Balanced Scorecard Toolkit for Crisis Management

Maintaining performance control through the recession scorecard can certainly make it easier to handle the effects of recession. The underlying concept is maximization of limited resources to counter economic downturn.

Recession is not just lurking corners anymore; it is definitely careening the streets of cities of countries all over the world. Yes, economic downturn has finally sunk in its hooks and with it comes a wide variety of financial problems and issues that all companies have to deal with. Any company would certainly find their employees slacking off in terms of performance. This is understandable because really, what employee would be able to concentrate fully on the job if he or she sees so many employees all over the world being taken off the payroll? It is but natural for any employee to feel a little edgy and nervous about the possibility of losing his or her job. But then, with employee performance degrading, this would just mean more problems for the company itself. Thus, there has to be balance struck here. Fortunately, there is something you can do – you still ensure performance control through the recession scorecard. The first step ever in maintaining optimum performance in any company is hiring the right people. Thus, that task would land on the HR department and the recession scorecard should then be geared towards that department.

You have to understand that with the many changes happening around the world, companies and enterprises just cannot help but feel lost are strung off the paths they have taken. However, you just cannot stop these changes from happening because these are effects of the economic downturn that all of us are going through. These changes can be useful, in the sense that business partners and clients would be able to share fresh expectations about the enterprise itself. At times, the expectations are reasoned out among the clients and partners. Most of the time, however, these are not discussed anymore. These expectations would then just be charged to wishful thinking – which makes them all the more difficult to understand and realize.

What makes the situation worse is the fact that many automation tools have been developed during the last decade. These tools focus on the creation and the monitoring of metric systems that effectively measure company performance. Many companies assume that performance would still improve as long as there are metrics implemented and even if recession is already underway.

So, what metrics can then be used on your recession scorecard?

Cost per Hire

This metric has an extremely volatile nature. This makes it the more dangerous metric to deal with. It is actually recommended to use this metric only when you are creating budget plans and when you are reviewing reports on performance improvement.

Quality of Hire

This metric gives you a review of how your possible candidates match the descriptions of available jobs. This metric should be used only when the hiring process is completed. This is the metric you should use to determine if you made the right choice hiring that particular candidate for that particular position.

Time to Fill

This is the period that the HR department takes for it to find new employees for the new positions. The period starts from the time the job positions were posted and made available to the time when the qualified employees start working.

By incorporating these metrics, it would then be easier to manage performance control through the recession scorecard. With everything going on during this economic downturn, we need all the help we can get.