Niche In-Brief Spring 2018 - Flipbook - Page 10
Hitting the target but missing the point?
Good housekeeping around KPIs – Emma Foreman
Benchmarking with other trusts to see what they are
Useful, reliable and accurate data and information is
reporting
is useful, but the bottom line is, it is your
crucial to ensure that boards are able to steward their
strategy
and
your plan that must be translated into
organisation and, ultimately, to make good decisions. All
KPIs.
too often, Boards are ‘surprised’ by underperformance,
particularly in relation to core compliance (such as adverse 4. Top and tail your KPIs – integrate the top-level
reporting so that you can relate quality to finance
CQC inspection results). Boards and senior leaders are
and workforce to operations etc. through
faced with a potential vast array of indicators above and
dashboards. Also, ensure that underperforming KPIs
beyond those which are mandated, and it often seems, the
have some sort of associated narrative and links to
most fitting answer is to try and measure everything.
risk registers and action plans so that the
Indeed, some organisations are regularly trying to measure
improvement plan automatically becomes integrated.
over 500 indicators at any one time. Unfortunately, there is
Use the KPI as the lead indicator and then ensure
no magic bullet for this; boards are unable to rely on a
that more granular information is available on hotsingle dimension or calculation to give them the assurance
spots where underperformance is noted.
they require. Instead, they need to be able to look at
5.
Undertake regular KPI housekeeping - boards
performance (and risk) in the round, with sight from ‘ward
cannot hope to see every indicator measured and,
to Board’ coming from a range of measures. So, what are
all too often, dashboards grow without thought for
the good housekeeping factors when it comes to choosing
also taking metrics off. This doesn’t mean that you
your KPIs?
stop scrutinising the ‘green’ rated KPIs, far from it.
What is does mean is that you have a dynamic set of
1. Get your delegated responsibilities right – this
indicators which allows the board to focus properly
means ensuring that delegated authorities and
on areas for underperformance. Better use of
governance tier one, two and three structures are all
forecasting can help to track the green indicators
functioning appropriately. They should be seeking and
which may be declining and can help boards to see
reviewing assurance at the right levels and escalating
where improvement plans are effective.
exception and exceptional performance up to
6.
Assure the data – questions about ‘data reliability’
committees and the board. Importantly, this also
at board can easily usurp proceedings; time and
includes the role of divisions in ensuring a localised
resources should be put into ensuring the availability
overview of reporting and compliance. So many
of quality management information. This can be
organisations struggle with their tier one and two
challenging, particularly in organisations with old and
governance structures, particularly, that they don’t
disparate IT systems; however, the use of data
have adequate executive-led operational groups at the
quality kite marks or assurance ratings can help to
tier two level.
provide an understanding of data reliability on an
2. Get report formats right – try to apply methodology
ongoing basis, and, invest in analytics! Good use of
for reporting consistently at all levels, using the same
intelligence can transform the board decision making
templates, the same RAG ratings and the same
ability.
exception reporting methods. Also, try not to be too
rigid in your reporting, allow space for additional lines
to appear as new exceptions. You can always develop
an index of indicators so that you can retain comfort
that indicators have not been lost.
3. Select your measures in line with your plan – this
should be done annually, in line with the business
cycle and strategic implementation plan. Mandated
indicators are just that, but along with this, other
indicators should have a strong strategic element and
should link to quality account goals. Additionally,
ensure there are also a range of measures which
support compliance. Remember that the metrics seen
by the Board should be at the top of the pyramid which
gets more and more granular throughout the
organisation, down to ward level.
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Of course, beyond the data there is also the requirement
for ‘softer’ intelligence through which to triangulate.
Getting into the organisation to see and hear what is
going on first hand can give Board members a greater
sense of pressure and performance than any hard
indicators could. The bottom line is, however, that those
magic, and sometimes illusive KPIs are often the
pinnacle of understanding for boards, so they do need to
intelligently and diligently, measure the right things.
Emma Foreman, Niche
Associate Director – Governance and Assurance