Welcome back to the second and final part of our series on KPIs. In this portion, we’ll explore the best way to define Key Performance Indicators, as well as show you how to communicate them across your organization.
Defining KPIs
Here are a few guidelines you can use to focus your efforts in defining your KPIs.
Make Your KPIs Accessible
Mushroom management is an opaque management style where employees are not privy to the company’s performance and have little connection to their work and the purpose behind it. The name comes from how mushrooms are farmed – by being kept in the dark. This style of management can be very discouraging and disengaging to employees, with a recent report finding that:
Effective use of KPIs can dramatically increase the visibility of a company’s goals and performance, making employees feel like they are in the know; keeping them engaged; and connecting their work to the company’s mission. Coupled with effective communication, the right KPIs are part of the solution to mushroom management.
Effective Communication and Consumption of KPIs
Unless you’re an analyst, you probably have little desire to paw through spreadsheets identifying KPIs and making sense of the numbers. In order to be accessible to a broad audience across your organization, KPIs need to be easily understood. One effective way to communicate the most actionable metrics is to display them on a large monitor in the office or factory floor.
Another strategy is to manage your metrics and KPIs with a dashboard. Building a business KPI dashboard can bring your metrics to life through visualization, allowing everyone easy access to the data. Dashboards are an effective way to track key objectives, drive your business decisions and accelerate growth.
KPI Examples
Not sure where to start? A great place to visit is this KPI Library, which provides a rather exhaustive list of metrics. Remember that everything included in the link above are metrics and should only be considered KPIs if you meet the right criteria given the context of your company and its objectives. The list of possible KPIs from the link above can be overwhelming, so if you need assistance picking and measuring the right KPIs, reach out for assistance.