Utilizing KPIs for Performance Management in Certification

Performance management and evaluation has always been an important issue organizations have worked on.

Consequently, it holds a unique place in the context of 'Certification Courses' also. This is needed because accurate and precise results are a 'privileged possession' every organization runs after. And one of the ways this can be done is by employing a constant monitoring system to know the direction the group is working in. An immediate advantage this confers is that with a continuous tracking mechanism, any variation from the expected results can be noticed there and then itself; opening avenues for adopting corrective measures.

To talk of Certification Courses, KPIs can be formulated in various directions like Financial, Performance, Research and Global, and Teaching and Learning. Financial aspect can be related to Income Growth, Research Expenditure, and Operating Surplus etc. Research and Global perspective consists of indicators like number of students supported by scholarship schemes and international alliances. Performance assessment can be done with graduation rate and growth in number of students and similar indicators. Student-Faculty ratio and number of students participated in research activities can be employed for judging the Teaching and Learning aspect.

A number of instances and situations exist which cause the institutes to re-orient the way they fuel their growth by the already limited resources. Among the challenges, the foremost is the concern regarding the quality of service they provide. Conformance to the pre-decided standards has to be done along with the management paper work involved, which is really a mammoth task. Even a slight drop in the rating of the institute can hit it hard. However, KPIs are a way out; as with proper management things can be expected to fall in place. Another mentionable point is the competition these institutes have to face, posed by both the 'genuine' and sometimes 'fake' institutes. Even a slight variation in the quality benchmarks has a direct bearing on the number of students who enroll themselves for the course. Taking care of all such issues is a mind-boggling job and with KPIs, one can heave a sigh of relief.

KPIs help the Diploma courses offering institutes in going by the pre-set guidelines, thereby diluting the gap between the actual position held and the desired status. This is made possible by structuring such KPIs on a BSC that reflect the progress made by the institute. All the factors from macro and micro environment are to be taken into consideration for doing this. Once this is done, on a monthly or weekly basis, the values attained can be compared to the target values. This will give the magnitudes of deviations, both positive and negative. Reasons for such divergences can be dug out and steps to improve undertaken.

To end it all, KPIs are a quantitative way of keeping an eye on the organizational movements. This method offers insights into the workings, thereby helping in following the organizational operations in a fruitful manner. The indicators are finalized after a deep study of the way the organization works. This has to be utilized in forming the measures which are a direct reflection of what is currently needed in the industry and what does not work.