Julia Langkraehr’s Blog

Using a scorecard to track employee performance

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Are you flying your business blind or do you use data to manage it? Do you have a handful of numbers that tell you at a glance how your business is doing?

Some people use monthly financial documents or profit and loss statements (P & L) to manage their business, which is a trailing indicator and after the fact. Using a scorecard allows you to manage the future.

1. What is a scorecard?

A scorecard measures activity based weekly numbers for each team member.  These might include: weekly revenue, closed business, customer satisfaction, capacity, sales meetings or cash in the bank.

2. What are the advantages of using a scorecard to track employee performance?

Managers are human – which means they can be very subjective. When you use a scorecard to track an employee’s true performance, it cuts out egos, personalities, subjectivities, stories and measures real results.

It allows your team to manage themselves and gives a fairer, more objective view on performance. It helps track results and keeps a finger on the pulse of what is really happening in a business.

It provides an early warning system of potential problems or gaps in performance, so you can correct and make changes that are needed to get back on track.

3. How do you get started using scorecards?

What if you could measure you entire company using 14 numbers?

The EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System) Scorecard uses activity based numbers, customised to each department.

This helps predict on a weekly basis, 52 times a year, what is really happening in your business. The numbers are reviewed at the weekly 90 minute meeting.

Read more about how to run a good meeting. 
Read more about setting targets.

4. How do team members react to using a Scorecard?

At Bold Clarity, we’ve found using the scorecard helps team members understand how they contribute to the big picture, see their own performance clearly and take responsibility for the measurement.

We review our Scorecards every Monday and it has become system and routine we rely on. It helps keep us on our toes as we know we have to report to each other what we have achieved over the last seven days.

The Scorecard is unilateral. Everyone has a number, from top to bottom, so everyone accountable – including the CEO and managing director.

5. Do team members ever feel threatened by it?

A person who doesn’t want to be measured is possibly someone who doesn’t want to do the work.

If someone is the right person, matches the business’s core values, and has the ability to perform, then they are happy to be measured on a scorecard. It tracks what needs to get done. It makes it transparent – everyone knows who is working and who is not.

6. What has been the impact of using the Scorecard at Bold Clarity?

Since we’ve been using the Scorecard in our business, team awareness has significantly increased. We can clearly see what is getting done and what is not. This means we are able to prioritise how we use our time according to the gaps in the Scorecard.

It means that with just a handful of numbers, you can tell at a glance how your business is doing.

If you want to find out more about how to introduce the Scorecard into your business, book a complimentary 90 minute meeting for us to explain EOS to your leadership team.