Jobs per hour: how to measure tech productivity without punishing the wrong people
The simplest field metric there is. Also the easiest one to accidentally use against your best technicians.
4 min read
What it is
Jobs per hour is stops divided by hours. Two stops an hour, one stop an hour. It tells you how fast a tech moves through a route. That is it.
It is easy to explain and easy to track, and if you use it raw it will point you straight at the wrong people with total confidence.
Why raw jobs per hour is unfair
An initial takes way longer than a routine recurring stop. Full inspection, thorough first treatment, a nervous new customer with a dog and forty questions. A tech loaded up with new accounts posts a lower raw jobs per hour than a tech running a book of quick recurring stops, and the first one is doing the harder, more valuable work.
Rank the team on raw jobs per hour and you hand the trophy to whoever got the easy route and quietly ding the person building your business. Run that for a few months and your good techs figure it out. They always do.
Weighting fixes it
Weight the stops by type. An initial counts for more than a routine stop. A reservice, which is free work you want less of, counts for less. Now the number is about effort and value instead of who drew the lucky route that morning.
You pick the weights to match how the business actually runs. A weighted jobs per hour that says the busy initials tech and the busy recurring tech are both pulling their weight is a number you can defend in a room full of them.
What to do with it
Jobs per hour is for coaching, not for gotchas. Look at the spread, talk to the people on both ends, and work out whether it is a training gap, a lopsided route, or a real pace problem.
And watch quality right next to it. A tech who speeds up by cutting corners looks fast on jobs per hour this week and shows up on your reservice rate next month. Speed that costs you callbacks is not speed.
Common questions
What is the difference between raw and weighted jobs per hour?
Raw treats every stop as equal. Weighted counts an initial for more than a routine stop and a reservice for less, so the number reflects the real work instead of the route mix.
Is a higher jobs per hour always better?
No. Past a point more speed means cut corners, and cut corners come back as reservices and cancellations. Read jobs per hour next to your quality numbers, never on its own.
How does jobs per hour relate to revenue per hour?
Jobs per hour is pace. Revenue per hour is money. A tech can be quick and cheap or slow and profitable. Watching both keeps either one from fooling you.
See these numbers on your own branches
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