6 Quality KPIs your CEO cares about most - GRC 2018 Global Survey Results

Working smarter with quality KPIs can save your organisation a lot of time. Conversely, GRC professionals are spending a lot of time compiling reports. In fact, 42 percent are spending over a week every month compiling reports - that's 2.7 extra days every month spent reporting compared with 2015.

With more time and energy than ever spent reporting on key performance indicators, it's important to focus on what matters most.

Below we've used the Governance, Risk and Compliance survey results to answer which key performance indicators your CEO needs to see and explain how our software can help you save weeks getting this information.

The GRC Metrics Your CEO cares the most about

1) Cost of Poor Quality

The Cost of Poor Quality (COPQ) is the total lost due to either internal or external quality issues. These are unwanted overheads due to poor systems, processes or practices, and can severely reduce business profitability.

COPQ can be measured by:

• Incidents
• % rework
• Defects %
• Non-conformities
• Right first time percentage
• Time dedicated to root cause analysis / resolve issues
• Scrap / wasted product / time

Businesses can track and measure these costs using CAPA software. Cost data is captured so trends can be analysed, risks can be reviewed and preventive action can be put in place.

CEOs want this data because reducing this waste is one of the fastest ways to make the business more profitable.

2) Customer retention

Acquiring new customers is expensive. Most businesses rely on repeat business from their existing customers.

High customer retention levels demonstrate your business is well aligned, that you are delivering on value and keeping your promises.

A kink in the chain will result in higher customer churn rates. Ignored customer feedback, a drop in Net Promoter Score, and higher customer churn rates will all reduce your profitability.

Software solutions can help you to log customer feedback, assign roles and responsibilities and monitor trends over time. Reporting tools also enable you to drill down and answer questions such as:

3) Asset value

Few businesses keep an updated list of assets and equipment owned. Consequences are inevitably costly. Being unable to fulfil an order because you don’t have the equipment to do the job. Buying duplicate items of equipment. And wasting money, time and effort purchasing equipment you do not need.

Your CEO wants to be able to know that investments are being maintained and they will want a forecast of any assets which will require cash. 

With the right digital tools, you can manage;

• Tangible and intangible asset register (e.g. DPR)
• Asset life cycles, including calibration, maintenance schedules, eol plans.
• Asset values

4) Risks

One of the most important quality key performance indicators you should involve in your strategy are the potential risks involved. Every business needs to be identifying and managing both internal and external risks.

Your CEO wants to know about any vulnerabilities, new risks and new opportunities which will help to make the business more profitable.

Ideagen's customers use Pentana Risk to identify, assess and manage risks. Risk suggestions can also be raised for a more collaborative approach.

Risk KPIs include:

• Impact assessment results - potential costs
• Outstanding compliance risks
• Risk treatment
• Internal audit performance and audit scores
• Business continuity plans / disaster recovery > performance testing metrics

5) Culture

Your CEO wants to know whether your business has a culture of quality. A culture of quality can seem difficult to measure, but engagement with quality, governance, risk and compliance management is a good indicator.

Software solutions can provide:

• Risk suggestions from across the business
• Training scores e.g. using Training Records Manager to send a quiz
• % of policies read and understood by employees
• Number of change requests / process changes
• Time taken to resolve issues

Document Management software and a training records manager such as Q-Pulse WorkRite are used by our customers to measure culture and provide CEOs with an understanding of where improvements and investment is needed.

6) Productivity

An efficient management system will enable your business to react faster to risks and be more able to make the most of new opportunities.

Metrics will be very specific to each organisation, but may include:

• Documented policies, procedures and processes
• On time in full (OTIF)
• Speed of responses to any findings
• Training days completed

You can find out more about which quality KPIs you should track here, or browse Ideagen's range of software solutions and discover how we can help you improve the efficiency, resilience and profitability of your business. 

Written by

Alexander Pavlović

Alex produces targeted content to help Ideagen’s readers and customers navigate the complex world of quality, governance, risk and compliance.

Alex has worked with brands such as BT, Sodexo and Unilever and is passionate about helping businesses build a cohesive, collaborative culture of quality.