Can you cite your KPIs off the top of your head, and more importantly, do you know how you are traveling toward achieving them?
KPIs are an incredible tool for mapping and meeting business growth, although too many professionals see them as an administration must-have that gets ticked off and forgotten halfway through the year.
Guiltier still, are the businesses who have not reviewed and updated their KPIs in many years, failing to implement modern considerations that stale KPIs cannot possibly include. What good are they then?
It’s time to dust off your KPIs and engineer them towards outcomes that will actually make an impact on your business and keep you accountable.
Let’s discuss why that is so important.
Management Changes
Manager A might have taken a hardline to cost per conversion, whereas manager B was more interested in social media growth. By the time manager C comes on board, everyone within your business isn’t sure what areas to be focusing on. This is an all too familiar circumstance.
Changes to management are a natural part of life, but your business KPIs shouldn’t suffer here. Instead, you should be embracing this change and sitting down with your key stakeholders to design KPIs that meet not only the new manager’s desires but the overall growth strategy for the business.
Now, this can swing both ways, as you don’t want to fatigue your team with another set of KPIs that will have them unaware of what the business is moving towards. Bringing the team on the journey will increase their stake in the positive change and have them wanting to strive for these targets.
You Don’t Want to Lose Engagement
One unfortunate downside to growth is that it can bring with it a workforce that is disengaged. There are a number of reasons why this might happen, so you want to change your KPIs so that they now fit for a larger workforce.
If your heads of the department believe their KPIs to be unattainable now there is a greater team below them and bigger targets, put their minds at ease by designing new KPIs that incorporate the new business size.
Without these leaders in your corner and in the market striving for more growth, your KPIs stand no chance no matter what they are.
Reviewing and changing all business KPIs will signal to your team that you are serious about their gains as well as yours.
You Want to Comply with Industry and Societal Standards
When your business was a five-man operation, there was likely not a lot of pressure or need to review your KPIs with any grand corporate responsibility.
If you are now employing a larger team and present in more than one location, you will want to be adding some rigor around things like sustainability and company policy.
There is more and more pressure for businesses to have a stance and strategy of how they contribute to ethical and sustainable practices, and your business is no different.
You might want to reduce your carbon footprint as a whole business or improve your energy efficiency. Whatever goals you choose to deploy, it will only improve your reputation and morale at work.
While you are at it, make sure that your company policies are still relevant and speaking to your business and department KPIs.
There is a lot to consider when redesigning a business’s KPIs, and you are right to feel intimidated by this task.
Take it slowly, include your team and even take a look around to see what other businesses are doing if you need some inspiration.
