---
id: "action-update-kpis"
type: "action-item"
source_timestamps: ["§ What Makes an Effective Agent Manager"]
tags: ["performance-management", "metrics"]
related: ["claim-obsolete-kpis", "concept-hybrid-workforce", "contrarian-activity-kpis"]
action: "Replace activity-based KPIs with outcome-based metrics focused on human-agent system orchestration."
outcome: "Aligns employee incentives with the realities of hybrid work, maximizing total system efficiency."
speakers: ["Suraj Srinivasan", "Vivienne Wei"]
sources: ["agentic"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-agentic"
originDay: 6
articleStem: "hbr-sig-58-agent-managers"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2026/02/to-thrive-in-the-ai-era-companies-need-agent-managers"
sourceTitle: "To Thrive in the AI Era, Companies Need Agent Managers"
---
# Update KPIs for the Hybrid Workforce

## Action — Update KPIs for the Hybrid Workforce

**Do:** Eliminate traditional activity-based KPIs (e.g., number of calls made per day) for human employees. Replace them with **outcome-based KPIs** that measure how effectively an employee **orchestrates their AI agent** and manages overall **human-agent system efficiency**.

**Expected outcome:** Incentives aligned with hybrid-work reality; total system efficiency maximized.

**Grounded in:** [[claim-obsolete-kpis]] · [[concept-hybrid-workforce]] · [[contrarian-activity-kpis]].

**Enrichment caveat:** Prefer 'supplement/supersede' over 'delete.' Retain select activity metrics where they serve **compliance, coaching, QA, capacity planning, or anomaly detection** (e.g., abnormally low human-review rates), now repurposed to measure supervision quality and escalation health.