It stands to reason that most businesses set their employees KPI’s and depend on these for measuring input and output. Whether businesses feel their KPI’s are an efficient way of doing this or just a necessary evil is an entirely other question. Too often KPI’s are reported on as impersonal objectives tasked to an individual without consideration of how useful they are to the role and how much they enhance the individuals’ performance. To avoid empty targets, we suggest the following method to improve the KPI process.
Making business goals personal
At Resource Management, we don’t set ‘formal’ KPI’s. Instead, we set personal objectives following individual reviews which are based on the overall goals of the business. This methodology is based on the belief that all people perform better when their objectives tap into their individual motivations and personality traits. The problem with KPI’s is that whilst it is essential for targets to be met, it relies on everyone being mutually motivated by the system of data-based targets.
Depending on the sector your business operates in, a competitive working environment could be your most successful method of achieving results. What we have found, is that a supportive team-work culture stems from employees feeling that they are appreciated individually for the work that they do and aren’t in competition with each other to faster hit targets.
A traditionally heard complaint is that KPI’s land on the desks of employees having been assigned on the basis of data analysis rather than the individuals’ actual working day. This sees them splitting their time between the tasks which get their jobs done and then a separate set of tasks they complete simply to meet their KPI’s. Through assigning objectives based on review sessions, managers have the opportunity to hear the genuine strains and stresses of a role, the things that are going well and the areas the individual needs to improve on. This results in significant improvement on the individuals’ part because their goals tie in directly with the work they are actually doing.
We find that setting individual objectives reaps far better results than expecting everyone to work to the same KPI’s. Following many years of tailoring our staff training we have found that removing the incentivised numbers game and instead, getting to know how our individuals work best has developed a far more supportive environment in which teams work together rather than competing with one another.
The take away: if your KPI’s aren’t resulting in the outcomes you expected; try meeting with individuals to split the KPI into personal objectives which they find relevant and relatable. Understanding their motivations and strengths could be the key to unlocking the potential you aren’t reaching through the numbers and data.
About Resource Management: we provide a comprehensive range of services throughout the UK and Europe and specialise in the provision of Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) and Manager Service Provider (MSP) programmes. We have been trading for almost 20 years, providing resourcing solutions to a range of blue chip clients from SME to FTSE 100 constituents.
