15 steps to a KPI project in a government and non profit agencies
By David Parmenter
During workshops which I deliver I have been asked by attendees from government and non profit agencies (GANPA) “Will winning KPIs work for us?” they ask. The answer is a profound “yes” to all organisations who are:
- Government agencies
- Local municipality
- Police or Armed forces
- NGOs
- Health services
- Educational institutions
- Charities
- Professional bodies
- Other not for profits
Finding your winning KPIs will create much benefit
By embedding ‘winning KPIs’ Government and Non Profit Agencies would benefit from:
- knowing their critical success factors (CSFs) and conveying them to all staff
- more widespread empowerment and more clarity on what should be recorded and reported
- CEOs, both current and future, connected to staff who are working in the CSFs e.g., there will be daily follow-up calls on the KPIs; and
- Staff’s daily activities linked to the strategic direction of the organization.
Exhibit 1:The impact of winning KPIs to the daily routine and tasks performed by staff
The process is relatively simple and will take between 6 to 16 weeks of elapsed time depending on the size of the organization. The process I recommend requires an understanding of four types of performance
measure, namely:
- key results indicators (KRIs) – six to 10 financial and nonfinancial monthly or quarterly measures giving an overview of past performance;
- performance indicators (PI) – 30-50 non-financial daily, weekly or monthly measures telling staff and management what to do;
- results indicators (RIs) – 30-50 financial and non-financial daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly summary indicators telling staff what they have done; and
- KPIs – six to 10 non-financial measures telling staff and management what to do to increase performance dramatically, measured 24/7, daily or weekly.
There are 15 steps to take
- Selling the KPI project to the C-Suite and the organization’s oracles. (See Chapter 4 and 5). Read David’s chapter on Leading and Selling Change. Use the presentation deck available in the KPI toolkit. Access the sample here.
- Locate an external facilitator to help prepare the KPI team. (See Chapter 5)
- Train a small KPI team. (See Chapter 6)
- Locate the success factors and desired external outcomes. (See Chapter 7)
- Ascertain the critical success factors and present them to the staff. (See Chapter 7)
- Selling the KPI project to all employees to encourage their participation. (See Chapter 4)
- Run the two-day performance measures workshops to train staff to develop meaningful measures. (See Chapter 8 & 9)
- Refining the measures after the performance measures workshops. (See Chapter 9)
- Hold a performance measures gallery to wean out dysfunctional and poor measures. (See Chapter 9)
- Ask all teams to select their team performance measures from the finalized database of measures (See Chapter 9)
- Find the key result indicators (KRIs). (See Chapter 9)
- Find the key performance indicators (KPIs). (See Chapter 9)
- Design the reporting framework. (See Chapter 10)
- Facilitate the use of performance measures. (See Chapter 11)
- Refine CSFs and measures after one year of operating with the CSFs and KPIs. (See Chapter 11)
(Chapter numbers refer to the KPI book 4th edition)
As a starting point, complete my checklist “Are you ready for a KPI project”. Read my chapters on The Great Misunderstanding with regards to KPIs and the myths of performance measurement.
Purchase my latest toolkits which are currently on sale:
How to implement winning KPIs (180 page Whitepaper + electronic templates)
and buy the Newly Updated: Database of Measures and Associated Success Factors 4th Edition (Updated August 2019)