Navigating Workplace Success
Everybody wants to have success at work, but how do you know if you actually have it? How do you know whether your efforts are paying off? The reality is that very few businesses truly grasp how they can evaluate the things they have done and determine whether they have achieved success.
One element of this is that it is hard to know what to expect and what the definition of “success” actually is. There isn’t a blue print or other tick box guide that explains this, so where do you start?
What Is Success in the Workplace?
It is all too easy to measure success in the workplace by income.
“If we were measuring financial success then income would be an accurate indicator.”
How Do You Measure Success?
If, however, your business is raking in the money, but all your employees are unhappy, would you still class it as being successful? Or, what if your business is a not-for-profit organization? This demonstrates that success and profit do not necessarily go hand in hand. What matters, instead, is that you learn to define what your vision of success is. You are the one that gets to decide what your goals are and it is always a good idea to have multiple goals. For instance, you may want to increase your profits by a certain percentage, while at the same time increasing your employee retention as well. You must set clear goals in your strategic plans and achieving each of these goals will tell you whether or not you are being successful in your endeavors.
Common Goals to Measure Success
Goal setting is not as easy as it sounds. Every organization is different and setting goals goes beyond the mission statement or vision of an organization. For instance, your mission statement may be to deliver top quality products, but you could have a goal of also attracting the top scientists to develop these products and make maximum profits, neither of which is reflected in your mission statement. But there are a number of common goals of businesses, one of which is customer satisfaction.
“Customer satisfaction is an indication that your company understands the needs of your customers. Understanding your customers and being able to satisfy their needs is crucial to the strength of your business.”
Five Ways to Measure Success in Your Business
You can measure customer satisfaction by doing questionnaires or reviewing how effective your customer service department has been. Other common goals include increased profits, attracting more customers, employee satisfaction and owner satisfaction. The first two are easily measured by analyzing data, but measuring employee and owner satisfaction can be more difficult to achieve.
Different Methods
As the manager within your business organization, you need to understand the different methods you can use to measure your success. One is efficiency.
“These measures are productivity and cost effectiveness measured as ratio of outputs per inputs.”
How to Measure Your Strategic Plan’s Success
Final Thoughts
You can also use outcomes to measure success. You can only use these if you have created a strategic plan with expected goals, as this allows you to see whether your activities allowed you to achieve your goals. Then, there is the quality measure. This is where you look into the number of errors that have been made in production or service delivery. The lower the number of errors, the higher your quality score.
Finally, there are the project measures, which can be used for short-term activities. There are also various questionnaires and other tools you can use to measure satisfaction of your customers, staff and self. However, it is only if you know what you are looking for – what your goals are – that you will be able to use these appropriately.
About Steve Giles
Co-owner/Co-founder of Intesi! Resources. Educated as an architect I transitioned to technology during my career in architecture. Intesi! Resources was founded in 2004 and my focus is everything Web/eCommerce related from the design and development of our site to all the marketing activities involved. I also provide significant support for our clients on all our products and how they are used to deliver assessment-driven learning solutions that develop self-awareness and interpersonal skills.
