Lessons Learned Tips on Setting Benchmarks
The following suggestions may be helpful in putting your agency’s benchmarking results in perspective:
o First, and foremost, remember that benchmarking is not a race. Benchmarks are the most helpful when they are used internally for purposes of ongoing reflection and program improvement.
o Focus on the positive. Even if a particular result is shy of the benchmark for that measure, remember that the benchmark is high (benchmarks, by definition, must be high), and that overall, there is more to celebrate than bemoan. Remember that this is an opportunity for you and your staff to take stock of what you are accomplishing and have already accomplished together, and do an even better job in the months ahead!
o A deviation of 1-2% is not significant in most cases, and is well within any benchmark’s measurement error or, simply put the “error factor” associated with measuring virtually anything – especially something as complex as a benchmark.
o Remember that your benchmark results form a profile across different measures. This profile, like any other, is multi-dimensional, which means that no one number “sums up” how your agency is doing. Typically, agencies perform very well in some areas and not quite as well in others. This is to be expected.
