Page 272 - DMGT522_SERVICES MANAGEMENT

Unit 13: Performance Measurement in Services

Efficiency Measures Notes

It compares the resources used to the number of units of service provided or delivered. Typically
this is expressed in terms of cost per unit of service.

13.3 Seven Good Reasons to Conduct Performance Measurement

The reasons for conducting the performance measurement are as follows:
1. Setting Goals, Developing Objectives: Implementing performance measurement compels
you to reassess your work groups, program’s, or organisation’s goals and objectives.
Goals describe where you want to go and how it looks when you get there. Objectives
define specific results that will show movement toward your goals – the mileposts along
the road, if you will.
Thinking about how to measure your performance might inspire you to set new long-
term goals, new long-term and short-term objectives, and new or revised approaches to
your work. Rethinking goals and objectives might result in developing a new strategic
plan for your many efforts.

Taking a chunk of time to assess goals and think about objectives for reaching them can be
eye-opening and invigorating. It can regenerate people’s interest – and belief – in their
work, and can pull you and your stakeholders, both outside and within your group,
together as you engage in creative debate and collaboration. There really is something to
be said for forging a unified vision of where you want your efforts to lead.
2. Taking Stock: Implementing performance measurement gives you an opportunity to step
back and assess your organisation’s capacity to undertake your work. What are the “holes”
in your skills, knowledge, finances, and infrastructure? Are your organisational structures
and procedures working effectively? What are your strengths and weaknesses?

The performance measures you select will depend on and reflect your capacity to carry out
your work. You don’t want to try to do more in performance measurement than the
capacity available to you allows. For example, developing measures that require statistical
analysis skills to which you don’t have access is counterproductive. When you haven’t got
the finances or infrastructure or other needed capacity to measure certain processes or
outcomes, committing to those measures in the hope of developing the capacity can set
you up for failure. The measures could present an impression of your work that doesn’t do
it justice and mask otherwise good efforts. And measures that create an inaccurate
impression of your work can be used against you.
Thus, effective and truly reflective performance measurement is premised on a pragmatic,
unsentimental assessment of the tools at hand.

!
Caution A strictly program-specific approach might lead to duplication of data collection
efforts or missed opportunities to adopt measures that can be used by more than one
program. For example, measures related to tobacco use may be of interest not only to a
tobacco control program, but also to programs aimed at preventing cancer, preventing
and controlling chronic respiratory illnesses such as asthma, and reducing the incidence of
low-weight births.

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