small sales.
- rightbyte 6y ago
  Only if there nothing else at play like a new good product. An increase in sales and decrease in productivity is not mutually exclusive.
- ekianjo 6y ago
  2280 employees in microsoft Japan, let me wage without being too wrong that 60% at least of those are NOT sales people. So this metric is completely nonsensical if you mix sales and non-sales.
  - imwillofficial 6y ago
    Ok, do you know if this was offered to all employees or sales people?
    - ekianjo 6y ago
      As far as I know it was applied to all employees of Microsoft Japan. And then they made big headlines out of it. Pure PR move (PR always does this kind of thing - that's their raison d'etre).
  - fomine3 6y ago
    I heard that the company mentioned in the article, Microsoft Japan K.K. is mainly sales company (including DevRels, support engineers). Developers in Japan are hired by Microsoft Development K.K.

Tarsul 6y ago

if they compare to the last year, they could have at least gone so far and compare to last month as well (probably did, but not in the cnn article, maybe someone who speaks japanese can say). It's a little daunting to just believe a 40% increase only due to cutting 1 day per week, would be quite phenomenal. Also, they cut down on meetings which was probably more decisive regarding improved productivity :) Article is from 2019 btw.

getoj 6y ago

The productivity claim has been removed from the Japanese report you link. An erratum at the bottom of the page dated November 8, 2019 says this: "In the announcement dated October 31, one of the listed "improvements" from the 2019 Summer Work-Life Choice Challenge was an increase of 39.9% in labor productivity (sales revenue per employee) in August 2019 compared to August 2018, with a graph below. While this number is factual, it is not solely the result of this challenge, and was achieved due to a number of different factors. To avoid misunderstanding, we have removed that claim from the above summary of the direct effects of the challenge." Edit to add: >is this a sales office? "Every Friday in August 2019 was designated an office holiday. Permanent employees received special leave for those days, and all of the offices were closed."

ajcp 6y ago
You should post this in the main thread, it is incredibly germane and enlightening.

paxys 6y ago

For a sales team I think counting number of sales per employee is the perfect measure for productivity.

stjohnswarts 6y ago
It would have to be weighted by size of the sales too. 1 sale that you worked really hard on could be worth 20+ small sales.
rightbyte 6y ago
Only if there nothing else at play like a new good product. An increase in sales and decrease in productivity is not mutually exclusive.
ekianjo 6y ago
2280 employees in microsoft Japan, let me wage without being too wrong that 60% at least of those are NOT sales people. So this metric is completely nonsensical if you mix sales and non-sales.
- imwillofficial 6y ago
  Ok, do you know if this was offered to all employees or sales people?
  - ekianjo 6y ago
    As far as I know it was applied to all employees of Microsoft Japan. And then they made big headlines out of it. Pure PR move (PR always does this kind of thing - that's their raison d'etre).
- fomine3 6y ago
  I heard that the company mentioned in the article, Microsoft Japan K.K. is mainly sales company (including DevRels, support engineers). Developers in Japan are hired by Microsoft Development K.K.