What to measure and why

1. What to measure and why Allan Preiss McArthur Talent Architects

2. Greater efficiency in local government • “Motherhood and apple pie” statement • No-one can or would argue with this

3. What gets measured gets done • Not everything that matters can be measured… • But WHAT you measure matters – it is a statement of priorities and people will naturally give greater attention to the things you decide to measure • Beware unintended consequences • Eg teachers teaching to tests not pupil needs

4. The Why, How and What… What How Why • Most measurement focuses on the What and the How

5. Efficiency is a dependent variable • It depends largely on discretionary effort ie above and beyond effort • It’s not in my P.D. syndrome • Discretionary effort is driven by: • Identification with and commitment to your organisation’s purpose • The quality of relationships with managers and colleagues • A sense of feeling valued and respected

6. Are you “leaving money on the table?” • A truly enormous body of research from a number of countries shows that how people are managed affects quality, profitability, and productivity • Five high commitment work practices: • Investment in training to develop skills and knowledge. • Sharing of information so that people can understand the business and have the data to make better judgments about what to do and how to do it. • Decentralised decision-making and self-managed teams that permit trained and motivated employees to actually influence decisions about work. • Rewards dependent on individual but also group and organisational performance. • Mutual commitment and employment security with expectations of a long-term employment relationship.

7. A new measurement approach • Efficiency is an Industrial Age measure in an Information Age • Was applicable when most of the work was labor and place-based • Modern technology has changed the landscape • To measure efficiency you must know when the work day starts and ends • If I am thinking about a work-based issue when I am in the shower or driving to work is this counted as part of my working day; how about when I check my emails on my phone at 8 pm • Increasingly the work being done in developed countries is knowledge-based work

8. A different measurement model • Results Only Workplaces (ROW) • Measures such as efficiency and productivity which are time-based and inputs focused are replaced by measures of outcomes • Where you work, when you work, how you work (within an agreed values framework) is up to you and your clients. • Just deliver the required outcomes

9. Conclusion • Profit (efficiency) is to an organisation what oxygen is to the body • – without it you can’t survive but it is not the reason you exist