Vibrating tampers are small construction machines widely used for compacting ground materials for roadmaking and civil engineering. Their good mobility and ease of use makes them the perfect machine for compacting different types of ground materials in small and narrow environments. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the compacting efficiency of a vibrating tamper while taking the type of compacted ground material into account and analyse the overall movement and vibration transmitted to the worker. At first an overview over the investigated vibrating tamper is given. The tamper's foot applies a force to the ground material with every impact, which is identified as the evaluation parameter for the tamper's efficiency, since it is the main effect mechanism for this type of dynamic compacting. The force is measured via applied strain gauges while compacting three different ground material types. The overall movement and vibration of the tamper is measured using a high-resolution optical measurement system and is subsequently analysed. Additionally, a multibody simulation is set up and calibrated to have a tool for improving the efficiency of the vibrating tamper by means of sensitivity analysis. As expected, the experimental results show that the peak forces of the tamper's foot hitting the ground increase, the harder or stiffer the ground material is. This behaviour is in accordance with literature and the used multibody simulation. However, with stiffer ground material compacted, the measured signal acquired from the strain gauges gets more complex. The overall movement of the tamper shows strong vibrational stress that is transferred to the worker. The results of the experimental evaluation and the multibody simulation are used to formulate advice on the construction of vibrating tampers for improving the efficiency while decreasing the vibration transmitted to the worker.