Helen Giles, Managing Director

Every team should have some kind of service plan that sets out the planned actions they are going to take towards the achievement of the organisation’s goals. In addition, each team should have some clear service standards which define what users of the services should expect. These may be the clients of the organisation, or internal customers of business support teams.
Each individual in the organisation should be working to clear personal objectives and performance standards which derive from organisational and team plans and standards.
We strongly advise organisations to have a well thought through set of core competencies that define the key qualities required of people throughout the organisation. This will include things like teamworking and networking capabilities, analytical and communication skills, and customer focus.
It is the job of the senior management team and the Board to measure performance against the organisation’s strategic plan. It is the job of line managers to evidence and monitor performance against team plans and individual performance objectives.
Common mistakes that we find are as follows. Some organisations don’t have any of the above. Sometimes, even when they do, nobody takes the time or effort to consistently measure achievement, or to collect sound evidence. For example, if you set service standards, you will never know if they are being met unless you operate things like internal audits and customer satisfaction surveys. And if you have set clear competency requirements around the way line managers manage their staff, or team members relate to each other, how can you really know if they are being achieved unless you seek feedback from those with whom they interact on a daily basis?
What gets measured gets done. Organisations that fail to set objectives and standards and measure progress against these serially underachieve against their potential, and eventually many of them go down the pan.