An Executive Guide to Continuous Performance Improvement

The purpose of this guide is to provide the leadership team with generic but essentially practical advice on the use of benchmarking as a tool for continuous improvement in efficiency and performance. may be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, only with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers at the above mentioned address. This executive guide is written for the organisation's leadership and executive teams. The purpose of this guide is to provide these teams with generic but essentially practical advice on the use of benchmarking as a tool for continuous improvement in efficiency and performance. Public sector organisations seek to deliver the best outcomes for citizens, users and the taxpayer. As the squeeze on the public finances tightens, money must go further. Benchmarking and a culture of continuous improvement can act as a catalyst for driving efficiency, identifying new solutions that offer cost reductions and raising the performance of an organisation to the standards achieved by the best. Benchmarking is not a new technique. Nonetheless, the Institute of Chartered Accountants Australia believes that public sector organisations have not yet realised the full potential of benchmarking. This is largely because, while organisations have grown accustomed to comparing relative performance information, too few proceed to the next steps of embracing a continuous examination of functions and processes and sharing information and learning from others about improvements to underlying processes, efficiency and performance. To maximise the full potential of benchmarking, senior leaders need to adopt a strategic approach to building relationships with partners and embedding benchmarking into a process of continuous improvement. This publication discusses the steps required to prepare an organisation for a benchmarking exercise that will help drive continuous performance improvement. Working within this strategic perspective, service managers must select the critical processes for benchmarking, identify the key performance measures and handle the ongoing relationship with benchmarking partners or clubs. The range of options and methods available are set out in this executive guide. Because of their skills in analysing and presenting cost and other performance information, finance professionals will play a critical role at the heart of any benchmarking program. To do this they will need to consider the …