We explain KPIs, incl. differences, and share a list of over 200+ KPIs for every department and occasion. Measuring the right Performance Indicators can help you better manage your company, and using KPIs is the basis for data-driven decision-making.
Index
What are KPIs? KPI stands for “Key Performance Indicator.” It is a metric or statistic that you track to measure the progress of your business. A KPI can be anything from customer satisfaction rates to website traffic. In this blog post, we will discuss the meaning of KPIs, the different types of KPIs, and some examples of how to track them.
What is a KPI?
A Key Performance Indicator (KPI) is a metric used to measure an organization’s or individual’s progress or success concerning a specific goal. KPIs can measure any aspect of an organization or individual, such as revenue, profit, customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, etc.
Businesses often use KPIs to make data-driven decisions. By tracking KPIs, companies can see what is working and needs improvement. Any business’s strategy to manage, track, and use KPIs is essential. Without one, making informed decisions about the company’s future can be challenging.
There are several different ways to track KPIs. Some businesses use software applications (e.g., Salesforce, Google Analytics, Tableau) to collect and track data automatically. Others prefer manual methods, such as Excel spreadsheets or paper-based reporting. Collecting and analyzing your data is not essential as long as you follow the suitable KPIs and use them to make data-driven management decisions.
Read the full article here: What are KPIs? – Definition, Types, Benefits of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
What are the different types of KPIs?
There are different types of KPIs: Quantitative vs. Qualitative, Strategic vs. Operational, Input vs. Output, Lagging vs. Leading, and Process vs. Actionable.
Quantitative KPIs are numerical and focus on the results of a process. They usually measure financial or statistical performance indicators. Qualitative KPIs are descriptive and focus on the quality of a process. They typically measure customer satisfaction or employee engagement levels.
Strategic KPIs are important for understanding the overall direction of a business. They help to track progress toward long-term goals and objectives. Operational KPIs are useful for monitoring the day-to-day activities of a company. They help to ensure that critical processes are running smoothly.
Input KPIs track the resources that are used to produce outputs. This includes things like labor costs, raw materials, and energy consumption. Output KPIs track the final results of a process. This includes sales revenue, product shipments, and customer satisfaction levels.
Lagging KPIs are used to measure performance after an event has occurred. This includes things like sales revenue and profit margins. Leading KPIs are used to measure performance before an event has occurred. This includes things like product development times and customer acquisition costs.
Process KPIs track the individual steps in a process. This includes things like cycle time and percent of defective products. Actionable KPIs provide insights that can be used to improve a process. An example can be the average processing time and throughput rate.
KPIs are a valuable tool for measuring and managing business performance. However, it is vital to select suitable KPIs for your business. The wrong KPIs can lead to poor decision-making and sub-optimal results.
Selecting the right KPIs
When selecting KPIs, you should consider the following:
- What is essential to track in your business?
- What are your goals and objectives?
- What data do you have available?
- How often do you need to measure performance?
- Who will be using the KPIs?
These questions will help you identify suitable KPIs for your business. Once you have selected the correct KPIs, you need to track them over time. This will help you recognize trends and patterns in your data.
It is also essential to not just give everyone the same KPIs. They depend on department, seniority, and function—the more relevant, the more impact. To build a data-driven organization, everyone must understand how their KPIs link to the company strategy and what needs to be done to impact them. By integrating KPIs into the tools and platforms the team is already using, such as their CRM or project management tool, you can ensure that they are always top of mind.
Keep in mind: When it comes to KPIs, more is not always better. A small number of well-chosen KPIs will provide more insights than a large number of poorly chosen KPIs.
SMARTER Criteria for choosing KPIs
When selecting KPIs, you can use the SMARTER criteria to evaluate the right one (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-bound, Evaluate, Reevaluate). This is the extension of SMART criteria used in Project Management and can help for selecting suitable KPIs.
KPIs should be:
- Specific: The KPI should be clearly defined and easy to understand.
- Measurable: The KPI should be quantifiable to be tracked over time.
- Attainable: The KPI should be realistic and achievable.
- Relevant: The KPI should be relevant to the business goals and objectives.
- Time-bound: The KPI should have a timeframe associated with it.
- Evaluate: The KPI should be reviewed regularly to remain valid.
- Reevaluate: The KPI should be reevaluated if there are changes in the business environment.
Creating a Mindset for Data-Driven Decision-Making
Making data-driven decisions is essential for success in any field. However, we must first have the right mindset to make effective decisions. We must be able to objectively analyze data and use it to inform our decision-making process. This can be difficult if we are biased or emotionally attached to a particular outcome.
To make data-driven decisions, we must be willing to change our opinions when new information arises. We must also be able to accept criticism and feedback, both from others and from our data. If we cannot do these things, we will be unable to make effective decisions using data.
It is also important to remember that data is not perfect. It can be incomplete, inaccurate, or misinterpreted. However, using data correctly can still be a valuable tool in our decision-making process. We must be careful not to let our biases and preconceptions cloud our judgment when reviewing data. Instead, we must use data to challenge our assumptions and help us see the world in a new light.
If we learn to adopt the right mindset, we can use data to make better decisions and succeed in any field. Data-driven decision-making (DDDM) is a process in which decisions are made based on data and analytics rather than intuition or experience.
List of 200+ important KPIs for Organizations
There is no one-size-fits-all answer to which key performance indicators (KPIs) are most important for your organization. However, some KPIs are universally important, regardless of your business or industry. And then there are also KPIs that will be specific to your organization and its goals.
That said, here is a list of more than 200 important KPIs, organized by topic and department. This list should give you a good starting point for determining which KPIs are most relevant to your organization.
Strategic Management KPIs
- Revenue
- Revenue per Employee / Revenue per FTE
- Total Costs
- Net Income
- Profit Margin
- Operating Margin
- Gross Margin
- Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC)
- Customer Lifetime Value
- Customer Satisfaction Score / Net Promoter Score
- Customer Churn Rate
- Sales by Product or Service
- Sales Target in % (Actual/Forecast
- Operating Expenses Ratio
- Net Profit Margin Percentage
- Return on Assets (ROA)
- Return on Equity (ROE)
- P/E Ratio
- Current Ratio (Assets/Liabilities)
- Debt to Equity Ratio
- Working Capital
- Employee Satisfaction Rating
Sales KPIs
- Sales Growth (YoY, QoQ. MoM)
- Sales Target %
- Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
- Customer Churn Rate
- Lead Response Time
- Lead Conversion %
- Lead to Opportunity Conversion %
- New Qualified Opportunities
- Total Pipeline Value
- Lead-to-Opportunity %
- Opportunity-to-Order %
- Average Order/Purchase Value
- Average Sales Cycle Time / LenghtUpsell %
- Cross-Sell %
- Sales Volume by Location
- Revenue per Sales Rep
- Profit Maring per Sales Rep
Operations KPIs
- Labor Utilization
- Employee Turnover Rate
- Employee Absence Rate
- Employee Training Rate
- ROI of Outsourcing
- Labor Materials
- Operating Margins
- Customer Lifetime Value
- Processes and Procedures Developed
- Cash Flow
- Project Schedule Variance
- Order Fulfilment Cycle Time
- Delivery In Full On Time Rate
- Rework Rate
- Customer Complaints
Project Management KPIs
- On-Time Completion %
- Milestones on Time %
- Estimate to Project Completion
- Adjustments To Schedule
- Planned vs. Actual Hours
- Resource Capacity %
- Budget Variance (Planned vs. Actual)
- Budget Iterations
- Planned Value
- Net Promoter Score
- Number of Errors
- Customer Complaints
- Change Requests
- Billable Utilization
- Return On Investment (ROI)
Marketing KPIs
- Total Revenue
- Revenue by Product or Service
- New Customers
- Cost per Acquisition (CPA)
- Cost per Lead
- Sales Target & Growth
- Average Order Value
- Upsell & Cross-Sell Rates
- Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV)
- Organic Traffic
- Bounce Rate
- Engagement Rate
- Click-Through-Rate (CTR)
- Goal Conversion Rates
- Website-Traffic-to-Lead Ratio
- Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs)
- Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs)
- Lead-to-MQL Ratio
- MQL-to-SQL Ratio
- Average Time to Conversion
- Landing Page Conversion Rates
- Cost-per-Click (CPC)
- Return on Investment (ROI)
- Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)
- Net Promoter Score (NPS)
Human Resources KPIs
- Absenteeism rate
- ROI of outsourcing
- Succession planning rate
- Open/closed grievances
- Promotion rate
- Female to Male Ratio
- Average Time Stay
- Time to productivity
- Successor gap rate
- Worker composition by gender, experience, and tenure
- Internal mobility
- Manager quality index
- HR effectiveness
- Employee satisfaction rates
- Training ROI
- Gender Diversity By Role
- Part-Time Employees
- HR functional operating expense rate
- Labor cost per FTE
- Labor cost revenue percent
- Labor cost revenue expense percent
- Total benefits as a percentage of labor costs
- Overtime Hours
- Revenue per FTE
- Profit vs. compensation per FTE
- Human capital ROI
- HR functional cost per employee
- Cost per Hire
- Quality of hire
- Vacancy rate
- Turnover rate
- Turnover Rate By Group
- Training Cost per Hire
- Resignation/retirement rate
- External hire rate
- Time-to-fill
- Diversity, experience, and gender hire ratio
- Recruiting funnel metrics
- Talent import/export ratio
- Voluntary turnover rate
- Retention rate
- Recruiting expense per new hire
- Retirement rate forecast
Customer Service & Support KPIs
- Customer Churn
- Top Agents
- Service Level
- MRR Growth Rate
- Number of Issues (By Type)
- First Response Time (FRT)
- First Contact Resolution Rate
- Average Response Time
- Average Resolution Time
- Most Active Support Agents
- Cost Per Conversation
- Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)
- Net Promoter Score (NPS)
- Positive Customer Reviews
- Customer Effort Score
- Customer Retention Rate
- Support Costs / Revenue Ratio
- Knowledge Base Articles
- Employee Engagement
Procurement KPIs
- Compliance Rate
- Number of Suppliers
- Purchase Order Cycle Time
- Supplier Quality Rating
- Supplier Availability
- Supplier Defect Rate
- Vendor Rejection Rate & Costs
- Lead Time
- Emergency Purchase Ratio
- Purchases In Time & Budget:
- Cost of Purchase Order
- Procurement Cost Reduction
- Procurement Cost Avoidance
- Spend Under Management
- Procurement ROI
IT & Technology KPIs
- IT Costs vs. Revenue
- IT Team Turnover
- Total Tickets vs Open Tickets
- Average Handle Time
- Total Support Tickets
- Open Support Tickets
- Ticket Resolution Time
- Reopened Tickets
- Unsolved Tickets Per Employee
- IT Support Employees per End Users
- Total Projects
- Projects on Budget
- Accuracy of Estimates
- IT ROI
- IT Costs Break Down
- New Developed Features
- Number of Critical Bugs
- Team Attrition Rate
- IT Support Employees Per End Users
- Uptime %
- Server Downtime
- Security Related Downtime
- Backup Frequency
- Cybersecurity Rating
- Amount Of Intrusion Attempts
- Mean Time To Detect
- Mean Time To Repair
- Average Time Between Failures
- Phishing Test Success Rate
Social Media KPIs
- Social Share of Voice (SSoV)
- Total Reach
- Total Impressions
- Followers, or Fans, or Subscribers
- Audience Growth Rate
- Share Rate (Shares or ReTweets)
- Interest Rate (Likes, Reactions, Favorites)
- Response Rate (Comments, Replies)
- Key Post or Hashtag Reach
- Link Clicks
- Site Traffic From Social (By Platform)
- Conversions From Social (#)
- Conversion Rate From Social (%)
- Revenue From Social (#)
- Social Program ROI
Financial KPIs
- Gross Profit Margin
- Gross Profit Margin Percentage
- Operating Profit Margin
- Operating Profit Margin Percentage
- Net Profit Margin
- Net Profit Margin Percentage
- Operating Expense Ratio
- Working Capital Ratio
- Debt-To-Equity Ratio
- Quick Ratio / Acid Test
- Current Ratio
- Berry Ratio
- Return on Assets
- Return on Equity
- Cash Conversion Cycle
- Accounts Payable Turnover Ratio
- Accounts Receivable Turnover Ratio
- Vendor Payment Error Rate
- Budget Variance
- Payroll Headcount Ratio
Source of List: MoreThanDigital Insights
Author: Benjamin Talin, CEO MoreThanDigital
Comments are closed.