Welcome to the World Management Benchmarking Tool

This 18-question survey allows you to benchmark your manufacturing firm against more than 10,000 senior managers who have shared their management practices with us since 2004.

Please answer all 18 questions. After answering all the questions click on 'place me' to find out how your company's management practices compare to others in your country, industry or size class.

Country:

Please select your country. If not available, pick any. You will see the average score for this country.

Size:

Please select your size (number of employees). If not available, pick any. You will see the average score for this firm size.

Operations Management
Operations Management is all about how effectively modern management techniques have been introduced in your company: why were these modern processes introduced, for how long have these practices been in place, how are other departments of the company, outside your own, involved in implementing these processes?

1 Layout of patient flow In regards to the patient journey or flow for a typical episode, how closely located are wards, theatres, diagnostics centres and consumables? How often do you run into problems with the current pathway management?

1
Lay-out of hospital and organisation of workplace is not conducive to patient flow (e.g. ward is on different level from theatre or consumables are often not available in the right place at the right time).
2
Between 1 and 3
3
Lay-out of hospital has been thought-through and optimised as far as possible; work place organisation is not regularly challenged/ changed (or vice versa).
4
Between 3 and 5
5
Hospital layout has been configured to optimize patient flow; workplace organization is challenged regularly and changed whenever needed.

2 Rationale for introducing standardization/pathway management What is the rationale for making operational improvements to the management of the patient pathway?

1
Changes were imposed topdown or because other departments were making (similar) changes; rationale was not communicated or understood.
2
Between 1 and 3
3
Changes were made because of financial pressure and the need to save money or as a (short-term) measure to achieve government and/ or external targets.
4
Between 3 and 5
5
Changes were made to improve overall performance, both clinical and financial, with buy-in from all affected staff groups; the changes were communicated in a coherent 'change story'.
Performance Monitoring
Performance Monitoring is all about how well your performance monitoring system informs your and your employees' day-to-day operations: how do processes and attitudes are screened, how meaningful are your metrics in relation to how frequently they measured and reviewed, to what degree the detection of different levels of process-based performance leads to adequate and consequential process

3 Standardisation and protocols How standardized are the main clinical processes?

1
Little standardisation and few protocols exists (e.g. different clinical staff have different approaches to the same treatments).
2
Between 1 and 3
3
Protocols have been created but are not commonly used because they are too complicated or not monitored adequately (e.g. may be on website or in manual only).
4
Between 3 and 5
5
Protocols are known and used by all clinical staff and regularly followed up on through some form of monitoring or oversight.

4 Good use of human resources With respect to your staff, what happens when different hospital areas become busier than others?

1
Staff often end up undertaking tasks for which they are not qualified or over-qualified when they could be used elsewhere; staff do not move across units, even when they are generally underutilised.
2
Between 1 and 3
3
Senior staff try to use the right staff for the right job but do not go to great lengths to ensure this; staff may move but often in an uncoordinated manner.
4
Between 3 and 5
5
Staff recognise effective human resource deployment as a key issue and will go to some lengths to make it happen; shifting staff from less busy to busy areas is done routinely and in a coordinated manner, based on the documented skills.

5 Continuous improvement How do problems typically get exposed and fixed?

1
Process improvements are made only when problems occur or only involve one staff group.
2
Between 1 and 3
3
Improvements are made in irregular meetings involving all staff groups to improve performance in their area of work (e.g. ward or theatre).
4
Between 3 and 5
5
Exposing problems in a structured way is integral to an individuals responsibilities and resolution involves all staff groups, along the entire patient pathway; exposing and resolving problems is a part of a regular business process rather than being the result of extraordinary efforts.

6 Performance tracking What kind of performance or quality indicators would you use for performance tracking?

1
Measures tracked do not indicate directly if overall objectives are being met (only government targets are tracked); tracking is an ad-hoc process (certain processes are not tracked at all).
2
Between 1 and 3
3
Most important performance or quality indicators are tracked formally; tracking is overseen by senior staff.
4
Between 3 and 5
5
Performance or quality indicators are continuously tracked and communicated against most critical measures, both formally and informally, to all staff using a range of visual management tools.

7 Performance review How do you review your main performance indicators?

1
Performance is reviewed infrequently or in an un-meaningful way (e.g. only success or failure is noted).
2
Between 1 and 3
3
Performance is reviewed periodically with both successes and failures identified; results are communicated to senior staff; no clear follow up plan is adopted.
4
Between 3 and 5
5
Performance is continually reviewed, based on the indicators tracked; all aspects are followed up on to ensure continuous improvement; results are communicated to all staff.
Target Setting
Target Setting is all about how tightly your targets are linked to the company's wider objectives: are your targets covering a sufficiently broad set of metrics, how strongly are your short and long term targets connected, how well are they cascaded down and clarified to your workers?

8 Performance dialogue How are these performance review meetings structured?

1
The right information for a constructive discussion is often not present or the quality is too low; conversations focus overly on data that is not meaningful; a clear agenda is not known and purpose is not explicitly stated; next steps are not clearly defined.
2
Between 1 and 3
3
Review conversations are held with the appropriate data present; objectives of meetings are clear to all participating and a clear agenda is present; conversations do not drive to the root causes of the problems; next steps are not well defined.
4
Between 3 and 5
5
Regular review/performance conversations focus on problem solving and addressing root causes; purpose, agenda and follow-up steps are clear to all; meetings are an opportunity for constructive feedback and coaching.

9 Consequence management What would happen if a follow up plan agreed during one of your meetings were not enacted?

1
Failure to achieve agreed objectives does not carry any consequences.
2
Between 1 and 3
3
Failure to achieve agreed results is tolerated for a period before action is taken.
4
Between 3 and 5
5
A failure to achieve agreed targets drives retraining in identified areas of weakness or moving individuals to where their skills are appropriate.

10 Target balance What types of targets are set for the hospital?

1
Goals focused only on government targets and achieving the budget.
2
Between 1 and 3
3
Goals are balanced set of targets (including quality, waiting time, operational efficiency, and financial balance); goals form part of the appraisal for senior staff only or do not extend to all staff groups; real interdependency is not well understood.
4
Between 3 and 5
5
Goals are a balanced set of targets covering all four dimensions (including quality, waiting time, operational efficiency, and financial balance); interplay of all four dimensions is understood by senior and junior staff (clinicians as well as nurses and managers).

11 Target inter-connection What is the motivation behind these goals and how are they cascaded down to the individual workers?

1
Goals do not cascade down the organisation.
2
Between 1 and 3
3
Goals do cascade but only to some staff groups (e.g. nurses only).
4
Between 3 and 5
5
Goals increase in specificity as they cascade, ultimately defining individual expectations for all staff groups.

12 Time horizon of targets What kind of time scale are you looking at with your targets? Are your goals set independently of each other?

1
The staff's main focus is on achieving short-term targets.
2
Between 1 and 3
3
There are short and long-term goals for all levels of the organisation; goals are set independently and therefore are not necessarily linked to one another.
4
Between 3 and 5
5
Long-term goals are translated into specific short-term targets so that short-term targets become a 'staircase' to reach long-term goals.
Talent Management
Talent Management is all about how you manage your people: to what degree is people management emphasized within your company, how careful are your hiring policies, how closely are pay and promotions linked to the ability and effort of your employees, how do you deal with under-performers, and how do you retain your best-performers?

13 Target stretch How tough are your targets? Do you feel pushed by them?

1
Goals are either too easy or impossible to achieve, at least in part because they are set with little clinician involvement (e.g. simply off historical performance).
2
Between 1 and 3
3
In most areas, senior staff push for aggressive goals based on external benchmarks but with little buy-in from clinical staff; there are a few sacred cows that are not held to the same standard.
4
Between 3 and 5
5
Goals are genuinely demanding for all parts of the organisation and developed in consultation with senior staff (e.g. to adjust external benchmarks appropriately).

14 Clarity and comparability of targets If your staff were asked about individual targets, what would they say?

1
Performance measures are complex and not clearly understood or only relate to government/ regulator targets; individual performance is not made public.
2
Between 1 and 3
3
Performance measures are well defined and communicated; performance is public at all levels but comparisons are discouraged.
4
Between 3 and 5
5
Performance measures are well defined, strongly communicated and reinforced at all reviews; performance and rankings are made public to induce competition.

15 Rewarding high performers How does your appraisal/reward system work?

1
Staff members are rewarded in the same way irrespective of their level of performance.
2
Between 1 and 3
3
There is an evaluation system for the awarding of performance related rewards that are non-financial at the individual level; rewards are always or never achieved.
4
Between 3 and 5
5
There is an evaluation system which rewards individuals based on performance; the system includes both personal financial and non-financial awards; rewards are awarded as a consequence of well-defined and monitored individual achievements.

16 Removing poor performers If you had a nurse who could or would not do his/her job what would the hospital do?

1
Poor performers are rarely removed from their positions.
2
Between 1 and 3
3
Suspected poor performers stay in a position for more than a year before action is taken.
4
Between 3 and 5
5
We move poor performers out of the hospital/ department or to less critical roles as soon as a weakness is identified.

17 Promoting high performers How would you identify and develop your star performers?

1
People are promoted primarily on the basis of tenure (years of service).
2
Between 1 and 3
3
People are promoted upon the basis of performance.
4
Between 3 and 5
5
We actively identify, develop and promote our top performers.

18 Managing talent How do senior managers show that attracting talented individuals and developing their skills is a top priority in your hospital?

1
Senior staff do not communicate that attracting, retaining and developing talent throughout the organisation is a top priority.
2
Between 1 and 3
3
Senior staff believe and communicate that having top talent throughout the organisation is key to good performance.
4
Between 3 and 5
5
Senior staff are evaluated and held accountable on the strength of the talent pool they actively build.

19 Retaining talent If you had a top performing manager, nurse or clinician who wanted to leave, what would the hospital do?

1
We do little to try and keep our top talent.
2
Between 1 and 3
3
We usually work hard to keep our top talent.
4
Between 3 and 5
5
We do whatever it takes to retain our top talent across all staff groups.

20 Attracting talent What makes it distinctive to work at your hospital as opposed to other similar hospitals?

1
Competing hospitals offer stronger reasons for talented people to join their organizations.
2
Between 1 and 3
3
Our value proposition is comparable to those offered by other hospitals.
4
Between 3 and 5
5
We provide a unique value proposition to encourage talented individuals to join our hospital before our competition.