Change Management Metrics And KPIs

How can you tell if your employee listening programs are any good? At Google, we had a simple question we used to evaluate our own programs: Is the employee feedback representative, constructive, heard and considered? Let’s unpack each principle: 1️⃣ Representative: Are you hearing from a true cross-section of your workforce? Can leaders trust the data? Effective listening goes beyond the usual survey respondents. It actively seeks out diverse perspectives across demographics, departments, tenure, and management levels. When feedback is representative, you gain a holistic understanding of your organization's pulse, enabling more inclusive and impactful decisions. When it’s not, your results won’t have enough credibility to effect change. 2️⃣ Constructive: Is the feedback you're gathering actionable and solution-oriented? Will leaders know how to utilize the data? While it's essential to have channels for critical and negative feedback, you must ensure that it's shared in a way that helps turn insights into actionable improvements. “Employees are unhappy” is not a constructive insight, but  “High-performing employees were twice as likely to be dissatisfied with their opportunities for internal mobility” is much better. 3️⃣ Heard: Do your employees know their feedback is being used?   Acknowledging receipt of feedback is crucial. Simple communication, like "we've received your input and are reviewing it," can significantly boost trust and encourage continued participation. Silence, on the other hand, can breed cynicism. Always share feedback back. It doesn’t have to be question-by-question results (great if it is though!)--but at least share what the key lessons are that leaders have taken away from the feedback. 4️⃣ Considered: Do employees understand how their feedback was evaluated? If their feedback brought change? If not, why? Employees need to see that their feedback is genuinely taken into account. This doesn't mean every suggestion will be implemented. Still, it does mean transparently communicating how feedback is being analyzed, what themes are emerging, and how it's influencing programs and policies. When employees see that their input makes a difference, they become more invested. When they don’t, they become cynical, which can lead to distrust of leaders and undercut business performance. 👩💻 Hi, I'm Mary Kate Stimmler, PhD, and I write about using social science to build great workplaces and careers. (Image created by Whisk/Gemini Labs)

Annual surveys are dead and ABN AMRO realized it the hard way —by watching engagement data arrive months too late, after the damage was already done. ABN AMRO replaced their once-a-year surveys with a 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐮𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐥.  Every month, they ask a representative group of employees one core question: Would you recommend this place to work? Plus—open-ended feedback on what’s working and what’s not. Over 𝟏,𝟎𝟎𝟎 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐩𝐞𝐫 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐡 are analyzed using NLP models like TF-IDF, Word2Vec, and SVM. That means 150+ themes clustered and tracked—𝐢𝐧 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞. And the impact: 1. Spot issues before they spiral 2. Build trust through transparency 3. Align HR insights with quarterly leadership decisions They didn’t just collect data. They turned feedback into fuel—for culture, strategy, and trust. 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐲𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐬 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞. Fast, actionable, employee-led. Not a dashboard no one opens, 10 months too late. When employees feel heard and see change—HR becomes a driver of transformation, not just measurement. #PeopleAnalytics #EmployeeEngagement #HRTech #Leadership #ContinuousListening #FutureOfWork

“If we track everything, we’ll finally feel in control.” That’s what a founder told me before launching a 60+ KPI dashboard. It was real-time. Color-coded. Mounted on TVs across the office like a Formula 1 pit wall. And it completely backfired. Here’s what actually happened: - The founder checked it every hour… and panicked when a number dipped. - Meetings turned into 45-minute metric marathons. - The team checked out, not because they didn’t care, but because they didn’t understand what mattered. The truth? Startups don’t fail because they lack data. They fail because they track everything, and act on nothing. More metrics = more noise. More dashboards ≠ more clarity. So… how do you choose the right KPIs? Start here: 1. Anchor to a core objective. What does success look like right now? (Retention? Burn runway? Gross margin?) 2. Define decision-making needs. If a metric doesn’t inform a clear decision, cut it. 3. Limit by team, not by dashboard. Give each leader 2–3 metrics they own, understand, and drive. 4. Make it human. A KPI is only useful if your team understands it. Talk about it. Teach it. Use it to drive action, not anxiety. It’s about shifting the conversation inside the company: → From reporting to decision-making → From panic to progress → From reactive leadership to aligned execution If you’re scaling and your dashboard looks impressive but feels like noise, it’s probably time for a reset. PS: Be honest, how many KPIs are you currently tracking?

Your dashboards are green but your problems keep getting worse. You're tracking revenue per employee, units produced, and efficiency percentages. All trending upward. But customers still complain about quality. Equipment still breaks down unexpectedly.   Operators still struggle with changeovers. Here's why most metrics miss the mark: They measure what happened yesterday. Not what will happen tomorrow. They focus on outputs. Not the inputs that create those outputs. These 8 KPIs actually predict and prevent problems: 1. OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) Shows equipment reality, not just availability 2. First Pass Yield Reveals true process capability 3. Total Cost of Quality** Captures the real price of problems 4. Employee Suggestion Implementation Rate Measures engagement that drives improvement 5. Setup/Changeover Time Determines your flexibility advantage 6. Supplier Quality Performance Prevents problems at the source 7. Safety Leading Indicators Predicts incidents before they happen 8. Customer Complaint Resolution Time Shows responsiveness that builds loyalty Each metric drives specific behaviors. OEE pushes systematic waste elimination. First Pass Yield forces quality at the source. Cost of Quality makes prevention profitable. The best manufacturing teams measure fewer things. But they measure the right things. And they act on every single number. Stop measuring your past. Start predicting your future. Question for you: If you could only track one KPI for the next 90 days, which would drive the biggest change?

Traditional KPIs like budget and schedule adherence are a given. To truly drive program success, we need to dig deeper. Here are 5 KPIs that can revolutionize how you measure and manage your programs: Time-to-Value: How quickly are you delivering tangible benefits? This KPI shifts focus from mere task completion to actual value creation. Try measuring the time from project initiation to the first realized benefit. Decision Velocity: In our fast-paced world, slow decisions can kill programs. Track the average time taken to make critical decisions. Aim to reduce this time while maintaining decision quality. Risk Response Time: Risks are inevitable, but slow responses are not. Monitor how quickly your team identifies and addresses risks. Shorter response times can prevent risks from becoming major roadblocks. Continuous Improvement Rate: Great programs don't stay static. Track how often your team implements process improvements. This KPI fosters a culture of innovation and adaptability. Change Absorption Rate: Change is constant in program management. Measure how quickly and effectively your team adapts to changes in direction or scope. High change absorption rates indicate a resilient, agile program. The goal isn't to track every possible metric. Choose the KPIs that align best with your program's objectives and organizational culture. Join the conversation in the comments. Which KPIs do you use to measure your programs? #ProgramManagement #KPIs #ContinuousImprovement #Leadership #ProjectManagement

Let's listen to employees better - at scale. Let’s stop pretending listening is hard. It's not! The real challenge? Listening well - and doing something with what you hear. ✅ If your employee listening strategy starts and ends with an annual engagement survey, it’s outdated. ✅ If it relies on HR to chase down feedback with zero visibility into outcomes, it’s broken. Employees don’t get feedback fatigue. They get inaction fatigue. Seriously - it's a thing! If you want to listen better at scale, it’s time to upgrade your approach. 1️⃣ Use Open and Closed Feedback Options Yes/no questions and multiple choice aren’t enough. Pair structured surveys with open-ended responses, crowdsourced ideas, and anonymous channels to surface what really matters. There are so many different way to listen to employees! 2️⃣ Marry Qualitative and Quantitative Insight Don’t just track scores - interpret stories. Use text analytics, sentiment tracking, and interviews to connect the dots behind the data. Numbers tell you what. Comments tell you why. Don't overlook the comments! 3️⃣ Close the Loop - Visibly Acknowledge the feedback. Share the themes. Show that real people see it and read it. Silence breeds distrust. Transparency builds credibility. And that leads to better future response rates. 4️⃣ Act on What You Hear Feedback is useless if it doesn’t change processes, actions, and behaviors. Prioritize action. Assign ownership. Track progress. Make change visible and personal. 5️⃣ Communicate What’s Changing Keep employees and customers in the loop, even if the change is slow. “We heard you, and here’s what’s next” goes a long way toward rebuilding trust. The bottom line is this: 🌟 Listening at scale truly is not about collecting more data. 🌟 But it is about building a system that earns trust through action. If you’re serious about culture, engagement, and retention, this is where it starts. It's time to upgrade your listening strategy. For more details, see the links in the first comment. #voiceoftheemployee #employeeexperience #employeeunderstanding #feedback #data

"The numbers that almost Killed us" Tuesday morning. A $40M company's board meeting. Revenue charts pointing up. Margins look solid. Customer acquisition costs are stable. 'We're crushing it,' the CEO announced proudly. Friday afternoon. Their biggest client left. Two VPs resigned. And nobody saw it coming. This isn't fiction. This was a client's company last year. They were tracking every metric in the book - except the ones that mattered. Their painful lesson about metrics: The most dangerous numbers are the ones that make you feel safe. Consider these fallen giants: ✅ Blockbuster had great revenue numbers right until Netflix won ✅ Nokia dominated market share until the iPhone launched ✅ Circuit City's margins looked solid before their collapse Like them, this company was tracking lagging indicators - measurements of what already happened. They missed the leading indicators - signals of what's about to happen. The Metrics That Actually Matter: 1) The Whispers ✅ Employee referral rates dropping ✅ Time to fill key positions increasing ✅ Internal promotion rates falling 2) The Canaries ✅ Customer contact frequency changes ✅ Support ticket sentiment shifts ✅ Payment timing variations 3) The Undercurrents ✅ Process exception rates ✅ Decision cycle lengths ✅ Cross-department collaboration scores Today, that same CEO has a different approach. Revenue still matters, but it's not the only story. His team tracks the quiet signals that precede problems: ✅ Meeting attendance patterns ✅ Email response times ✅ Customer engagement depth Team collaboration metrics The result? They're not just monitoring performance. They're predicting it. Your KPIs tell you where you've been. These metrics tell you where you're going. What keeps you up at night might not show up in your dashboard, but it's trying to tell you something. Are you listening? #Leadership #BusinessStrategy #Growth

Picture this: I'm presenting to our financial firm's leadership, drowning in blank stares after rattling off IAM system stats. Then our CISO asks, "But are we actually safer?" Cue awkward silence. 🦗 That day changed everything. We realized we'd been measuring IAM success all wrong. It's not about accounts managed - it's about risk reduced. Here's what we learned: 1. Speak Risk Language:   Showing a 60% drop in unauthorized access attempts got the board's attention. Risk is business-speak. 2. Find Risk Hotspots:   80% of our risk came from 20% of accounts. This led to tough talks about access policies. 3. Embrace "Oops" Moments:   Tracking risk revealed control failures, leading to a 40% security posture boost in 6 months. Key Wins: - 70% faster ex-employee access revocation (3 days to 2 hours) - 50% fewer password-related breaches - 95% access certification accuracy (up from 62%) Challenges? Plenty. Resistance to change, translating tech to risk metrics, legacy system headaches. But preventing a potential data breach turned skeptics into believers. Quick-start guide: 1. Assess risks to identify critical access points. 2. Align IAM metrics with business risk frameworks. 3. Start small - improve one high-risk area to demonstrate impact. We shifted from "look at all this IAM stuff" to "here's how we've cut risk." It elevated IAM from a tech function to a strategic asset. Fellow IAM leaders: What's your top risk reduction metric? What curveballs did you face? How has this focus shift changed the game for your team? Let's learn from each other!

🚨 𝐏𝐌𝐎 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬 — 𝐀𝐫𝐞 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐌𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐌𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬? Here’s the hard truth: Executives don’t care how many Gantt charts we’ve created or how many meetings we’ve held. What they do care about is: 📈 Value. 🎯 Results. 🤝 Strategic alignment. 𝐈𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐏𝐌𝐎 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐚 𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐲 𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞, 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐤 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐮𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐬, 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐩𝐮𝐭𝐬. Here are 5 metrics your PMO should be tracking that executives actually care about: 🔹 1. 𝐁𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐟𝐢𝐭 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐳𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 – Are the promised business outcomes being delivered after project completion? Track actual benefits vs. forecasted. 🔹 2. 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐜 𝐀𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 – What percentage of active projects directly support one or more strategic goals? If the PMO isn’t aligned to strategy, it's just busywork. 🔹 3. 𝐏𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐟𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐨 𝐕𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐞 𝐃𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 – Measure value delivered across the full portfolio (e.g., cost savings, revenue growth, efficiency gains), not just project success. 🔹 4. 𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐕𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐞 – How quickly are projects delivering usable value? Not just "on time," but how fast are results feltby the business? 🔹 5. 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐜𝐞 𝐔𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐳𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐧 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐜 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐤 – Are your best resources working on the most valuable initiatives, or spread too thin across low-priority efforts? 📊 Tracking these shifts the PMO from a project tracking function to a value-driving partner. 👉 Let’s stop managing to timelines and start managing to impact. 🤔 Has your PMO struggled to convey value to executives? What metrics have made a difference in how your PMO demonstrates value? ♻️ Repost if you liked the content of this post! _________________ 🔔 Ring the bell to follow me on LinkedIn for topics on #ProjectManagement, #ProgramManagement, #PMO, #BusinessTransformation, #CareerTips, and #Leadership. #ProjectManager #ProjectManagementProfessional #BusinessValue #StrategicExecution #KPIs #PortfolioManagement #StrategyRealization

Moving From Metrics to Meaningful Action Tracking metrics like employee satisfaction or turnover is important—they show where you stand. But numbers alone won’t create change. Metrics tell you what’s happening, but they don’t explain why or what to do next. Pairing KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) with OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) can help. KPIs give you the data, while OKRs tie that data to actionable goals that reflect impact—and asking why ties it altogether. For example, instead of just tracking eNPS (Employee Net Promoter Score), ask: • Why are we measuring this? • What does it tell us about our workplace? • How can we use it to create meaningful improvements for employees? By focusing on the connection between metrics, meaning and action, you can move from simply evaluating performance to transforming your organization. How are you linking what you measure to what you achieve—can your team tell you the impact and why we are tracking specific metrics? #KPIs #OKRs #EmployeeExperience #WorkplaceImprovement