How VERBA used performance-based tracking to motivate translators and elevate productivity.
Increasing team engagement through measurable performance
VERBA faced the challenge of motivating its salaried in-house translators while maintaining high quality and efficiency. To support remote work preferences and reward productivity fairly, the company adopted XTRF’s analytics-driven system to track output rather than hours. With customized reporting and a points-based reward model, VERBA can now incentivize top performance, drive productivity, and uphold client satisfaction all at once.
Case study
CLIENT SNAPSHOT
About VERBA
VERBA CENTAR is a Croatian translation company. It comprises a team of translators, reviewers, language editors, certified court interpreters, and translation project managers, who offer private individuals and companies high-quality linguistic services, specialized in South Slavic languages, from its office in Zagreb, Croatia. It is a member of the VERBA group which also has a branch office in Christiansfeld, Denmark.
The Challenge
To meet the strict requirements of ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 17100:2015 standards, as well as client expectations for quality, expertise, reliability, and speed of service, the company employed 20 in-house translators. Although the team consistently delivered high-quality translations, one of the company’s long-standing challenges since its founding in 1998 had been finding an effective way to strengthen employee motivation. A key idea was to introduce a reward and recognition system that would encourage in-house translators to increase productivity without compromising quality.
To support this initiative, the company sought a software solution that would allow both management and staff to measure performance accurately and objectively. This system needed to ensure that employees on fixed monthly salaries could be fairly rewarded for above-average results, creating a structure that encouraged greater efficiency while maintaining high standards.
In-house translators can be costly – but they can also be a profitable resource driving growth and business development. Using a smart motivation system makes a difference for us.
- The VERBA Team
The company explored several software solutions, but each one lacked key functionality that could not be implemented to meet their needs. In 2017, they began developing their own translation project management system. However, after a year, the effort was discontinued because internal development could not keep pace with the rapid changes and evolving demands of the business.
We needed a software solution and system which would enable both management and the workers to reliably and objectively measure work results so that the employees who get a fixed monthly salary could also be rewarded for above-average results and thus motivated to work more efficiently.
- Vanja Keindl and Luciano Lykkebo, VERBA
Why XTRF by XTM
The company evaluated several well-known, comprehensive software solutions designed for translation project management, reporting, CRM, and financial operations.
Most of these systems measured employee efficiency based primarily on hours worked. However, the company wanted to give employees the flexibility to work remotely and from locations of their choice. For this reason, they needed a system that measured results rather than time spent on tasks.
We wanted to give the opportunity to our employees to work from home and from other locations according to their preferences. That is why we needed to measure results and not the time spent at work.
- Vanja Keindl and Luciano Lykkebo, VERBA
The Solution
The company chose XTRF, which addressed all their challenges and fulfilled the need to measure the efficiency of in-house translators while enabling a results-driven reward system.
XTRF offered several key features:
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Upload of analyses from various CAT tools to determine the weighted word count for each translator’s tasks.
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Reports on the number of weighted words translated or the number of hours assigned to different linguistic tasks, such as QA, proofreading, PDF checks, and LQA.
Because reports included two units of measurement—words and hours—the company introduced a special unit called points. This allowed them to assign a specific number of points for each weighted word translated and for each hour worked.
The XTRF support team developed a Custom Column that calculates the number of points a vendor achieves in a given month. This made it possible to display points in any preferred view while letting the system handle all necessary calculations.
With this solution, the company established a reliable system for rewarding in-house translators based on efficiency and client satisfaction.
Internal work procedures were also adapted to ensure quality remained the top priority. Project managers were instructed to assign additional hours for more complex projects that required extra time for preparation and execution, preventing quantity from outweighing quality.
Additionally, translators could earn extra points whenever they received praise from a client, further motivating high performance and engagement.
Now we have a system for rewarding our in-house translators for their work based on efficiency and client satisfaction.
- Vanja Keindl and Luciano Lykkebo, VERBA
A significant advantage of XTRF was that the company could register an unlimited number of vendors without paying for additional licenses. Initially, this presented a challenge, as some vendors did not have access to all reports. The XTRF support team resolved this issue.
For in-house vendors without Home Portal licenses, there were no reports or views directly available to them. To address this, customized reports were generated daily, weekly, or monthly—depending on the company’s preference—and sent to designated users. These reports could then be forwarded manually or automatically to any group of recipients outside XTRF.
Reports were also provided as CSV attachments, which the company used for additional business intelligence analysis and reporting. This ensured that in-house translators received regular updates on their performance and achievements.
Additionally, the company implemented a dedicated workplace mentoring system to support quality assurance and translator training, further enhancing performance and professional development.
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