Several years ago I was talking with Jim Horan, author and owner of the One Page Business Plan Co. The subject of measuring objectives in business came up. How could it not come up? We’re talking about the the guru of business plans here. Jim and I were ‘interviewing each other’. Okay, well, Jim was interviewing me and I was on my best behavior. Oh, how things change!
Before Jim would accept me into his certification program for the One Page Business Plan he wanted to know if I even had a clue as to what a business plan was and the 5 questions it must ask and answer. As we were talking about objectives being absolutley measurable, and by that we mean graphable, he asked me ‘How do you measure morale?’
Well, let me count the ways! Lemme see here, number of smiles, pats on the back, apples on the teachers desk, Raiders season tickets (not) productivity (see Raiders)? But too ethereal. Or in the case of productivity, too many other factors can influence it.
So, how do you measure morale? Increased morale might be measured by fewer sick days taken, or perhaps even better, fewer absences with late or no notice.
I invite comments from readers as to other graphable ways to measure morale. Let’s discuss other seemingly intangible business measurements and see if there is something concrete we should be measuring.
Later on I’ll write a post to start the dialogue about how to determine whether an organization is actually measuring the right things.
Bart Gragg
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m just researching morale for my director.
Graphable ways of measuring morale:
- Budget vs spend of reward payments (excluding bonus)
- Structured closed questioning of leavers
- length of service
- leavers pattern analysis
- average eye to bum distance ratio of nearest attractive female taking into account poor eyesight and attractiveness of said female (not always linked)
Interesting that you use ‘structured closed questioning’ of leavers. Why closed questions as opposed to open ended questions, which typically encourage people to say more and gives greater insight?