Managing with Metrics By Richard Syrek Rockland Business World, May 2002 Have you ever wondered why your employees are always busy, but don’t seem to be working on the things that are most important for the success of the business? You hold regular meetings where you identify the key success factors, yet you see employees spending time on low priority issues. Do the two statements above apply to your business? The perhaps the problem is that your employees do not truly understand the success factors that are important to your business. One way to do this is to set up a series of measurements, called Metrics, which quantify what you want to achieve and are updated periodically to track progress. A simple chart that shows where you are now, and where you would like to be, with regular updates would communicate to your staff what their mission is. These charts should be displayed in a suitable location so your employees can track their performance. They will then be able to tailor their activities to achieve the desired result. The concept is deceptively simple. The real challenge is to set up the correct metrics. Imagine what would happen if the wrong metrics were chosen. Your employees would be successfully achieving the wrong things! Another common mistake is to set up too many measurements that dilute your employees’ focus. Setting up the correct metrics involves a realistic analysis of the success factors in the individual business, and converting them into measurable performance factors. Different departments within your business would have their own set of Metrics. For example, your shipping department may have days to ship and percent complete, while your purchasing department may measure on-time deliveries from your suppliers. Determine the key success factors for your business, create measurements for these factors, set goals for performance, and communicate them to your employees. Then follow with regular reviews and watch how these simple steps lead to improved performance. Richard W. Syrek is President of Mentor Management, LLC that provides solutions to businesses that are not successfully achieving their strategic plan. For more information, please call 914-715-1911 or e-mail: rwsyrek@mentormanagementllc.com. Back to articles