KPI culture: Key tool to drive Sri Lankan organisations to next level

By Arosha Jayasundera

As each day passes, and more foreign direct investors and mega projects are announced, Sri Lanka is increasingly entering the competitive world platforms for investment and trade. In this scenario, its local environment and its products and services are increasingly open to international scrutiny and benchmarking. 

More recently, the Ministry of Policy and Planning issued a directive to State owned enterprises, requesting them to compile a list of KPIs by end April 2016. This is an important move. However, the setting of appropriate KPIs which offers adequate performance standards is not an easy task. If it is incumbent only on the internal staff to come up with KPI, it is important that they set KPI which if achieved, can make a significant difference to performance. In addition, they need to be aware of the full range of appropriate KPIs that need to be drawn up. To assist them in their mission, it is important that they get both internal and external customer feedback on expected product/service standards. 

The selection of KPI and the range they should be geared towards, varies from industry to industry and there are standard procedures and timings for most functions. In the USA and in Europe, international benchmark companies compile these KPI and indicate the standards for best in class. To date, there is no such database for the South Asian region. 

For instance, within the HR function alone, there can be KPI for time taken for internal procedures, payments, hiring, vacancies, promotions, etc. Likewise in marketing there can be KPI for new customers, conversions, budgets, etc and in a call centre, there can be KPI for types of calls, actions taken, congestion of lines, new customer conversion etc. In administration, suitable KPI would be time based, energy based,and cost driven. The nature of KPIs is that they can be drilled down to a lower level, in order to provide concise details on the time and cost of each specific function which is critical for productivity and quality. 

The benefits of a KPI driven culture, are that Directors and senior management can more easily track the performance of the organisation from an operational perspective, wherever they are located. It also provides a flagging system so any early issues can be easily identified. A well designed KPI dashboard provides a broad overview of the organisation. In Sri Lanka today, the focus is focused towards profits, but international companies place a heavy emphasis on their performance of international operational procedures. They know that this is critical if they wish to establish and maintain their brand wherever they operate. A brand is all about offering a standardised service to customers wherever they are.

It is critical that as Sri Lanka looks at getting on the world stage, its citizens, employees, office staff and companies become fit. From a company’s perspective, this means that all organisations, from small to large need to keep a strict eye on their costs, speed of all procedures, and customer satisfaction levels. The ideal tool to achieve this are the appropriate KPI. As companies seek to grow rapidly, the right KPI can greatly assist investors and management to track the different departments within the organisation. 

For instance, in the manuservices sector, a KPI culture for customer support services required after selling a car, can provide the base for a significant competitive edge. Likewise, in the IT/BPO sector, organisations can monitor their speed of growth and issues surfacing through KPIs. 

(The writer is a specialist in Operational Excellence and Productivity with Avix Consulting Group and can be contacted at 

[email protected].)