Collect data
How'm I doing?
–Ed Koch, former Mayor of New York City
After setting targets, you and/or your direct reports need to begin gathering performance data so you can compare actual performance with your target performance. Data can come from a number of sources.
For instance, you may ask people in your department who lead call center teams to track the number of phone calls customers must make before representatives resolve their complaints or questions.
You may also depend on people in other groups or units to gather data on your performance metrics. Many companies identify "metric owners," who have specific knowledge that enables them to collect valid data on a performance metric.
To illustrate, perhaps someone in the HR department will supply data on the number of employees in your group who have attended safety-training courses and passed the end-of-course test. Or, the finance manager can give you interim profitability numbers.
If your company has a formal performance measurement system in place, senior managers or a dedicated unit may have created data-gathering forms for you and other managers to use. These may be hard-copy documents—such as memos that you fill in by hand and submit to a PM system administrator. Or they may consist of electronic forms—spreadsheets or Web-based data entry forms that you fill in online and e-mail to the PM system administrator.