Newsletter Reprint

December 1996

Balancing Measures of Performance

The New York Regional Office (NYRO) of the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) wants every employee to clearly understand how their actions affect the benefits and services provided to veterans and their families. It recognized the need to align organizational systems and develop a strategic management information system tool a "balanced scorecard" that will keep everyone focused on results. The NYRO also revised its performance management and incentive systems to make sure that organizational outcomes become the basis for performance ratings and rewards.

The NYRO realizes that any information and measurement system will have to consider the needs of all of its stakeholders. The old information and measurement systems used the measures of timeliness, quality, and productivity, and viewed the VBA Central Office, OMB, and GAO as stakeholders. The results of its redesign work demonstrate that the NYRO had other stakeholders that it rarely had thought about previously: its customers (veterans and their families), taxpayers, and employees. Their needs had to be considered in any measurement system the office developed.

To create its balanced scorecard, the NYRO selected five core areas to measure: speed, accuracy, customer satisfaction, cost, and employee development.

Speed

Accuracy

Customer Satisfaction

Cost

Employee Development

Speed. Speed is measured as the length of time it takes to complete specific products or work units. For example:

the average days it takes to complete a claim;

the average time a customer has to wait for service;

the number of telephone calls that are lost; or

the number of claims over 6 months old.

Accuracy. Accuracy looks at performance measured against VBA's internal specifications. Examples are:

correct information given at interviews;

how well benefit applications were completed with and without VBA help; and

the number of correct determinations made.

Customer Satisfaction. Customer Satisfaction is assessed using a monthly customer satisfaction survey that measures customer perceptions of reliability, competence, and communication.

Cost. Cost measures track the unit cost of a claim, which is calculated by summing payroll costs and other costs (e.g., space and supplies) and dividing by the number of claims.

Employee Development. Employee Development is assessed using measures from such sources as climate surveys of team effectiveness and skill inventories.