The Number of Emails Does Not Equal the Foreign Trade Department’s Result
An employee can send many reminders, but an open issue regarding delivery will not be resolved.
Another employee might resolve a complex discrepancy with a single approval.
If you only count activity, the manager encourages the volume of correspondence instead of useful results.
Productivity links results to labour input.
However, the macroeconomic indicator of output per hour cannot be mechanically turned into a fair standard for an individual manager.
Let’s discuss the work of the foreign trade team in your company
I’ll help you analyse your situation: employees increase the number of messages while corrections and delays remain unnoticed.
We’ll discuss solutions to this and related foreign trade tasks in your company, the distribution of responsibilities, and next steps.
The scope of support will be agreed upon before work begins.
Look at Results, Quality, and Workload Together
Select completed results that the team actually controls: a verified set, an agreed version, a closed discrepancy.
Add a quality indicator: returns for correction with a specified reason or unresolved issues after inspection.
Describe the workload by the number and complexity of concurrently managed tasks.
Show external waiting time separately.
An employee might be responsible for timely requests and control, but not for any action by a bank or carrier.
Agree on the boundaries of responsibility in advance so that the indicator does not penalise for circumstances beyond control.
A Single Indicator Card
A table is a learning construct; there are no universal target values here.
| Element | What to Determine | Verification Question |
|---|---|---|
| Result | What is considered completed | Is there confirmation? |
| Quality | How a discrepancy is identified | Has the reason for the return been established? |
| Costs | Which hours or resources are counted | Is waiting time separated? |
| Complexity | How tasks differ | Are batches comparable? |
| Action | What we will change if there is a deviation | Who makes the decision? |
Learning example: verified sets are counted only together with verification confirmation.
Returns are analysed by reason, not automatically deducted from an individual’s result.
Check What Behaviour the Indicator Creates
If the team aims to close cards faster, check whether unresolved issues remain for the next participant.
If the number of corrections decreases, make sure that errors are still being recorded.
Compare comparable tasks and sufficiently complete data.
Do not declare productivity growth after one successful order.
The indicator is needed to choose a process change, training, or work distribution, not to replace root cause analysis with employee rankings.
Start with One Managerial Decision
Formulate a question: is assistance needed at the verification stage where rework occurs, or why the queue is growing.
Select several related indicators for this question, agree on definitions, and check the source records.
Evidence of results can be stored in the deal card.
Revise the set if it does not help make a decision or encourages hiding problems.
A practical management guide.
All examples are illustrative.
Check applicable requirements and terms for the specific product, country and contract.
Sources checked on 24 October 2026.
