Where can I get example performance measures?

Warning, warning, warning!

If you think you're going to find meaningful performance measures by trawling around on the internet, think again!

Sure, you can get some good ideas, but there are some risks you have to acknowledge first:

• rarely are sample measures described in enough detail for you to understand exactly how to compute them
• you simply must be clear about your results before you look for potential measures - otherwise you just end up measuring what's easy (and rarely is that what's useful)
• adopting other people's measures is the same as adopting their strategy (and it may not be right for your organisation)
• adopting some measures and telling staff that's what's going to be used will not get you any buy-in

Now, I'll step off my soapbox, assuming that you've heeded the warning, and give you a few resources for finding potential measures for your organisation:

ARTICLE: 3 risks of off-the-shelf measures

Do you go looking for measures that your organisation or team can adopt? Do you trawl through the annual reports of organisations in your industry? Do you survey your colleagues at industry conferences, do you search for KPIs in your industry on the internet? Do you ask the so-called experts what measures you should be using? Are these your only strategies for finding the most meaningful measures for your goals? Yes? Oops! You're probably about to take a tumble into one of the 3 traps!

ARTICLE: 5 basic performance measures

If you are at a loss for what to start measuring, then try these 5 basic performance measures. Spend as little time as possible tailoring them to your business; spend more time pilot testing them. You'll learn tonnes more about the best measures for your business through getting started with something, rather than waiting until you've designed the best way to measure.

WEBSITE: APQC Summary of Process Measures

A great (and free, as long as you sign up) resource to get measure ideas from, listing example measures across the typical processes of organisations like developing products and services, marketing and selling, supply chain and procurement, customer service, HR, IT and more.

BOOK: 2600 Phrases for Effective Performance Reviews: ready to use words and phrases that really get results

For a wide array of jobs, author Paul Falcone provides lists of example statements to use to describe actual performance at the levels of 'Meets/Exceeds Expectations' and 'Needs Improvement'. This book also provides statements that can assist in formulating specific goals and perhaps even performance measures or KPIs for performance appraisal. Not a bad starting point, and many of the examples provided are very specific, actionable and measurable. Read my amazon.com review or buy this book.

WEBCAST: Getting Started For Performance Measurement Novices

In this free webcast, hosted and archived by bettermanagement.com, and delivered by Stacey Barr, you will learn:

• the different approach needed to get started with performance measurement, versus the corporate, top-down approach to developing a performance measurement system
• tips for how to encourage a team that doesn’t measure performance to be willing to give it a go
• the 12 basic steps that easily and quickly guide a team to measure what matters, for the first time

RESOURCE: How to Design Meaningful Performance Measures (not free)

This how-to kit is about measure design. It's an excellent companion to use to help you sift through all the measure examples you find in your research, to help you pick those that have the most meaning and most relevance to your goals. Read more or buy this tool.

RESOURCE: Getting Started With Performance Measures (not free)

Practice the development of meaningful performance measures yourself. This digital kit (which you can download as soon as you've purchased it) will step you through the process of designing and implementing just a few performance measures for one of your goals. A great way to pilot test a fresh and common sense approach to measuring. Read more about Getting Started With Performance Measures now.

WEBSITE: The KPI Library

KPI Library is a good source of triggers or ideas for measures in all kinds of categories, but as with all off-the-shelf measures and KPIs, there is not enough detail to rely solely on this as a source of measures for your business.

WEBSITE: ZPG's web site

Jack Zigon has a measures database you can subscribe to and get ideas for measures for job performance - just be sure that you know which outcomes are useful for you to measure first, or you'll end up drowning in measures that are only interesting (but not useful).

NETWORK: Performance Measurement Association

This network at Cranfield School of Management lists some sources of performance measurement ideas. Go to the "Links", then under "Sources of PM Information" select "Sources of Measures of Performance".

Want more?

If you'd like more information about how to find the best measures for your business, contact me.

And make sure you take advantage of the many tips and case studies and resources I share in my free email newsletter, Lift The Barr. You can sign up now in the box to the right --->