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ACCA Strategic Professional · Advanced Performance Management · Non-financial performance measurement

Brightwater Utilities introduced a target to cut average customer call-handling time from 8 minutes to 5 minutes. Six months later, call times fell to 4.8 minutes but complaints and repeat calls rose sharply. Which problem of non-financial measurement does this best demonstrate?

This shows measure fixation. Staff concentrated on shortening call time, the measured target, and neglected unmeasured aspects such as resolving the problem, so complaints and repeat calls rose. Balancing speed with a quality measure such as first-call resolution would reduce this dysfunctional behaviour.

  1. AMeasure fixation, where staff focus on the target at the expense of overall qualityCorrect
  2. BLack of a benchmark against competitors
  3. CInformation overload from too many measures
  4. DTime lag between action and reporting

Explanation

Staff hit the single measured target by rushing calls, which damaged unmeasured quality aspects such as resolution. This is measure fixation. Nothing in the scenario suggests too many measures, absent benchmarks or reporting delay.

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