Choosing correct set of indicators

The very basic and oft-repeated adage (when the talk is about selecting apt Key Performance Indicators) that pops up is 'not everything that counts is countable and not everything that is countable counts'. This is to prevent the constructors of scorecard from getting partial towards 'anything that can be easily counted'.

This affinity for 'smoothly countable' measures has frequently troubled the users as after implementing and constructing the groups of parameters, they realize that a particular measure is not all serving their purpose of computing situations rather has become a burden on the users. In more extreme cases, 'un-connected indicators' can even mislead the users thereby causing immense loss of resources.

Training KPI - how to design training KPI step by step:

• Step 1: Key Performance indictors to estimate training process
• Step 2: Choosing correct set of indicators
• Step 3: Handling technical aspects of BSC
• Step 4: Exporting Balanced Scorecard into Excel
• Step 5: Connect actions and initiatives with strategy
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Combining it together, one infers that a 'seemingly measure' should not be selected just because it can be assigned a number easily than others. The ability of an indicator in conveying the surroundings and happenings in an accurate fashion should be assessed. Only when this capability well meets the requirements should the concerned parameter be included in the 'final bucket' lest it will soon get snowballed into collection of problems.

Thus, by moving on the above stated principle honestly, an effective and fast filtering out of the available set of indicators is possible.

The same holds true in case of 'training scorecard' also. Thus, a detailed study about the requirements of 'employees and workforce' has to be done to arrive at relevant groups of indicators. This should have an important place for 'employees say' to make the training programs maximally customized for the 'users-to-be'. Further, complete knowledge about the need to implement such a solution should be transferred to every organizational member who is to get affected by its introduction.

This will draw maximum participation from taskforce thereby paving the way for its success. After gaining sufficient insight into 'whats' and 'whys' of training issue, one can safely intiate the job of laying down the major categories. These should be selected in a manner that useful number of measures can be clubbed under each of these. For instance, 'Finance' constitutes a mentionable area in almost every scorecard, 'training' being no exception. To evaluate this aspect in impartial manner, one can have indicators that somehow inform the user about the 'costs being incurred in arranging for the funds' and 'benefits being obtained due to increased proficiency and friendliness of employees with their jobs'. However, the catch here is to avoid falling prey to the attraction of 'countable measures' as finance is something that instantly creates images of 'number and values' laden domain. This trap should be averted at any cost to prepare a useful set of KPIs.

• Buy the full version of Training KPI + Step-by-step Guide

Heading on towards the issue of selection of suitable measure, one gets that an indicator such as 'number of people trained' would not offer much help; rather if re-framed as 'annual rise in number of participants' will give the needed assistance in knowing the interest of employees in making themselves prepared for upcoming challenges.

All the parameters will then be given 'allowable ranges' to operate into. One can even construct these scorecards at various levels, such as 'strategic', 'operational' and 'individual' and align these in the form of 'cascades'. Thus, one can travel from less detailed scenario to more detailed one for appropriate understanding of the issue. Such functionalities enable the users in 'quick decision making' and 'absolute resolution of problems'.