Measurement & Evaluation: Opportunities for channeling employee efficiency.

Management thinker Peter Drucker is often quoted as saying, "You can't manage what you can't measure." During a strategy execution course I completed recently, I engaged employees from a range of companies, seeking information and juxtaposing what I got with textbook expectations. I discovered something intriguing.

Theory wasn't wrong; companies actually underrate the opportunities for driving efficiency by NOT 'setting clear work standards, creating detailed measurement criteria, and designing an evaluation process that allows development'. Following Peter Drucker, I'll add; What isn't measured can't be improved. While it is commonplace to measure production output and sales, there are other salient measurements, organizations should focus on to drive employee efficiency.

1. Measurement of Alignment to daily plans and Objectives: Most organizations have expectations from employees but sometimes, these are not clearly detailed. It's 3 p.m., ask a line manager exactly what his direct report is doing at that moment, and if he mumbles, that's a sign of a measurement problem. From 8 to 5, organizations should define work activities in clear details, assign timelines to each activity, create tools to measure employee alignment to these planned activities, and ensure a reconciliation between plan and action is done periodically.
2. Measurement of Brand Perception: In today's digital world, there is much focus on crafting perception but most of the work goes into the external perception of brands; what the consumers think. Organizations should develop metrics to measure the internal perception of their brands. What do the people (employees across supply chain, sales, human resources, R&D etc) that work for the organizations think about the brand(s) (goods or services)? Blind surveys and polls may help in measuring the internal perception and guide organizations in restructuring or creating a balance via tailored trainings, peculiar in-house campaigns, new product development, etc. When your people are passionate about your brands, the customers catch on quick!
3. Measurement of Alignment to organizational goals: Senior leadership often understand company strategy and are burdened to also plan for execution but according to surveys, over 70% of mid leadership either do not understand the company's strategy or do not agree with it. The problem comes in the actual execution of such barely understood strategies. Organizations should schedule a program for periodically measuring employees understanding of, and alignment to organizational goals. After this evaluation, clear steps should be taken in handling alignment discrepancies.
4. Measurement of Intra & Inter team relationships: The speed at which cooperation happens, and best practice is emulated, is largely dependent on the quality of networking between the different teams and departments in an organization. Organizations should define metrics on measuring relationship among it's employees and designing processes that would ensure for the 'right' kind of relationships. This creates a fertile environment for efficient working.

While the cost of measurement may deter small organizations from the measurement suggestions listed above, the price paid for not measuring finally comes to bear. Large organizations have absolutely no excuse not to go these lengths to drive performance and should particularly focus on alignment of their employees to the big goals.

Written by: Aito Osemegbe Joseph (September, 2017)