Sample Job Performance Goals
5 Time-saving Tips to Manage Performance Data
If you knew in advance how much effort you'd have to put into collecting, collating and managing the data that provides the foundation for your performance measures, you may be put off entirely. Particularly for smaller businesses, departments or teams, you don't have big corporate business intelligence systems offering you the data you need at the press of a button.
No, you're often forced to collect and organise the data you need, all by yourself, and on top of your real job! But don't give up on measuring performance just for this reason. If you're still a firm believer that meaningful performance measures make your day job better, then these 5 tips for saving time in managing your performance data may just make the difference.
Tip 1: Collect data that is useful, not just interesting.
Market researchers are used to hearing their clients say things like "It would be interesting to also know [blah blah] - can we add a question about this to the survey too?" And good market researchers will say in response, "Not if it's just interesting. It has to be useful." They know the time and cost that gets wasted collecting data that doesn't serve the purpose of the research.
If you collect performance data that strays from the purpose of your performance measures, you'll collect much more than you need, much more than you'll use, and probably enough to paralyse your performance measurement process. Be ruthless: collect only the data you know is useful to calculate and analyse the performance measures that really matter.
Tip 2: Build the data collection into work processes.
Imagine you operate a health club and you're interested in measuring how committed your clients are to their gym programs. The time-wasting way to get the data for such a measure is to devise a survey and get your staff to call as many clients as possible to go through the questionnaire. And this is over and above their everyday work, too!
A time-sensible way is to see where the data might already exist or be easier to get through existing work processes. Personal trainers already fill out gym cards for their clients, to track the sessions their clients complete. Making sure that this data is collected consistently avoids the need for a separate data collection process.
Tip 3: Use a relational database to manage data (not spreadsheets!).
A freight business has their delivery turnaround times not in one spreadsheet, but in dozens of them: one for each month. And they do little better with other performance data such as revenue, delivery misdirections and service costs. They waste hours and hours every month manually organising the data in an attempt to produce trend graphs to report performance.
Even small businesses, departments and teams can recoup the time wasted in manually managing data with an investment in a simple database application, like Microsoft Access. All the data goes into well designed tables, via easy to use data entry forms. Not only is the data all in one place, it's fast and easy to get access to for both regular performance reporting and ad hoc queries to analyse the data more closely.
Tip 4: Don't freak out over imperfect data.
A management team in a government agency routinely spends well over half of their decision time debating the quality of the performance measures' data. What is the real cost to the organisation of losing time in delaying a decision until data is perfect, compared with taking a decision with imperfect data now?
Data will never be 100% accurate, and it doesn't have to be. Imperfect data can still give you rather reliable feedback about trends in performance. Take a quick check for any systemic data quality problems, to estimate their real impact on the decisions you are taking. After correcting any vital data quality problems, your time is better spent in cause analysis and performance improvement of your business results, not perfecting your business data.
Tip 5: Use samples to estimate, instead of populations to calculate.
To measure the accuracy of their stock management process, an inventory management team were visiting all store locations and counting all stock items held. This took them many months, and almost a full time team to chew through all the counting.
When they sought some advice from a statistician, they learned (with great relief) that they could get a very reliable estimate of their stock management accuracy through stocktaking a sample of stock items at a sample of store locations. In fact, with the smaller task, the counting process had fewer fatigue related errors, and the estimate was not only cheaper and faster, it was more reliable.
Spend your time where it matters most.
Take a little time to think about what data you really need, how much integrity it honestly needs to have to be useful, the easiest and fastest way to collect it, and an accessible way to store it. It will be time well spent, which will create more time down the road for the real work of performance measurement: improving your business performance.
About the Author
Stacey Barr is the Performance Measure Specialist, helping people to measure their business strategy, goals and objectives so they actually achieve them.
Sign up for Stacey’s free mezhermnt™ Handy Hints ezine at www.staceybarr.com to receive your complimentary copy of her e-book “202 Tips for Performance Measurement”, and make your business goals more achievable.
Clemens' attorney gives hint star may not testify
Roger Clemens' attorney has given his strongest hint yet that the ex-baseball star may not testify in his trial on charges of lying to Congress. The Houston-area resident is accused of lying to Congress about using performance-enhancing drugs.
Sample Job Performance Goals
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Is A Job As A Phlebotomy Technician Perfect For You
A career in the Health Care Profession is considered a rewarding and challenging life. A person who likes to help others can excel in the medical profession. This field provides job opportunities that are high in demand allowing you to work with patients, doctors and health care teams.
Amongst the many health care professions is Phlebotomy. Phlebotomy enables you to draw blood, learn to prepare the blood samples and perform other patient related tasks. You will also learn to take blood pressure properly and prepare the patient for tests.
You will find numerous programs offered by colleges and medical schools to obtain status in this profession. You will be trained in a profession will allow you to work in hospitals, clinics, doctor's office and other health care facilities.
Colleges provide various programs to follow if you are interested in this skill path. A student will be ready to meet employer's expectations once they have achieved this goal by attending and completing the necessary classes. Obtaining a Certificate will provide adequate training and take approximately 3 to 6 months to complete.
You will be able to pursue a job in this field upon completion of a certificate. An Associate's Degree is also available that will give you a broader knowledge and may take up to two years to finish. To obtain a Bachelor's Degree you will need a longer time period of study that is approximately four years. A Bachelor's Degree opens up more options for you.
There is financial aid available to students to obtain these degrees. You may find that your schedule does not allow you in class study. In that case, many colleges offer online degrees in this and other medical fields that provide the same education with the benefit of scheduling your own study time.
About the Author
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