To paraphrase the old Edwin Starr song

“Performance Indicators, what are they good for? Absolutely Nuthin”

The news that Royal Mail have been caught allegedly fiddling performance indicators got me thinking about performance indicators.

In a nutshell, Royal Mail staff and managers were learning to identify items of mail with “tracking beacons” attached, fast tracking them ahead of normal (ordinary mail) and making themselves look good (and getting bonuses into the bargain).

So what is a performance indicator?

Well, hopefully, you would have guessed that it gives you some clue as to how you are performing, and how and what needs to improve customer service and profitability etc etc.

If you think about it, your car dashboard is a sort of performance indicator (of how your car is running).

But, when then whole thing becomes a “let’s get good figures at any cost” – customer service will go out of then window.

Because the figures reported are not a means to an end (a tool to find things that are wrong) – they become an end in themselves.

And the double whammy?

When you tell people how great you are doing by showing them (in the form of an inevitable chart or table) – they will get slightly annoyed.

“It’s not like that for us” – They will chorus….

Warning – Below follows a story about when I was a lad…

… When I was a lad doing an interim management assignment, I had been on site about 2 or 3 weeks.

I was walking down the corridor when coming the other way was he Chief Executive of the the council. We had been introduced briefly so he knew who I was.

We stopped outside the lift door and the conversation went something like

“Hello Jonathan, How’s it going”

“Oh terrible Chief, we have this problem and that problem”

“Hmmm – that’s not what I am hearing on my grapevine and reporting channels”

(Thinks) “Oh dear – I have let the cat out of the bag here and someone is for it..”

“Tell you what, come and see me and let’s have a coffee and talk about it”

So what’s the bottom line?

How ever you dress up your performance – it must mean something.

They are just another business tool – Not just another to do…

So, do you have performance indicators – do they help you achieve better customer service or are they just another spreadsheet to fill in?

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