🎙️En toute simplicité – EP 2: What the VHT Indicator Really Tells Us, Workforce Management and Activity Management

00:55: Is the VHT indicator biased?

05:22: How to assess workload?

07:00: Anticipating customer volume and advisory needs

11:00: Conclusion

In the second episode of the special series of the En toute simplicité podcast, experts Xavier Kelma, Expert Manager GTA at Althéa, and Geoffroy d’Argenlieu, President and co-founder of Timeskipper, take us to the heart of an indicator well known to operational management: VHT (Valeur Horaire de Travail), or revenue per hour worked.

An apparently simple indicator… but often misinterpreted.

VHT: a biased indicator?

First observation: VHT can be biased if used alone. As Geoffroy d’Argenlieu points out, “in periods of inflation, revenue increases mechanically while the volume of work remains stable.” In other words, an apparent improvement in VHT can mask stagnation—or even deterioration—of actual performance.

Another identified bias: the influence of volumes and pricing. Xavier Kelma reminds us that “selling a more expensive product does not necessarily require more work.” Yet VHT can create an illusion of increased productivity without any real change in operational efforts.

Forecasting workload: beyond raw data

In assessing workload, relying solely on revenue data is risky. For example, two customers may generate equivalent revenue, but one will have required advisory services, the other not. The human workload, however, varies significantly.

This is why the experts recommend taking qualitative metrics into account: contact time, product type, advisory needs. “We’ve been talking about data all along without saying it,” observes Xavier Kelma. “The question is: at what point do we stop?”

The challenge: a balance between forecasting, management and operational reality

The strength of the Workforce Management / Activity Management pairing lies in its ability to connect detailed data analysis with operational reality. The tools enable forecasting with 90% reliability—which is already excellent—but managerial agility remains key to absorbing the remaining 10% of uncertainty.

Finally, Xavier Kelma sums it up well: “The only thing that doesn’t change is the actions required to generate revenue.” A constant in a constantly evolving environment.