Workkplace Performance Management - is if right for your organisation?
Workplace Performance Management (WPM) was termed coined by the NSW Government in 1996 as an outcome of workshops associated with Total Asset Management (TAM). There are those in the Facilities and Asset technology industry – specifically from North America and those within the HR consulting industry – who would have you believe the term was first coined by them. However, a decade before the term WPM came in to everyday usage in these industries, the NSW Government was using it within the TAM framework to define personal and corporate accountability processes and set in place those improvement processes that would support, define, characterise and improve the physical infrastructure of the organisation.
Simply put, WPM exists to extract maximum shareholder value from infrastructure through a goal setting process, establishing key performance metrics that are analysed and reported on against these objectives.
Workplace Performance Management is a subset of Business Process Management (BPM), which has embedded itself into almost every facet of organisational operations, and has within the last decade of so begun to infiltrate its way into the real estate and facilities domain through Six Sigma process methodology and the like. BPM links business strategy with key performance objective to define accountability and set in place improvement processes [Mintzberg- 1988]. The development of a Workplace Performance Management process is, therefore, a substantial advancement in real estate and facilities management terms.
A Business Week survey found that 60% of organisations reported a misalignment between the workplace and business operations because there was no integration with overall business strategy. As elementary as this may seem to a first year MBA student, the “intended” business strategy rarely sees the workplace (an “emergent” strategy) as a strategy to be integrated with the whole but sees it more of an outcome. The effect of emergent strategies on the intended strategy will always create misalignment. Unrealised strategies that minimise shareholder value and can seriously hamper corporate growth and direction.
Without this alignment of strategies, business leaders miss significant opportunities to increase shareholder value across the business spectrum but especially in its physical infrastructure where up to 75% of costs can be locked up. Profitability can by maximised through increasing spatial efficiencies, cost reductions and capital minimisation.
Workplace Performance Management provides the system of measurement that creates a direct linkage between business goals and objectives and stakeholder interests. WPM also provides specific insights into those actions that increase the value of the workplace and reduces the cost of business operations. Firms that implement WPM systems in concert with BPM derive significant cost reductions – often hard currency savings of between 5 and 10 percent and cost avoidances exceeding 20 percent.
Workplace Performance Management also measures other areas of the business including Financial, Operational, Portfolio and Environmental Performance and Customer Satisfaction.
These five categories form a comprehensive workplace performance balanced scorecard for management of the organization. This balanced process ensures the organization retains an integrated and focused approach to infrastructure, operation and organizational activities that contribute directly to the firm’s financial success.
To discuss how Workplace Performance Management strategies can enhance your organisation’s output and profitability, please contact BeyondFM on +61 (0) 403 842 480
