Business Performance Measures

Introduction The world has become very competitive in almost all aspects of human life that has necessitated the need to boost performance in order for businesses to continue with their daily operations. Governments, non governmental organizations and individual firms have had to devise cost effective ways of ensuring their business operations are viable despite the high rate of inflation that seems to run out of control.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Business Performance Measures specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More It is common knowledge that modernization has brought stiff competition in the quality and quantity of goods and services produced and those firms that meet the required production standards remain in operations. While some companies have taken to monopolization others have merged under different banners in order to increase efficiency in their delivery of services. Regardless of the approach taken by a company to boost its performance there are various measures it must put in place in order to assess its performance. This essay outlines some of the performance measures a company may adopt, benefits such measures bring to the company and the actions it can take with regard to the outcomes of these measures. Performance is a common term used in business to refer to the value of business out put that is used to assess the viability of any business venture in terms of profits or losses. It is measured in two ways in terms of the volume of goods and services produced and profits or losses generated from the sales made. A measure is any approach taken towards realization of any goal by a business (Cokins 2009). Therefore, performance measures are steps taken by a business organization in the attempt of seeking to identify its position as far as business operations are concerned. This discussion covers the human resource and product and service measures as essential tools of evaluating the performance of any business. Human resource plays a very important role in the daily running of business operations in all organizations. Therefore, it forms an important aspect that can not be isolated from performance.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More This is due to the fact that human beings constitute a grater percentage of sources of labor in all operations and in areas where machines are used human beings are in charge of controlling them. Performance measures in terms of human resource has various dimensions that include, performance evaluations, productivity reports, turnover, absenteeism and employee satisfaction surveys. Performance evaluations are important measures that businesses undertake in order to assess the levels of production of its workers. Performance is evaluated on the basis of worker’s academic qualifications, experience, interests and ski lls that are essential in ensuring workers deliver quality work (Luecke 2006). Any worker who does not have the required skills is more likely to deliver poor quality work while an experienced person stands high chances of better performance. This is an essential tool of evaluation as it enables the management to identify the worker’s potentials and this helps them in allocation of duties and responsibilities according to the worker’s abilities to perform. A business may decide to train its employees further in order to increase their skills and knowledge by sponsoring their part time education programs and giving them more off duty allowances in order to attend their classes. Timely and accurate information regarding employee’s performance will help the management identify its weak performance areas and plan on how to develop them in order to ensure all workers do their best. Worker’s productivity reports may be prepared by the management as measures tow ards assessing business performance. It should be noted that every employee plays an important role in determining the productivity of a business regardless of the person’s position in a company. All positions in a business are created with a view of boosting performance and there is no department or position that should be treated as inferior to others. The business is like a body while workers are like the organs that make the body to function properly and be healthy. Worker’s productivity reports help management identify the specific abilities of every worker and avoid generalization of workers performance (Cokins 2009). Employees who consistently perform below the company’s expectations should be given essential advice and warned in advance but if they seem not to improve they should be laid off and other people with prospects of better performance hired. This measure helps management plan on future expansions of the company in terms of its work force and pr oduction.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Business Performance Measures specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More All workers are supposed to spend quality time at their work place in order to boost production and efficiency. It should be noted that time is a very important factor in the process of production and should be spent wisely (Luecke 2006).Therefore, employees should ensure they do constructive activities when at work. Work attendance records will help the management assess their employees in terms of the number of hours they dedicate to work. Those frequently absent from duty should be sacked immediately as this shows laxity and lack of interest and personal initiatives by employees. This measure helps to identify the amount of work an individual is capable of doing in a given time. More time spent at work means more service or goods will be produced and vise versa. The company is able to plan a head with rega rd to production of its services or goods. A company may also conduct turnover surveys to identify its ability to produce goods and services within a given time frame. This survey helps the company to identify its potentials and assess whether it is performing according to its expectations. This measure will help the company identify areas that are productive and those that are dormant. It gives management an insight into future planning in terms of budgetary allocation to various departments to boost their efficiency in production. The second approach of measuring performance is through the use of product and service measures. The first step in this approach is conducting surveys on the levels of customer satisfaction with regard to the quality and quantity of goods and services offered by a company (Cokins 2009). This may be done through questionnaires or through conducting interviews that aim to establish the levels of satisfaction their clients attain with regard to the companyà ¢â‚¬â„¢s services. This measure helps the company to identify weaknesses of a product or service and correct them as soon as possible. It helps a company in planning on how to avoid the occurrence of such errors in future. It enables the business to know the tastes preferred by clients. Rates of returns help businesses asses their performance as it offers an insight to the level the product or service has penetrated the market. Through conducting this survey the management will identify the various marketing strategies that will enable it deliver its services to almost all regions accessible by it. Timely awareness of the problems arising from this survey will help a business change its marketing strategies or use different strategies to market their products.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More A company may choose to asses its performance through surveying the product rates of failure that will enable it identify the effectiveness of its services. This will enable the company to know the reasons why the products are failing and analyze whether it is as a result of poor quality or lack of information on the use of the product and thus address the issues as soon as possible (Cokins 2009). Products’ rates of failure helps to eliminate future assumptions by correcting the client’s current perceptions regarding the quality of services offered. The number of clients served within a particular period of time is an essential step in measuring the performance of any business. This measure offers relevant information regarding the volume of sales made in a given time. This survey measure will enable a company to assess whether the price of goods, timing of their sales, efficiency of employers or the volume of goods produced determine the number of clients served (Luec ke 2006). Timely and accurate information obtained through this survey will help the management plan ahead and decide whether to increase the number of workers to eliminate long queues of clients waiting to be served or extend the time of operations in order to serve many clients within the shortest time possible. Conclusion All business investments are founded on the basis of utilizing all opportunities to make profits and at the same time offer quality goods and services to their clients. If essential steps are not taken early to monitor the performance of a business huge losses may be incurred leading to termination of its operations. Therefore, it is important that businesses conduct performance surveys to determine their viability. References Cokins, G. (2009). Performance Management: Integrating Strategy Execution, Methodologies, Risk and Analytics (Wiley and SAS Business Series). New York: Wiley Publishers. Luecke, R. (2006). Harvard Business Essentials: Performance Managemen t: Measure and Improve the Effectiveness of your Employees. Boston: Harvard Business Review. This essay on Business Performance Measures was written and submitted by user Roland R. to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.