To add to this thread, when looking at records management performance measurements, it is important to choose exactly what you want to measure.  In saying that, you should have a valid rationale for choosing to measure a particular function.  You really would not benefit from having your staff measuring everything, as this is counterproductive, wastes time and does not contribute to morale.  I would recommend you choose a few key activities to measure only.  Many electronic systems are able to provide that functionality through their reporting functionality.

One should also look at why you want to measure a particular function?  Is it for budgetary purposes or justification for more money/resources?  Will what you measure provide a snapshot of activity in your records office?  In other words don't measure for the sake of saying you are measuring.  

Measuring will provide you with good indicators or volumetrics to illustrate records management activities and these can assist you with justifying the need for funding and/or resources.  However, I am also very interested in looking at the services we provide or in other words "Quality Indicators".  Are our services being under utilized or over extended?  Are we providing enough services or are some of them not worth providing?  What is the level of customer satisfaction with our services?  Can we do better?  Are we responding to our customer services standards or service levels?

I will tell you from experience that senior managers look at bottom lines.  How much?  Don't give them too much to look at, as you will notice them in meetings skimming your document to get to the bottom line.  They also like pictures, graphs, pie charts.  The time they have to spend with you is minimal and their attention span to your needs, minimal.  So you have to grab their attention quickly.

Records management is not a big money maker. We always have to justify ourselves because it costs the business money to have us there.  Sometimes it helps to say what could or would happen, if we weren't there?  Hmmm!  Cheers.
John


John A. Gervais
Program Manager
Policy and Guidelines Section
Information Policy and Governance Division
Statistics and Information Management Directorate 
Corporate Strategies and Business Development Branch 
Canada Revenue Agency
320 Queen St., Place de Ville, Tower A, 6th Fl., 
Ottawa, ON, Canada, K1A 0L5 
Tel: 1-613-946-0245
Facsimile: 1-613-941-9649
E-mail: mailto:[log in to unmask]
 
 

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