Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) play important roles for helping a business to measure its success over a long-term period. Every organization should have goals, they said. And indeed, “to stand still is to go backwards”, so planning for the future is what every responsible business leader should fixate on.
KPIs are used to evaluate a company’s process in achieving these aims, enabling those in charge to figure out if the approach they are following is working, or if a change of task is needed to bring that performance back up to the level it should be at.
A KPI can be anything, so long as it is quantifiable. This is because it needs to be able to be exactly estimated- so it cannot be subjective opinions as to how well the organization in doing in working towards its goals.
Besides, the way to measure your KPIs needs to be clearly defined. For example, if the goals is to “increase sale”, then it should be determined by the number of sales of the value of the transactions.
Do bear in mind; your KPIs must be a reflection of your organizational goals that is using them.
A KPI for a hospital, for example, might be ‘time patients spend waiting to be seen’, but this would not mean anything to a manufacturing company- so consider what KPIs are relevant to you, rather than using a standard set you are “borrowed” from the internet.
It is essential to set KPIs at the earliest opportunity. This way, everyone would be certain about what they are working towards and how they should be focusing their efforts to improve. Nobody wants sudden changes halfway through the entire process, so making sure your goals are achievable, time-based and realistic is a must. Moreover, many believe in the SMART technique when it comes to deciding goals, keeping them on track on the way.