employees must understand what they’re working toward.
by jody padar
radical pricing – by the radical cpa
key performance indicators separate the signals from the noise. throwing timesheets into the trash is your opportunity to focus all your attention on what is most important to your firm’s continued success.
more: five areas to ground new metrics other than time | five reasons to ditch timesheets for good | productize services for consistent client value | digitize clients for standardization | six steps to creating a standardized practice | four ways automation pushes the paradigm shift | are you the key signal caller for your clients? | value pricing requires defining your clients | how value pricing impacts your employees
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good kpis are quantifiable measurements agreed to beforehand. they must be important to the organization as a whole and specific. here are a few examples you might consider adopting:
- product quality. are your deliverables providing the solution intended? are systematized programs providing the desired deliverables? be willing to tweak your productized services if you feel there’s a more efficient way to get the job done.
- response time. are your teams responding to client calls and emails within a reasonable timeframe?
- on-time delivery. how often in a traditional firm is the necessary information coming in a timely fashion but not going out on time? maybe it sits in-house for two weeks. what does an on-time delivery look like? perhaps your tax returns should have a two-week turnaround. come up with on-time delivery metrics and see if you’re meeting them.
- customer satisfaction. if you are a client-centric firm, customer satisfaction is all important. don’t be afraid to ask clients if they are happy, like the customer experience and are getting what they need. everyone is used to yelp reviews and surveys, so asking for a review shouldn’t be a big deal.
determine a kpi that will help you measure how work moves through your firm. remember, kpis measure processes and workflow, not people. they should be relevant to your firm’s values.
strong kpis are easy to measure and relevant to the process. you may want to rely on historical data to help you gauge present activity, but make sure you have enough data to make it a worthwhile comparison and factor in a fudge factor for inaccuracy.
no matter what, make sure everyone understands what is being measured. don’t land on a crazy calculation as a kpi. you want it to be transparent and clear. when kpis don’t work, it is usually because they’re not implemented well, and employees don’t understand what they’re working toward. make sure that your kpis are clearly explained and measurable. simplicity is good. unnecessary complexity will drive everyone crazy.
determining the right kpis for you
think of kpis as your map and compass to a better future. a good map is easy to follow. the same can be said of kpis. rarely has the kiss principle been more important. when it comes to kpis, you want to ensure they are concise and aligned.
you only want a handful of straightforward, easy-to-define and easily applicable kpis. if you have identified 50 outstanding kpis for your firm, cross off 47 of them. just make sure the three you keep will actually indicate success.
you also want your kpis to measure the data most impacting your financials and processes. to ensure this happens, everyone must agree to your new kpis up front. this way, everyone will know what they are working toward and be aligned.
from there, you want to consider:
- ease of measurement: ensure the process of pulling reports and collating data is as fast and simple as possible.
- business relevance: just because some data is easily accessed doesn’t mean you should build a kpi around it. the kpis you measure should drive profit and efficiency.
- specificity: the more specific you can be, the better. if too many variables are involved, you won’t be able to pinpoint the results you want, and you won’t be able to affect change. be sure you can explain the causality and correlation between what you’re measuring and the result you want to see.
- data availability: measure your firm according to the data you can get. otherwise, your kpis are merely aspirational.
- comprehension: your team has to understand which data points lead to bonuses. be clear about how their work impacts a kpi, or employees will keep working as they always have, ignoring the roadmap you want them to follow.
there are also ways to go awry with kpis. proper implementation matters. everyone needs to be aligned and know what’s being measured and why. there has to be a clear process around the measurement, monthly or quarterly, and the results must also be known. you’ve wasted time and effort if you start using kpis but never share results with your team.
you also don’t want to use kpis that lack impact. the goal of successful kpis is to reinforce behaviors leading to greater profitability. if an employee sees how a certain behavior is positively impacting the kpi, they will stick with it.
focus on the kpis your team feels they influence. i guarantee your team will ignore a kpi if they don’t see a correlation between their activities and successfully meeting it. you want to create a strong relationship between positive performance and kpi measurement and ensure your teams see it.
an example of a specific kpi your team may not be able to impact is getting client documents in as one file rather than piecemeal. can your teams influence this? they can certainly try by nudging your clients in the right direction, but ultimately, they really can’t fully determine the client’s behavior, leading to frustration.
an example of a strong kpi would be the number of times your team hits their deadlines. it is straightforward, based on their own performance, easy to understand and definitely influences their success in servicing a client. you can’t ask for more from a good kpi.