What Performance Metrics are Right for my Business? (Part One of Four)
When looking at Performance Management, a question that gets asked a lot is "What metrics should my company be using to measure performance". The answer given is often a convoluted one involving many caveats, "ifs" and "buts". In this entry, I want to present a different take on how to tell if a metric is meaningful to your organisation and some suggestions for getting the most out of the metrics you already have. This will be part one of a four part series.
The first question to look at is "What is Performance Management" and perhaps the best way to answer this is to look at the answers to two other questions: "What do you expect of your employees?" and "What do your customers expect of you?” The cornerstone of Performance Management lies in exceeding your customers’ expectations during every interaction that they have with your company. Your contact centres and frontline employees are at the heart of this strategy. Performance Management can be defined as: the process of ensuring all levels of your organisation have accurate and timely visibility into the metrics that define your strategy and have the tools available to improve their performance. It's clear that for your company to be successful and meet the two goals of exceeding customer expectations and improving the performance of your employees, your metrics have to reflect where you are as a company. There is no point diving straight to complex KPI's if you haven't laid the foundation stones in your performance management strategy.
When looking at an organisation and the return on investment in Performance Management there are typically 3 tiers that a company will transition through, gaining further benefits at each tier. The tiers are:
1. Improving Efficiency
2. Focusing on your Customers
3. Contributing back to the organization
The key is to figure out how your company ranks against this structure. In the next couple of weeks, I will delve into each one of these tiers and discuss how to choose metrics and KPIs to measure performance in each tier.
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Author: James Burr
James Burr is the Business Consulting Manager with Merced Systems. He has over 7 years experience implementing Sales Performance Management systems in a broad range of industries including Telco, Finance and Automotive. He can be reached at james.burr@mercedsystems.com