Performance Measurement
Accurately and efficiently measuring your team’s performance is a critical part of driving change and improvement within your organization. Obtaining a realistic view of end-to-end processes, employee performance and progress toward stated objectives will help drive day-to-day decisions, long-term planning and investment of resources. Effective performance measurement, sometimes called Managing for Results, will also help communicate successes and provide accountability.
How is performance measurements implemented?
For many organizations, determining what and how to measure performance can be a daunting task. To make the process more manageable, a performance measurement system should:
- Have a strategic focus – Goals, objectives and performance indicators should be focused on a critical few. It is neither possible, nor desirable to measure everything.
- Measure the right things – Before measurement begins, an organization must identify the processes to be measured. Then each process should be analyzed and reviewed thoroughly, identifying key success factors and linking them to the appropriate measurement.
- Serve as a means, not an end – Throughout the measurement process, teams must remain focused on the stated goals and desired outcomes, not the measures themselves.
What does effective performance measurement look like?
To effectively deliver insight and actionable information, a performance measurement system must be:
- Customer driven
- Clearly stated and consciously communicated at every level
- Specific and quantifiable
- Understandable to everyone involved
- Regularly reviewed to reflect change
What is a Business Intelligent Tool?
The “Business Intelligent Tool” (188KB Word doc) is a performance measurement system that must be designed for your organization. Most common designs include four distinct perspectives that address the financial health of the organization, customer requirements and satisfaction, major internal processes, and employee growth and satisfaction. The system uses measures that reflect a balance between short - and long-term objectives, financial and non-financial measures, lagging and leading indicators and external and internal performance measures.
How can njSolutions help?
njSolutions Principal, Norma Jo Greenlee, was instrumental in Designing and Implementing the Performance Balanced Scorecard for the US Patent and Trademark Office and the Transportation Security Administration – Personnel Security Division. The designed tiered approach implemented is used in managing and making decisions based on performance metrics. She also authored a Performance Guidelines Workbook for the USPTO that was shared with other agencies as an implementation tool.
Contact njSolutions now and we’ll use our knowledge and expertise to assist you in implementing an effective performance measurement system tailored to the needs of your team.