KPIs: Handling Staff Concerns
Do staff members object to your performance metrics program? If you are an executive about to go down “KPI Lane” at 100 mph you had better check ahead for potholes in the road. It may be clear to you what KPIs you want to implement but your staff may think otherwise. Recently Green Peg completed a consulting engagement for a company that consistently appears in Fortune Magazine’s 100 Best Companies to Work For.
One of the reasons that this company is consistently recognized as an outstanding place to work is because they routinely tap the internal collective wisdom of their employees prior to making big changes. If I believe in anything, it is collective wisdom. It is the vaccination against missing information and arrogance which ultimately leads to a failed project. Before implementing the proposed KPI set I wanted to ensure that the front line staff did not resent any of the proposed KPIs. After dozens of interviews I documented all of their concerns. Nearly all of the data that I had collected on their objections fell into one of three categories:
- Fairness
- Accuracy
- Quality
I call this my “FAQ Filter”. This filter will either fix or eliminate KPIs that don’t have the “right stuff” as far as the staff is concerned.
Fairness concerns outnumbered all other concerns. How will the KPIs affect my performance review? What happens if I am measured on something I have little control over? What about all my other contributions that are not measured by KPIs?
Accuracy concerns were numerous but primarily centered around reports. Since the information in the metrics reports directly impact employee performance reviews, it was critical that staff members and supervisors had confidence in the integrity of the reports and the data in general.
Quality concerns for the most part revolved around perception. Staff members generally believed that measuring things such as turn-around-time would negatively impact quality.
All of the specific concerns that staff members had about a KPI were addressed one by one. Some of these were resolved by updating Standard Operating Procedures. Other concerns required training and education around the KPI. Most of the proposed KPIs that couldn’t make it through the FAQ filter were eliminated. This had the highly desirable side effect of minimizing the final KPI set.
If you are considering implementing or just updating a KPI (Key Performance Indicator) program for your company then don’t overlook my FAQ filter before the launch.
