| Over the last 5 or so years, there seems to be an | | | | Triple or Quadruple Bottom Line, Six Sigma Business |
| ever-increasing number of organisations that are | | | | Scorecard, EFQM or ABEF or Baldrige models) to |
| creating a new role in the corporate office: the | | | | assist managers and teams to decide what types of |
| Performance Measurement Officer. Actually, the title | | | | things to design measures for.attribute #3: experience |
| of this role varies from organisation to organisation, and | | | | with at least one performance measure |
| where exactly in the organisation structure that role is | | | | implementation process |
| placed also varies. | | | | There are far more performance measurement |
| Titles for performance measure facilitator positions | | | | frameworks out there than performance measure |
| have included Performance Measurement Officer, | | | | implementation methodologies (e.g. six sigma and |
| Performance Measurement Director, Manager | | | | PuMP)! A performance measure facilitator that is |
| Performance Measurement, Corporate Planning and | | | | worth their salt will have experienced at least one |
| Performance Reporting Officer, Corporate | | | | step-by-step process for designing and implementing |
| Performance Management Coordinator and Manager | | | | measures, and will be on the lookout continuously to |
| Planning and Performance. | | | | find emerging methodologies or to continue to develop |
| Most often the person in this role of performance | | | | and fine tune one that works for the |
| measure facilitator will be associated with the | | | | organisation.attribute #4: basic quantitative skills for |
| corporate planning team, but they are also associated | | | | creating and reporting performance measures |
| sometimes with the information services team or even | | | | While they certainly don't have to be a statistician, the |
| somewhere in the human resources department. | | | | performance measure facilitator does need to be |
| The one thing that is consistent, however, is the thing | | | | comfortable and capable to design simple data |
| this person is responsible for: to facilitate the design, | | | | collection processes, manipulate and prepare data for |
| reporting and use of performance information in | | | | analysis, perform simple analysis calculations (such as |
| decision making about organisational results and | | | | percentages, averages, ratios, standard deviations), |
| improvement, usually across the entire organisation. | | | | choose and format charts that clearly announce the |
| This calls for some very specific attributes, and the | | | | true signals in the data, and validly interpret those |
| following six should be considered the bare | | | | signals.attribute #5: change management skills that are |
| minimum.attribute #1: intimate understanding of the | | | | second-nature |
| organisational planning process | | | | Performance measurement is not usually fun and |
| Without a very detailed understanding of how the | | | | enticing, and it is usually threatening and hard work. The |
| organisation does its strategic planning, and cascades | | | | successful performance measure facilitator will know |
| this strategic direction down into tactical and | | | | this, and will be so well equipped with at least some |
| operational plans, the performance measure facilitator | | | | basic change management techniques that they find it |
| will struggle to assist managers and teams to focus on | | | | almost second nature to establish the support of |
| measuring what matters most. Knowing how to | | | | leaders, encourage ownership and buy-in, make the |
| integrate performance measurement with the planning | | | | reason for change clear and communicate very well |
| process ensures everyone is measuring the results | | | | to all kinds of people.attribute #6: intermediate project |
| that will most likely lead to the organisation fulfilling its | | | | management skills |
| strategic direction and achieving its vision.attribute #2: a | | | | Often the performance measure facilitator is running |
| working knowledge of several performance | | | | several areas of the organisation through the |
| measurement frameworks | | | | performance measurement process at any one time. |
| If a performance measure facilitator can only claim | | | | And especially when they don't have a large enough |
| knowledge of the Balanced Scorecard, then the | | | | team to meet the demand for performance measures |
| organisation faces the risk of having its strategy too | | | | throughout their organisation, very strong project |
| quickly packaged into a model that may not be the | | | | management skills can keep them focused on the |
| most appropriate. They need know how to apply a | | | | priorities and keep everything else as organised as |
| range of frameworks (e.g. the Performance Prism, | | | | possible. |