Last week, we talked about analyzing your business using the SWOT method, outlining the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that exist in your business as a whole and in different departments. Today, we’re going to look at the numbers themselves: the metrics that matter to your business.
Like management guru Edward Deming said, “You can’t manage what you don’t measure.” For instance, it’s easy to say “We’re doing pretty well in employee retention” based on a general feeling of success in that area, but if HR data shows that your turnover rate is 30% higher than the average for your industry, that’s another story.
It’s always good to know where you stand, even if it contradicts a positive impression you’d had. For one thing, your impressions are now based in reality. And once you’re aware of a problem, you can begin figuring out ways to fix it.
So what key metrics should you be measuring?
Every business needs to measure these:
Financial: Net cash flow, gross margins, operating margins, profit margins and SGA (sales, general & administrative) costs.
Employee: Productivity, training participation, career development and turnover.
Marketing: Marketing impacts are trickier to measure, but online marketing, including web analytics and social media mentions, can be quantified fairly easily.
But staffing firms have additional indicators metrics to think about:
Customer relationships: Look at the regularity with which you reach out to a prospect and the number of points of contact required before a prospect becomes a client.
Client mix: What percentage of your business does each of your top 10 clients bring in? If your client base is too dependent on one client or one industry, that’s a good indication that it’s time to diversify.
Employees: Internal and external training programs, including CSP certification.
HR Costs: Worker’s compensation costs and claims, unemployment insurance claims, health care costs, FUTA payments.
COATS Staffing Software can help you track many of these metrics automatically. Financial metrics can be viewed using our Management Business Advisor, making them easy to understand. Contacts with your clients can easily be entered and tracked, and HR costs are handled as well. To learn more about how COATS Staffing Software can keep you on top of the metrics that matter, contact us today.