The Essence of Implementing Productivity Benchmarks

Jul 6
13:04

2008

Sam Miller

Sam Miller

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Productivity benchmarks are very much needed in establishing standards that can guide productivity along. The benchmarks themselves encourage healthy competition amongst businesses of the same industry.

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Understandably,The Essence of Implementing Productivity Benchmarks Articles companies belong to different industries would have different productivity benchmarks that they make use of. This is because the nature of the industries they belong to are significantly different. Interestingly, even companies of the same industry would still have slight differences in the productivity benchmarks that they use. But to further understand the concept behind these benchmarks, it comes as a must to break them down into two.Economically speaking, productivity pertains to the ratio of input to output, with significant relations with production and procedures entailed with production. Input here refers to all the resources that are used in creating, processing, and producing the products of the business itself. Output, of course, would refer to the products or the services resultant to the production process.Meanwhile, a benchmark is actually a standard that is used to compare and measure the products against. Let us say that in the business of article marketing, the ideal number of articles that a content writer can finish in a single hour would be from two to three. This would then be the standard in the industry, making it one of the benchmarks.When combined, the productivity benchmark would then be the standard used in the comparison of a company’s productivity and its performance. It can also be used as a standard when it comes to measuring productivity.So, how should companies come up with this type of benchmark? To come up with accurate results, the past and present performance of the enterprise should be assessed. It would be better to hold just an internal evaluation here because the people within the enterprise are actually the ones who can better rate the performance of the company, both past and present. Interestingly, each and every department can create its own productivity benchmark. However, it still comes as a must to stick to a standard when basing productivity here.There just might be a need for companies to consider the assets of the enterprise as well as the number of employees during the process of developing these benchmarks. The different departments of the enterprise should be scanned and studied thoroughly as well.The business has to pay attention to the collection of information here. Survey, interviews, and publications make great avenues for the collection of information, to ensure that the productivity benchmark created here is indeed accurate. Once all of the necessary information is collected, the proper collation of such should then be enforced.There is indeed a need for any business to enforce productivity benchmarks. This is actually a strategic move businesses can make in knowing the trends, practices, and moves of their competitors. And with the implementation of such benchmarks, it would also be easier to determine which processes, trends, and practices of your competitors can be beneficial for your own company. No, this is not spying at all. Healthy competitions is actually fostered here, so do not feel guilty if your company plans to emulate the very practices and trends that have made your competitors the success that they are right now.