Benchmarking
What is Benchmarking?
Benchmarking is where you measure your company’s processes, strategies, & performance against those of other businesses similar to yours. This process can help you discover if there is a gap in your performance and also highlight efficiencies. Benchmarking allows your business to gain strategic advantages over competitors and allow for continuous improvement. It’s extremely important for leaders to know what is new and changing to stay on top of their game. If you don’t know where you stand against your competitors, you risk falling behind the times. In simplest terms, it helps determine where you are, where you want to be and how to get there.
How do I start?
You first need to identify what you are attempting to measure. This can be anything from salaries to revenues to processes.
Once you determine what you want to measure, you can begin conducting your research. This can be done by reviewing historical internal data, speaking to colleagues & competitors, conducting online research, and participating in benchmarking surveys.
Once you gather your data you can begin analyzing the data to assess where your current performance sits, determine a baseline, and create goals for improvement or change. At this point you should be able to highlight where you are strong and bring to light where your company has room for improvement.
What next?
Now you can develop an action plan! Determine what actions need to be taken to reach your goals. A common goal-setting framework we recommend is S.M.A.R.T. SMART stands for: Specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based. Following this framework should help you stay on target and prevent common goal setting mistakes such as making your goal too vague or too difficult to reach. Make sure you determine who, what, where, when & why. Be realistic and set appropriate timeline goals.
Is that all?
Not quite. You should be reviewing the progress of your actions plans regularly and make the appropriate adjustments along the way. There may be some time where you are “coasting” but don’t get stuck there. If you get too comfortable, you won’t grow!
