Framework
An outcomes framework for tracking the four things that actually matter: productivity, decision quality, employee experience and cost.
A framework from the Copieux Group Work Design Research Centre. A Better Way.
Contents
01 · The principle
Work design earns its place on the executive agenda only if its results can be measured. The good news is that they can. The discipline is choosing measures that reflect real performance rather than activity.
It is easy to measure activity: systems deployed, people trained, use cases launched. It is much harder, and far more valuable, to measure whether the work actually got better. Most programmes default to activity metrics because they are available and flattering. They also tell you almost nothing about performance.
The test that separates the two
For every metric on your dashboard, ask: could this number improve while the business is no better off? If yes, it is an activity metric, and it belongs in a footnote, not the headline.
02 · The model
Measure work design across four dimensions. Together they prevent the most common distortion: improving one number while quietly worsening another.
Does the redesigned work produce more value for the same effort, or the same value for less? Use concrete measures specific to the process: cycle time end to end, volume handled per person, throughput, and the proportion of work completed without rework. Avoid vague productivity indices; measure the actual work.
Much of the value of a people, AI and technology model shows up in decisions, made faster, more consistently, and with better information. Look at decision speed, consistency across similar cases, and error or reversal rates. The goal is decisions that are both quicker and better, not one at the expense of the other.
Work design that improves the numbers while degrading the experience of the people doing the work is not sustainable. Track whether redesigned roles reduce low-value effort, whether people spend more time on work that uses their judgement, and whether the experience has genuinely improved. This is a leading indicator of whether the change will hold.
What does the redesigned work cost to run, all in, compared with before? Include technology, but also human effort, exception handling, and the overhead of the new model. Many programmes report a productivity gain while quietly increasing total cost. A complete measure prevents that.
03 · Implementation
Start with one or two measures per dimension, tied to the specific work you redesigned. The table below is a starting menu, not a mandate; choose the fewest measures that would genuinely tell you whether the work got better.
| Dimension | Example measures | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Productivity | End-to-end cycle time; volume per person; rework rate | Speeding up one step while the whole slows |
| Decision quality | Decision lead time; consistency; reversal/error rate | Faster but worse decisions |
| Employee experience | Time on high-value work; low-value effort removed; sentiment | Gains that quietly burn people out |
| Cost | Fully-loaded cost to run; exception-handling cost | Hidden costs shifting off one budget onto another |
Baseline first
Capture a simple, honest baseline before you change anything. Without it you cannot credibly claim improvement, and you lose the ability to govern the change. This is one of the highest-value things you can do, and one of the most often skipped.
04 · The common failure
The most common measurement failure is mistaking adoption for value. The number of users on a tool, hours of training delivered, or use cases in flight are activity metrics. They can all rise while productivity, decisions, experience and cost stay exactly where they were.
Report activity if you must, but never confuse it with outcomes. A useful habit is to keep two lists: outcomes on the first page, activity in an appendix. If leadership only ever sees the appendix, the programme is measuring effort, not results.
05 · Governance
The point of measuring work design is not reporting for its own sake. It is governance: the ability to see what is working, redirect what is not, and compound the gains. That requires three things.
Done this way, measurement turns work design from a one-off initiative into a durable capability, one that gets more valuable each time you apply it, because you can prove what it delivered.
About
Copieux Group helps CHROs, Chief People Officers and senior HR leaders in fast-growth and scaling companies redesign how work gets done, so their people systems and AI deliver measurable ROI instead of more operational drag. We combine work design, AI strategy, people technology and operational transformation, starting with the work rather than the tool.
We work primarily with CHROs and HR leaders, with CFOs and CEOs where they sign off, treating AI adoption as a work-redesign challenge rather than a technology project. Our practice is grounded in the Work Design Blueprint: a structured method that redesigns HR work across five dimensions, work, roles, processes, the human and AI split, and performance.
A short diagnostic on where redesigning the work will move the needle for your HR function.
copieuxgroup.com/work-design-readiness-assessment · copieuxgroup.com