Performance Measurement
Whatever you are in business to achieve, the ability to identify what is important to the achievement of your business goals is something which drives success and ultimate achievement.
Performance measurement is too often one of those things that gets pushed aside as not being the most vital thing to be done at any one time. However, we are passionate in the view that considered and accurate performance measurement is one of the most important ongoing tasks a manager can perform. An appropriate set of key performance indicators (KPI’s) is an invaluable management tool.
Why do we bother measuring performance?
Performance measurement ensures the following:
- Guides us in achieving our goals
- Provides early detection where goals and processes do not align
- Assists in achieving goals with minimal investment
- Aligns people and processes with a common goal
Performance measures will never work effectively if they do not have full support (buy in) from staff. This can be confrontational as your staff will often see performance measurement systems as management tools which directly challenge their credibility and know how to perform their job. Also, measurement systems are often the subject of manipulation, especially where remuneration is linked to results such as profits.
Up N Running Business Solutions have tools in place to mitigate the problems that many organisations face with employee support and result manipulation.
In addition to employee support, these problems are common when implementing and managing performance measurement systems:
- Too many measures exist
- Processes are not defined and measured
- Measures are not aligned with strategic goals
- Data/systems do not support measures
These problems are the very reason that most organisations find that having guidance in the performance management spectrum of business is critical.
Return On Investment
Any business decision must be based on the notion that a positive
return is brought by its enaction, whether the return be financial or
otherwise. The ability to accurately calculate the DIRECT Return on
Investment can often be complex, however is an absolute necessity in
assessing the value of any special project or change to the status quo. A key to our performance measurement service is understanding how to
deal with issues that arise in correctly calculating return on
investment. Some of the issues we focus on are:
- Isolating the impact of decisions
- Confidence factors in decision isolation
- Understanding the impact on trend data
- Identification of negative impacts
- Tracking returns through the life of a project
Special project managers are ideally suited to understanding some of these techniques. Also, a thorough Return on Investment analysis is often the springboard to project approval where it otherwise may not be deemed necessary.
