Creating an Effective Organizational Dashboard
Many companies use dashboards to communicate meaningful information to team members and stakeholders. These dashboards typically consist of key performance indicators (KPI’s) or other data that can help leadership gain an overview of the company’s financial or operational position. If used correctly, dashboards can be a terrific means of summarizing and communicating critical information or incentivizing team members to execute on certain strategic initiatives. Here are some tips for helping create useful dashboards for your company:
Pick the Right Information. One of the most vital components of a successful dashboard is relevant information. Not only is it important that the most pertinent information be summarized and included, but it is also important that leadership and team members understand how the KPI’s being reported on the dashboard relate to the company’s overall strategic objectives. This helps drive long-term success by tying it to short-term operations.
Keep it Simple. Dashboards are most effective when they contain summaries of key performance indicators. Creating a dashboard that consists of 50 pages of “summarized” data will discourage usage and be of little value.
Understand the Data Collection Method. If the information being included on the dashboard seems to take an outrageous amount of time to gather and summarize, it may be time to reassess the process or the information being gathered. Creating a system that allows real-time measurement of KPI’s is much more valuable than a dashboard that lags two or three weeks because of difficulty in obtaining the data.
Assess the Value. Dashboards are only useful if teams utilize them on a consistent basis. If certain measures are not being used, it might be time to reassess their value. Your dashboard does not have to be set in stone; it can be a “working document” that changes as your needs change. In fact, many organizations have certain measures that are critical and remain static, but others that change periodically depending on strategic initiatives.
Dashboards can be very effective tools for gaining snapshots of a company’s key performance indicators. In addition, they can be extremely valuable for driving strategic initiatives, creating employee variables compensation plans, and communicating critical information to team members and stakeholders.
Contact us now to learn more about how Vortex can help your organization create a meaningful, effective, and efficient dashboard.