Benchmarking reports can be the lifeblood of an association as well as its member organizations. The right report can create a huge impact on an organization’s expenditures, revenues, strategic direction or even the morale of the employees. But not every report will have this kind of success. Where one report can incite discussion and change, another can confuse.
Creating a benchmarking study, especially your first one, can look like a daunting task. As you begin to look at what data you want to collect, you should consider, first and foremost, what will your members find most valuable? What key performance indicators do you measure to give the most accurate, and meaningful, peer-to-peer comparisons? As a CFO, I tend to place a high value on financial and operational data. To me, they are the truest indicators of the health of an organization, are easy to quantify, and one of the most accurate ways to compare one’s performance against that of your peers. Basic financial statements are used worldwide as a means of assessing the value, performance and growth of businesses making them a great starting point for developing a successful benchmarking study.
Developing your first benchmarking study can be daunting, but the end result is a benefit you can’t afford to ignore. Benchmarking yields invaluable data about your members and delivers meaningful information to your members for better business decision making. But with so many possible directions to go and so many different metrics to measure, where do you begin?