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Benchmarking

Compare your business to others to improve performance.

Benchmarking is a useful management tool that you can use to make your business more competitive. It simply refers to the process of comparing your performance with similar organisations in key areas - from costs and productivity to staff retention levels and customer service. By doing this you can:

• Gain an objective picture of your business' strengths and weaknesses
• Highlight changes which could make your business more successful
• Spot opportunities for growth

Benchmarking can benefit recruitment businesses of all sizes and in all sectors.

Benchmarking can help you assess your performance in almost every area of your business. However, it's most useful if you only benchmark areas where improvement would bring tangible and measurable benefits.

For example, for a recruitment business, improving client calls KPI’s is a more important improvement than providing extra staff training.

To identify where benchmarking would help, first assess the needs of your business. Look at the "hard" facts on your businesses performance, such as the number of successful sales (new client wins, PSL’s), or amount of temps and also "soft" data on whether you are satisfying stakeholder needs and expectations. Your stakeholders are your staff, customers, suppliers and investors.

Questionnaires are a good way of collecting this information. Paper questionnaires make it easy for respondents, but an electronic format - on the Internet or via email - can increase the reach of the survey.

If you decide to use a specialist supplier, try to use one with experience of your business sector.

Make sure the questionnaire will deliver the information you are seeking. Closed questions are easy to code and score while open questions can provide greater detail but are harder to code and score. Typical questions for stakeholders could include the following:

• For customers - What do we need to do to give you a better service? What skills and technology do you think we should use?
• For staff - What training do you need to improve your performance? How can we help you do your job better?
• For suppliers - What can we do better to help us get the best service from you as a supplier? What skills should we invest?

There is often a conflict between the “hard” and "soft" needs of a business. For example, a need to regulate work patterns to improve performance might suggest a lack of trust in staff that could undermine their loyalty to you.

E-mail: administrator@recruitmenttimes.co.uk