How to Set Quarterly KPIs for Your Business

The term ‘KPI’ is widely used across a broad range of businesses and markets, but its meaning and purpose remains a mystery to most employees.

A KPI is a ‘key performance indicator’, and it provides a quantifiable measure of attainment in the pursuit of a particular objective. It also measures performance over time, creating targets for selected teams to meet and insights to help individuals work better when trying to achieve business goals.

KPIs are different to metrics as they have more strategic importance and track the achievement of ‘bigger picture’ business outcomes. In this post, we’ll discuss how you can set quarterly KPI for your business!

#1. Start With the Bigger Picture

Due to the strategic nature of KPIs, it’s crucial that these are grounded in the ‘bigger picture’ of your company’s year-end goals and objectives.

The reason for this is simple; as it enables you to break up the wider business objective into more manageable, quarterly chunks, creating smaller accomplishments that are easier to measure and can work towards the eventual goal.

When you break down your larger business goal and create quarterly KPIs, you’ll also be establishing individual metrics that can help to focus the minds of teams and individual employees through specific tasks.

#2. Allow Room for Employee Progression

If we imagine that your quarterly KPI breakdown will require specific input from individual employees, it makes sense that certain stakeholders will play a direct role in achieving key performance indicators.

Because of this, you’ll need to create a plan and quarterly KPIs that make room for professional and leadership development.

This means that stakeholders can be incentivised to keep achieve relevant KPIs with the promise of future progression and development, either within their existing roles or through the company as a whole.

Of course, this will be tailored and based on each employee’s contribution, but it’s definitely a key consideration if you’re to create a collaborative leadership approach.

#3. Seek Out Help When Optimising the Finer Details of Your KPIs

Flexibility is key when creating quarterly KPIs, as things don’t always go to plan regardless of the scope or relative success of your business.

Because of this, and the fact that some companies tend to have complex cash flows that impact directly on their quarterly performance (such as seasonal ventures), you may need to seek out help when creating KPIs and managing your business’s performance over time.

Outlets such as the New Street Consultant Group can help in this respect, as they’ll provide tailored guidance and advice based on the unique circumstances that surround your business and its operation.

This type of focused help can make a real difference to the impact of your KPIs, while optimising your chances of achieving these in a challenging business climate.