Measuring Your Business in America’s “New Normal”

The Gallup Consulting organization has released their report:  State of the American Workplace: 2008-2010.  [ http://www.gallup.com/consulting/142724/State-American-Workplace-2008-2010.aspx ]  In it they discuss how American employees have fared during one of the most challenging periods in the country’s economic history.  At the end of the report they conclude that our workforce “remains strong.”  You would be tempted to say “Great!,” close the page, and carry on.  I’d like to challenge you to read on.

How did they arrive at this conclusion?  Very centric to their methodology are indicators that measure how engaged employees are in their work, and how those levels correlate to other key measurements throughout an organization.  At best, only around 30% of workers are actually engaged in their work.  Everyone else – the other 70+ percent— are either “not engaged” or “actively disengaged.”  Those are astounding numbers.  At the top of the org chart it may be difficult to see down into the layers of employees, through the managers, and get a good feel for this.  However, there are more concrete measurements that can be indicative of the health of your company, and ultimately position you to influence how engaged your employees are.

While these are far from the only indicators or gut feelings to be considered, Gallup identifies key “performance outcomes” on page 5 of their report.  Among these are: Absenteeism, Turnover, Shrinkage, Safety Incidents, Product Quality (Defects), Productivity, and Profitability.  Are you tracking these measurements on a regular basis?  Do you get outside of the financial statements and look at other business metrics?

You will see the term “BI” a lot these days, and with good reason.  BI, or Business Intelligence, is how you turn your raw data into useful information that can be acted upon.  Conclusions need to be drawn.  Changes need to be made – but which ones?  Get better at tracking your key performance outcomes and you can have better corollary information, or even ‘feel good data’ about the health of your workforce.  If you read the Gallup report, you’ll see just how much positive correlation exists between these numbers.

 Getting good BI doesn’t have to start at a complex level – but it does take tracking,  which is why we recommend Microsoft Dynamics GP.  Aside from being a great overall accounting, HR, or manufacturing package, there are many other features that will help you take the raw data from each department or profit center and turn it into useful information you can act on.  Then you too can peer into the depths of your company, and start influencing the culture and see the benefits in the final outcomes.

 JourneyTEAM – Utah Microsoft Dynamics GP and BI Experts

Measuring Your Business in America’s “New Normal” is a post from: ERP Software Blog

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