Every good business is driven to improve. No matter how great your operations are, you know you can always do better. It’s this striving for better that keeps businesses growing, and turns good companies into great ones.
But how do you define “better”? How do you identify areas for improvement? And—more importantly—how do you put this plan into action?
You’ll need to set quantitative goals. And a powerful way to measure your progress is to set Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for each one. These are the metrics that will help you visualize whether you’re on track to meet your target.
When it comes to creating a better workforce and business, better will mean vastly different things to different companies.
The consultants at Franklin Covey developed The Four Disciplines of Execution to help businesses articulate their “better.” There’s the whirlwind: the everyday humdrum activity of getting stuff done. And then there’s what Franklin Covey calls your “Wildly Important Goals.”
When it comes to defining what those are, it’s crucial to focus on just a couple of big-picture goals that will help move your company forward. While you may be able to think of a hundred ideas, products, services, or process improvements that could move the needle, success depends on devoting your full attention on two or three of those at a time.
Think of Apple, who famously concentrates on a small suite of products compared to their competitors. Their narrow focus allows them to design world-class products that others scramble to mimic.
Not every company needs—or wants—to be Apple, but every company’s leadership team can define core goals for their business. What one improvement would most impact your business? What’s the key strength that you can leverage to take the next step? What is your greatest current weakness? Asking these questions can help you and your team hone in on your own wildly important goals.
First, define what “better” means for your organization. Does better for your business means happier customers? Maybe it means more satisfied staff and a lower turnover rate. Maybe you’re looking to grow your market share. Whatever your goal is, you’ll want to track and measure your progress as you work to achieve it.
Let’s say you’ve decided to improve employee engagement by 20%. What measures will you use to ensure you’re achieving this? Your metrics might include:
You might also choose to measure the steps you’re taking to promote employee engagement, such as how often you’re consulting your staff or the number of wellness initiatives you’ve launched. In doing so, you measure both the steps you take towards your goal (your lead indicators) and the results that demonstrate your progress (your lag indicators). This lets you continuously refine your approach and adjust your goal as you go.
At Mindfield, we’re passionate about helping our customers build better workforces. If you’re looking for support to improve on your recruitment goals, one of our solutions may be the answer. Talk to us today to learn more.
About Mindfield
Mindfield is a Recruitment Outsourcing solutions provider that partners with companies to create powerful hourly workforces. Our solutions combine a recruitment team, simple to use technology and a data-driven hiring strategy that promises to improve the quality of your hourly workforce. This approach focuses on tying business outcomes such as sales performance, tenure, and engagement to the selection, hiring and measurement of quality candidates.