For many businesses, developing a clear picture of where they want to go is hard enough – let alone actually finding the path to get there. We know that the fastest route from A to B is a straight line, but in the real world businesses must navigate the ups, downs and curves of day to day operations. Staying on track might be easier if you journey alone, but business owners and managers know they must guide their teams along the path, making adjustments along the way but never losing sight of the destination.
Financial results provide some information, as do Employee Engagement or Satisfaction surveys, but these metrics alone don’t provide a clear enough picture to help the organisation achieve Strategic Action. Employer Satisfaction or Engagement is a vital piece of information as well. To fully benchmark how well the organisation’s attitudes and activities are aligned to their strategy you must measure these key areas:
- Strategy fulfilment of the employer
- Team satisfaction
- Actions and process to retain employees
- Results of Company performance
Benchmarking any of these areas in isolation, which is often the case with traditional Employee Satisfaction or Engagement surveys, won’t fully drive Strategic Action within an organisation. You may uncover useful data, but more than likely you will miss key indicators that need to be addressed. High performing organisations have a very close alignment between all factors- Employer satisfaction with strategy, Employee satisfaction with the workplace activities and culture, and the results of Company performance.
Organisational benchmarks alone will not drive Strategic Action. Momentum comes from the analysis of the results, the conversations about the results within the workplace and the development of a clear action plan to move forward. Regular benchmarking can help high performing organisations maintain their results while low performing organisations can be supported in making decisions about the path forward and how to improve.
One of the most important factors in deciding on how and when to benchmark your organisation is to ensure that the benchmarking tool is:
- Consistent and Reliable – while your strategic destination may change you will never be able to effectively evaluate your progress if your measurement tools keep changing.
- Easy to Administer – Benchmarking should not disrupt day to day operations or cause additional workload. The process should be efficient and simple to use for all employees.
- Produce Meaningful Results – It won’t help you to benchmark obscure or obsolete information that is unrelated to your business. You need meaningful data that you can use to develop an action plan.
To learn more about how benchmarking can help drive your business results, please contact us.