To begin to understand the indicators and why they are so important for your company, it is necessary to first define monitoring and evaluation, which are closely related.
What is tracking?
Monitoring is understood as the continuous and internal analysis, aimed at determining whether the activities, the investment of resources and the products, are oriented towards the planned objective. This allows you to make decisions in a timely manner in your company, to ensure that activities are carried out according to schedule and are carried out with the use of the resources that have been budgeted, achieving business efficiency and verifying that the achievements that have been achieved are being obtained. they were expected.
Monitoring allows timely identification of successes, real and potential difficulties, as well as recommending modifications to planning to adjust to changes in the context, with the purpose of generating analytical capabilities in the actors to make their own decisions.
What is evaluation?
Evaluation, for its part, has recently become a recurring theme at the business level, as it is a dynamic, continuous and systematic process, focused on changes in behavior and performance, through which we verify the achievements acquired based on of the proposed objectives. A key element of the current conception of evaluation is, not to evaluate for the sake of evaluating, but to improve processes.
Monitoring, evaluation and measurement improve the decision-making processes of those responsible for the execution and monitoring of plans, policies and projects, being presented in the form of results.
Importance of monitoring and evaluation
When we talk about monitoring and evaluation, we refer to the planning and execution of marketing strategies that determine the fulfillment of objectives and goals, from a baseline of 0 to the last phase. These components identify the situation of change that was generated with the strategy, or if, on the contrary, no contributions are evident. Thinking evaluatively means taking responsibility, finding alternatives, and conducting change processes. In this sense, monitoring and evaluation are important because they allow:
- Generate learning inherent to evaluation as such and the communication of knowledge.
- Understand the processes to improve them and adapt them to new dynamics.
- Promote change and transformation by adapting to new realities.
Importance of measurement for your company
Once the importance of monitoring and evaluating plans, policies, projects or strategies has been understood, it is necessary to measure them with key indicators that help analyze the behavior of the results obtained in correlation with those expected.
Now, in this monitoring process, the starting point for measurement is the construction of the Indicator, which refers to a piece of data that aims to reflect the state of a situation, or some particular aspect, at a given time and space. Therefore, indicators allow us to provide reliable information that leads us to find solutions. There are reference indicators, however, it is interesting when companies build their own indicators adapted to the particularities of their business.
In this context, the result is the product (good or service) that is obtained with the execution of the project, which can be tangible or intangible, through the effects (short term) and impacts (long term).
With the indicators we banish ways of speaking such as: “I believe” “It seems to me” “I think”, on the contrary, it shows real data of a particular situation.
Attributes of a good measurement
Each meter or indicator must satisfy the following criteria or attributes:
- Transparency: it must be clear, and sharp; that clearly shows its achievement and its results for other people.
- Relevance: concerning, referent, leading; taken into account and have importance.
- Precision: exact, fair, rigorous, thorough, punctual; that faithfully reflects the magnitude of the event.
- Opportunity: that you can count on him at the right time.
- Reliability: provides security; that the instrument we use is calibrated and we can do it with the appropriate frequency.
- Economy: positive in the cost-benefit relationship
- Measurable: The meter or indicator must be measurable. This means that the characteristic described must be quantifiable in terms of either the degree or frequency of the quantity.
- Understandable: The meter or indicator must be easily recognized by all those who use it.
- Controllable: The indicator must be controllable within the organization’s structure.
Benefits of indicators in your business
Some benefits derived from indicators for your company are:
- They help raise the level of business performance.
- Helps make correct and timely decisions.
- Allows you to compare your results globally.
- Shows the right path to success.
- It allows you to redesign the direction of the company.
- Shows quantitative and reliable results.
- They solidly support decisions and interventions.
- Synchronize team efforts.
- They can be the letter of introduction in the market.
- Allows you to analyze variations over time.
- Prevents us from speaking different languages.
- They detect and foresee deviations in the achievement of objectives.
Indicator Categories
You must know how to discern between compliance, evaluation, efficiency, effectiveness and management indicators.
Compliance indicators: based on the fact that compliance has to do with the completion of a task. Compliance indicators are related to the reasons that indicate the degree of achievement of tasks and/or jobs.
Evaluation indicators: evaluation has to do with the performance obtained from a task, job or process. Evaluation indicators are related to the reasons and/or methods that help identify our strengths, weaknesses and opportunities for improvement.
Efficiency indicators: taking into account that efficiency has to do with the attitude and ability to carry out a job or task with the minimum of resources. Efficiency indicators are related to the reasons that indicate the resources invested in the achievement of tasks and/or jobs.
Indicators of effectiveness: effective has to do with making an intent or purpose effective. Efficiency indicators are related to the reasons that indicate capacity or success in achieving tasks and/or jobs.
Management indicators: taking into account that management has to do with managing and/or establishing specific actions to make the scheduled and planned tasks and/or jobs a reality. Management indicators are related to the reasons that allow a process to be truly managed.
Finally, it must not be overlooked that the reading of the indicators must be carried out jointly, to avoid having a fragmented and partial vision of the findings found, that is, decisions cannot be made based on a single indicator but on the interpretation of a significant number of indicators that together lead to the best decision. The indicators allow you to evaluate to what extent or to what extent the objectives set by your business are being achieved, as well as business performance compared to its counterparts in the market. The analysis of the indicators leads to generating alerts about the action, not losing direction, and being able to adjust to the changes found along the way.
“Everything that is done can be measured, only if it is measured can it be controlled, only if it is controlled can it be directed and only if it is directed can it be improved”
Dr. Pedro Mendoza A.
“If you want to be a great company tomorrow, you must start acting as if you were one today.”
Thomas J. Watson (Founder of IBM).
