Stacey Barr recently wrote on Are Your KPIs Telling You What You Really Need to Know?

She states, “We shouldn’t measure something because it’s easy to. Nor should we measure something because we always have. Nor should we measure something because “they” do. We should measure something only because it tells us what we need to know.”

This is extremely true. Consider that we measure overtime because ‘we have to.’ This information may not be telling us what we need to know… “Is our business healthy?”

Although it may sound like ‘common sense’ measuring your KPIs is not always any easy task. Most of us have experienced, at least once in our lives, the “overtime” cut! This is where staff are sent home because they absolutely CANNOT have overtime. The measure says we are not compliant so we have to send them home.

What this is often missing is the knowledge of increased business and the current hiring process. It is completely logical that a company may have a drastic increase in business but the HR process of hiring new team members is keeping staff in overtime. This doesn’t mean the business isn’t healthy or profitable, it may just mean that your hiring process is slow and your volume of business is fantastic.

HR objective – reaching peak performance – action follow up

Measuring the right thing and doing so with the correct data is important to making efficient and effective decisions. At smartcockpit our tool allows you to manage that process and evaluate change. For example, you can quickly look at your dashboard and determine if overtime is really a problem for the health of the company. In one spot you can see overtime cost and its impact on performance!

We challenge you to evaluate your KPIs. Are they telling you what you really need to know? Want to know how to manage the process? Feel free to contact us @smartcockpit!