Page 40 - 6484

will outline a set of metrics that can help to predict the future, not just evaluate the
past.
It is helpful to think about such metrics as leading, lagging, and pacing
indicators. A leading indicator actually serves to predict where the firm is going, in

terms of performance. For instance, General Electric asks customers whether they
will refer it new business, and GE’s managers have found that this measure of
customer satisfaction does a pretty good job of predicting future sales.
A pacing indicator tells you in real time that the organization is on track, for example,
in on-time deliveries or machinery that is in operation (as opposed to being under
repair or in maintenance). A lagging indicator is the one we are all most familiar
with. Firm financial performance, for instance, is an accounting-based summary of
how well the firm has done historically. Even if managers can calculate such
performance quickly, the information is still historic and not pacing or leading.
Increasingly, firms compile a set of such leading, lagging, and pacing goals and
objectives and organize them in the form of a dashboard or Balanced Scorecard.
Actual Versus Desired Performance
The goals and objectives that flow from your mission and vision provide a
basis for assessing actual versus desired performance. In many ways, such goals and
objectives provide a natural feedback loop that helps managers see when and how
they are succeeding and where they might need to take corrective action. This is one
reason goals and objectives should ideally be specific and measurable. Moreover, to
the extent that they serve as leading, lagging, and pacing performance metrics, they
enable managers to take corrective action on any deviations from goals before too
much damage has been done.
Corrective Action
Finally, just as mission and vision should lead to specific and measurable goals
and objectives and thus provide a basis for comparing actual and desired
performance, corrective action should also be prompted in cases where performance
deviates negatively from performance objectives. It is important to point out that
while mission and vision may signal the need for corrective action, because they are
rather general, high-level statements they typically will not spell out what specific
actions—that latter part is the role of strategy, and mission and vision are critical for
good strategies but not substitutes for them. A mission and vision are statements of
self-worth. Their purpose is not only to motivate employees to take meaningful action
but also to give leadership a standard for monitoring progress. It also tells external
audiences how your organization wishes to be viewed and have its progress and
successes gauged.
Strategic human resources management (SHRM) reflects the aim of integrating
the organization’s human capital—its people—into the mission and vision. Human
resources management alignment means to integrate decisions about people with
decisions about the results an organization is trying to obtain. Research indicates that
organizations that successfully align human resources management with mission and
vision accomplishment do so by integrating SHRM into the planning process,
emphasizing human resources activities that support mission goals, and building
[7]
strong human resources/management capabilities and relationships.

40