5 Responses

1. Emphasis on the ‘I’…

   Hi Scott,

   As an independent provider myself, I’m afraid that I can’t advise on software etc. But, I have seen quite a lot of systems in my time, and regardless of the system in place the fundamental thing to remember is that Key Performance Indicators are just that…an INDICATOR!

   Too many managers like dashboards, systems and reports, and hide behind the stats, taking them as the gospel truth. They just ‘assess’ their team members based on this, and forget to look at the bigger picture. Managing performance is about having regular conversations, giving feedback, discussing difficulties, recognising achievement and trying to make improvements. It’s about managing people, not information.

   That’s not to say that KPIs are a bad thing…in fact, I’m a big fan. But KPIs should be indicating where we need to START the conversation, do some investigating and explore the issues, not end the assessment. Please make sure that managers using whatever system you choose understand this.

   Sheridan Webb

   Keystone Development

2. interesting comments

   Sheridan,

   Many thanks for your comments, and I totally agree with you. In previous roles, many managers took the various stats as the ‘be all and end all’ and not as a tool to help and aid performance.

   What I am looking for is a way to help evaluate how we, as a training function, are doing in delivery of a programme across the business. We currently have a fortnightly conference call with the key stakeholders and I am looking for a different way of displaying the KPIs rather than just the standard report that is produced.

   — Regards Scott

3. dashboards~ a “new name for data-display”

   Hi Scott

   Those of us who are old enough to remember when individuals and small teams had an office that had walls (rather than just dividers in open plan offices), remember what used to be called data display!

   As long ago and the 1970s the walls offices I worked in were adorned with whiteboards that carried all manner of data about our performance and other stuff too: We were in logistics and we had boards showing the state of all vehicles, their current locations, staff readiness/absense/leave, rolling maintenance schedules, planned activity, extra curricular team activities and so on.  All this contained information that related to our targets, so it was directly linked to performance management.

   When people could clearly see the state of play they would often just go and do the important things without having to be told what needed doing.

    

   Sadly the information all needed updating daily, by hand…..the arrival of the computer, coupled with the disappearnace of the walls, coupled with the data protection act (so often used as a catch all excuse for keeping this secret) have all reduced the likelihood of this kind of data display/dashboard in the modern office, in spite of its value. Consequently the problem with software is that the "dashboard" is invisible unless you are actually looking for it…..you are more likely to have another application open.  It is one of the downsides of Project Management software rather than a great roll of lining paper around the room with the Gantt Chart on it: it isn’t visible to all, all the time.

   Have you seen the TV series "Castle"? The title character is an author……his "dashboard" is his screensaver: it says "You should be writing!"

   I hope this helps

   Rus

   http://www.coach-and-courses

    

4. Outputs or outcomes?

   Hi Scott,

   KPIs are great as long as they are relevant and drive the business forward – what gets measured (generally) happens. The problem with some KPIs is that we pick what is easy to measure rather than what is important to measure – and that starts to mess things up.

   I’m not sure what you are currently measuring from what you put in your posts, however, if it is outputs, look at measuring outcomes – that will demonstrate the worth of what you are achieving.

   Regards,

   Paul

5. benchmarking / statistics / KPI’s = Waste?

   Personally I take more store from the anecdotal feedback of managers following programmes for their people… some things are more straightforward to measure than others.  production is an easy one (I use an example told to me by an inspirational trainer from Marshalls PLC – They put in place literacy and numeracy support and the fact that their people understood the production stats, could read the quality manual, etc, led to a significant improvement in productivity and in turn profit.).  Soft skills…. ?

   What exactly will be measured?  "Whoo hoo we achieved 8 days training per employee" … they learnt nothing but 8 days looks better than 4 days.

   Meaningful performance measures are difficult to… erm… measure as it’s quality based not quantity based.  I would be tempted to augment any raw figures with some anecdotal feedback and comments from managers and staff – just a thought.