Types of performance measures
1. Accomplishment measure
The Accomplishment measure is a high level measure used to determine how well a function has met the objectives set out in the Performance Budgeting process. The criteria are specified by goals that have been identified and are measured. A function’s accomplishments are summed from monthly county and district reports to be measured against its goals and used in the Performance Budgeting process. Note the Accomplishment measure does not measure the cost of meeting the goals only how well the goals were met.

2. Effectiveness measure
The Effectiveness measure is used at the county level and the state level. It measures how well a function satisfies the “need” by the implementation of local effectiveness initiatives. Initiatives are measured in ratings or values assigned to each initiative which are linked to the county’s goals. Actual implementations of initiatives are rated and the summed reports are used in the Performance Budgeting process. Note the Effectiveness measure does not measure the cost of meeting the goals. For more information see Article 31. “Example Work Improvement Team with Performance Budgeting”.

3. Reactivity measure
Reactivity measures how well a function; usually first responders such as fire and HAZMAT meet reactive standards. By meeting the criteria of its objectives. The criteria are specified by goals that have been identified and are measured. A function’s accomplishments are measured against its goals that are summed from reports to be used in the Performance Budgeting process. Note the Reactivity measure does not measure the cost of meeting the goals but in the case of first responders training and response time are the most important. Staffing should be according to state guidelines set by the State Fire Marshals office.

4. Productivity measure
Productivity measures actual hours expended against standard hours determined by time study or by analysis of detailed process flow charts. It is used primarily in the day to day management of a function that has processes that repeat. A function’s monthly summed reports from the district or county and funding formulas are used in the Performance Budgeting process.

Performance Measurement Rules
1. Start with the public “needs”, which are defined as Functions, New Highway Construction, Family Welfare, Elementary Education and etc.
2. Develop a strategic plan for the function to satisfy the needs in the coming years.
3. Develop realistic annual goals for meeting the Functions strategic plan.
4. Determine what indicators denote the desired progress in meeting the goals. They must be physically measurable.
5. Determine which performance measurements to use. Chose the best ones that denote progress in meeting public “needs” that can be physically measured.

Example 1. Office Productivity and the Correct Staffing Level
This example is one where productivity performance measures are difficult to develop. The staffing level directly affects productivity and therefore must be a part of any productivity measurement. First it is necessary to separate the office work into functions and identify the product or products of each function. Productivity measures are based on standard methods with standard times. When the standard method changes the standard time changes and needs to be recalculated. In this example the method varies slightly but not enough to affect the staffing level, which has the greatest impact on productivity. Productivity is measured by comparing actual expended hours against standard hours.

The approach used this example is to time study each of a function’s processes necessary for the production of each end product. The assumption here is that the time to complete each end product does not vary by more than 5%. If for example the office personnel produce booklets of from 38 to 40 pages. And you find the time varying greater than 5% in a time study you need to review all of the processes to determine just where the variation is occurring.

If the Variation is significant and stable you may have two products or two booklets of different length with two different standard times. But if the booklets all have varying page length then we determine that the product is “pages” not a specific “booklet” and we measure the productivity using the following method.

When Booklets are made they have fixed time elements such as the covers and variable time elements, the number of pages and proof reading. Now if we select a short element (in time) a “page” we can restate the fixed cover development time and the variable proof reading time in terms of pages. We will call these “page units” that we can use to measure productivity.

Continuing the example: In a time study the time for making a booklet of 157 pages is found to be 225 total hours. Breaking this down:
Booklet cover development time = 8 standard hours / booklet
Page development time per page = 1.35 hrs. / page
Proof reading time per page = .12 hrs. / page
Page development plus proof reading = 1.35 +.12 = 1.47 standard hrs. / page
Booklet cover 8 Hrs./1.47 page = 5.44 standard page units

Productivity calculation example for a booklet of 210 pages:
(booklet cover = 5.44 page units) + (210 produced pages x 1.47) = 314.14 page unit Standard hrs.
Actual expended hours = 367.8 expended hours
Productivity = 314.14 page unit std. hrs. / 367.8 expended hrs. x 100 = 85.41%

Note that staffing to the standard hours is required and that over staffing will cause productivity to drop significantly and the problem will be shown in reports to management.

Calculating the correct office staffing level
Now lets assume that the study has been completed we begin the data analysis phase. First we total the time spent by each class of employee (i.e. secretary, supervisor, photocopier etc.) on each end product. We do this for all end products. Then we document the number of each of the end products produced per month by averaging at least three months of data. Next we adjust the standard 100% rate to a 75% rate (which adds 25% more time). We now arrive at the total adjusted time by class of employee to produce all of the end products per month. When we convert the time in minutes to hours for each class of employee and divide this by the total hours worked per month by office personnel (not including over time) we arrive at the correct staffing level for this office.

For the performance budgeting process we would calculate a funding formula for each of the function’s products. This is done using the same method as that was used to develop standard hours only we gather all the costs to produce a single product. Now knowing the cost of each of the products and comparing the products’ public “need” from the strategic plan we develop goals which include the product mix for the next year and ultimately the budget.

Example 2. Function- “New Highway construction”
Accomplishment measurement
Review of public needs: Traffic deaths on Highway 13 are significant.
Strategic Plan: Replace 37 miles of two-lane highway 13 over the next five years.
Goal for 2005: Replace 8-mile section of highway 13.
Accomplishment measurement: Is “miles of new highway constructed in 2005“.
Productivity measurement
Productivity measurement is always based on standard hours determined by work measurement. The standard hours and a standard method of performing the scheduled processes of the function “new highway construction” are determined in this case by a time study analyst. The daily hours expended are compared with the standard and reported on a weekly basis with a monthly summed report going to the state office. The monthly summed data and funding formulas are used in the Performance Budgeting process.

Example 3. Function- Vocational Technical Education
Accomplishment measurement
Review of public needs: Unemployment is above 15% in five counties with labor shortages in the following areas: health care: nursing, x-ray technicians, nursing home aids and construction skills: carpentry, plumbing, dry wall and painting.

Strategic plan: Construct two Vocational Technical schools to service the five counties in the next three years.
Goal for 2005: Construct one Vocational Technical school to serve the most needed counties. Accomplishment measurement: Vocational technical school constructed.

Productivity measurement
Measures the productivity in meeting the construction schedule against standard hours as explained in example 1.

Example 4. Function- State Motor Vehicle Records
The processing of motor vehicle records in the state office.
Accomplishment measure
Review of public needs: Public complaints of turnaround service being unnecessarily long have shown a five-fold increase while office personnel have increased by 15%.
Strategic plan: Find a way to provide better public service by reducing public complaints by 80% over the next three years.
Goal 2005: reduce Public complaints 40%.
Accomplishment measure: Percent of public complaints reduced.

Productivity measure
There is clearly a problem here that has not been solved by increasing the number of personnel. First how has the number of motor vehicle records processed changed? If there has been a 20% increase then the function may still be understaffed.