We noticed our consultants are padding their weekly utilization numbers on their personal scorecards by logging administrative tasks as client work just to hit their targets. How do we redesign our time-tracking metrics to prevent this gaming?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When team members feel that a Scorecard metric is a threat to their job security rather than a tool for operational health, they will inevitably find ways to game the system. Logging administrative work as client work is a classic symptom of a poorly designed metric that lacks a balancing counterweight.

To fix this, you must separate client-facing, billable utilization from internal, non-billable time on your weekly Scorecard. Your Operations Director should track direct billable client hours as one metric, and administrative or overhead hours as a completely separate metric. To stop the gaming, pair these quantity metrics with a quality metric, such as client project milestones hit on time or client satisfaction ratings.

If a consultant claims high utilization but their client projects are missing milestones, the discrepancy will immediately stand out on the Scorecard. This provides your managers with the objective data they need to have an honest GWC conversation. Bring this issue to your next Level 10 Meeting and use the IDS process to adjust your individual scorecard metrics, making it impossible to hide unproductive admin work inside client billing.