Performance Management: Rule Number 1

The ultimate challenge in business is to maximise the performance levels of every member of your team but the research shows that, on average, people are productive for 50% of their working time.

Now, that figure will clearly vary from job to job and from industry to industry but it provides an excellent benchmark.

But the starting point of any performance management and rule number 1 is MEASUREMENT.

After all, how can you manage anything if you are not measuring it?

The key challenge, however, is to determine your key business levers. These are the key aspects within each department which impact on performance and your bottom line profitability.

So, in regards to sales, it could be the number of meetings they have, the value of quotations presented and the sales gross profit.

Within production, it could be lead times, output and on time delivery.

If you are in professional services, the measurement could be billable hours, client development and client satisfaction.

Our management consultancy division specialises in developing and implementing performance management solutions and has established extensive experience in this area.

We have found that the best way to measure performance is to focus on approximately 3 core aspects of any role. These should be the most important factors in assessing how successful the employee has been in carrying out their role to achieve the overall business objectives.

It’s vital that these are measured and reported on a far more regular basis than the traditional annual review.

We believe that any performance measurement should be measured and reported on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.

This will allow you and your team to understand exactly what level of productivity is being achieved and most importantly allow you to take action to rectify it.

So with that being said, start looking at the key factors that impact on your performance and start measuring them on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.

The initial findings may shock you at first but imagine the difference you can make to your bottom line by increasing productivity by 10, 20 or even 50%.

Simply start by identifying the key business levers, measure the current performance of each then look to feedback and review.