How to Develop Scorecard: Key to Successful Management
Managing performance is a key indicator of success. This can only be done if a scorecard aligned with organizational goals is present.
Every company needs to measure its performance to make sure that what the employees achieve are at par with the expectations of the organization. In line with this,
it is necessary that the people who mange the company know how to develop scorecard tables that will show in a snapshot if the metrics I question are aligned with the targets that translates afterwards into financial rewards or earnings. Accordingly, a scorecard is something that is easy to understand yet difficult to create. It is an integral tool for top management to know what direction to take to boost business performance.The most important thing to focus upon in creating the scorecard is performance measurement. This can be drilled down into specific targets for the entire program down to supervisors or team level and down to the bottom rank and file employees who actually generate the service or product. Many companies are not using subjective measurements anymore such as behavioral indicators because these cannot really be measured in an objective way. The ideal way of measuring the performance of an employee is through numbers that can be validated with facts.To measure performance, one has to identify what are the key performance indicators that drive the company. There are actually many that may be considered but all these must be translated into financial impact before they car considered as metrics. For example, in any given company, attendance is a necessary metric. Along with this is tardiness, the reason these two things are included in the performance management of people is because an absence means less production. And less production means lost revenue.Another issue in terms of building a scorecard for the company is the quality of produced products. In every company, the quality of the product is based on the specifications of the end user or customer. This is what customers paid for and therefore they all have the right to demand for quality. In some companies in which the product is non-tangible, what is being measured is the way their customer service representatives handle a customer inquiry. This includes speech, behavior, adherence to the quality policy, etc.Another factor to consider is employee utilization. One company may be losing much money because they have lots of employees who do not work the way they are supposed to. As a result, they are paying of salaries and losing revenue. There are many ways to calculate employee utilization based on the nature of the industry, which the business belongs to.Once the metrics are identified, the scorecard may now be set. Ideally, one to four metrics will be enough because too many metrics or too little will cause the scorecard to be unbalanced. If there are many things that can be measured, these can be put under sub categories.As a result of this knowledge on how to develop scorecard with metrics, one manager can look into this scorecard made of four metrics and see at a glance if the company is performing or not. If the company is performing, then it is an indication that that everything is okay. If not, action plans should be made and executed.