Sales per labour hour (SPLH)
Sales per labour hour is net sales excluding VAT for a period divided by the total staff hours actually worked in that period; it measures labour productivity.
Also calledSPLH, sales per labor hour, sales per staff hour, labour productivity, revenue per labour hour
Formula
Net sales (excl. VAT) ÷ Total staff hours actually worked- Net sales
- Sales in the period after returns, discounts and VAT.
- Hours actually worked
- Actual hours from the time and attendance system, including overtime and excluding leave and sickness. Not the planned rota.
- Hourly split
- The same calculation by hour: that hour's sales ÷ staff working in that hour.
Calculator
Enter your own figures and the result updates instantly. The defaults are the figures from the worked example below.
Result750 ₺/hour
Worked example
How to read it, and what good looks like
Sales per hour is used rather than sales per employee because the mix of full-time and part-time staff varies from store to store, and headcount says nothing about hours worked. The real information sits in the hourly split: the monthly figure is an average that hides idle morning hours and short-staffed evening hours together. Put the rota next to the hourly sales curve and read it with conversion; conversion that drops at peak hours is often a staffing gap.
Under high inflation, this measure is compared with wage growth. According to EY Turkey's December 2025 summary, the 2026 minimum wage rose 27% to ₺33,030 gross, with an employer cost of ₺40,214.03 outside manufacturing. If sales per hour grows more slowly than that, staff cost as a share of sales rises. Format differences are structural too: according to the 2025 employment report of TPF (the Turkish Retailers Federation), local chains employ 13-20 people per store and national discount chains 2-3. Compare only within the same format.
The target is derived from the staff cost ratio target: required sales per hour = hourly employer cost ÷ target staff cost ratio. Example: with an hourly cost of ₺250 and a target ratio of 12%, the store needs at least ₺2,083 of sales per hour. In Mindpera, Mind Ops shows the hourly revenue curve; when a drop in conversion coincides with the rota, the agent opens a rota review task for the area manager.
Where it misleads
- The planned rota is used instead of actual hours; leave, sickness and overtime make productivity look higher or lower than it is.
- Warehouse, area and head-office staff hours are added to some stores and not others; without a written definition, stores are compared on different bases.
- Leaving out contractor and agency hours (security, cleaning, peak-season cover) makes the store that outsources look more productive.
- Adding the hours of staff who pick online orders without adding the online sales fulfilled from the store makes productivity look lower than it is.
Data you need
- Time and attendance records: actual hours by person, day and hour
- Staff rota (to compare planned and actual)
- Net sales excluding VAT by hour
- Staff type: full-time, part-time, contractor; hourly employer cost
Mindpera products that calculate this KPI
Frequently asked questions
- How do you calculate sales per labour hour?
- Divide net sales excluding VAT by the total staff hours actually worked in the same period. A store with monthly sales of ₺1,200,000 and 1,600 hours worked generates 1,200,000 ÷ 1,600 = ₺750 per hour. Take hours from time and attendance, not the planned rota, including overtime and excluding leave and sickness. For rota decisions, run the same calculation by hour.
- Should you use sales per employee or sales per labour hour?
- Use sales per labour hour. Sales per employee compares stores with different full-time and part-time mixes incorrectly: a store staffed mainly by part-timers can look weak per head but strong per hour. Hours are the real quantity of labour, and rotas are built in hours. Keep headcount as a separate measure for establishment planning.
- What is a good sales per labour hour figure?
- Derive the target from the staff cost ratio target: required sales per hour = hourly employer cost ÷ target staff cost ratio. With an hourly cost of ₺250 and a 12% target, the required figure is about ₺2,083 per hour. Format differences are structural, so compare within the same format and store cluster, against your own history.