Every company's KPIs were affected by COVID-19: from supply chain disruption to stay-at-home orders, many aspects of the pandemic had a significant effect on businesses. In this article will explain the importance of KPIs, how they may have been affected since 2020, and how you can improve them even in a pandemic.
What are KPIs why are they important?
KPI stands for Key Performance Indicators. They help measure company performance and help determine to what extent goals are being met.
Every company has a mission and a purpose. But a company's activity must be profitable and offer benefits. KPIs' importance lies here, as they let you know to what extent this is being achieved.
You can only improve what you measure, which is why monitoring KPIs is so important.
Monitoring KPIs before and after the pandemic
When making plans, companies specify what they want to achieve and how they will measure it. In this sense, a pre- and post- test is applied, i.e. how much was achieved before the pandemic and how much after, which facilitates the monitoring of KPIs.
The pandemic reached most countries at the beginning of 2020, but planning for that year was based on 2019 KPIs. As a result, many objectives were not reached.
The issue goes even deeper, because the pandemic and stay-at-home orders led to changes in consumption patterns. This affected KPIs, making some indicators unattainable and adding new ones that were not foreseen at the beginning of 2020.
3 reasons why KPIs are harder to achieve in a pandemic
All companies have been affected by the pandemic. The vast majority saw their KPIs plummet, while a few managed to recover quickly. Here are three reasons why.
They are too ambitious
In many cases indicators are not achieved because they are too ambitious. They are calculated based on pre-pandemic measurements, and the profound changes that have taken place since then lead to lower-than-expected results.
It is important that operations keep pace with the times. For example, some companies have to reduce production of certain products for which demand has dropped, and thus risk not getting a return on investment.
They are not up to date
The second reason indicators may not be met is related to the first: when resuming operations, it is unrealistic for companies to expect to meet KPIs decided on before the pandemic.
Specialists foresaw several possible recovery scenarios. It is also necessary, though, to recognize variables in your sector and, on that basis, update indicators to match the current reality.
There is inadequate equipment control
Production has undoubtedly been affected by recent events. Nevertheless, we cannot lose sight of the fact that the team of employees is essential for achieving KPIs.
For this reason, proper management of the team is essential. Intangibles such as motivation are important considerations, but you should also consider the physical management of the production line and distribution of employees.
This is where your decisions can help monitor KPIs and improve productivity, because you will improving workflow efficiency and thus reducing the time each step takes.
By relying on KPIs you can be sure that you are moving towards greater productivity and achieving the results you set out to achieve.
Managing time and managing your space: the key to KPIs
Operations management is demanding. Managers must have a global vision of the processes they are in charge of and be able to optimize them. In this regard KPIs are key.
As we mentioned, though, the new dynamics associated with social distancing present greater challenges for management. Social distancing or physical barriers increase the time it takes to complete each process.
Redesigning spaces and adjusting procedures affects KPIs. Doing this process manually takes time and concentration, and even small subsequent changes can lead to setbacks.
Relying on technological tools to make these adjustments takes less time. It also allows subsequent changes to be automated.
This is why we recommend optimizing time and space management with the support of specialized software. This tool will allow you to assign specific spaces to your employees and analyze traffic patterns.
Conclusion
In short, companies' KPIs have been deeply affected by COVID-19. This is mostly due to external factors such as supply chain disruption and stay-at-home directives.
However, you can take action to improve your KPIs by incorporating technology that optimizes workspace layout and staff assignments. Visit Parso and discover a platform with solutions for this.
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