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April 17, 2016 by David

Why Everyone Else’s Grade Matters As Much As Yours

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So, we can be a little geeky here at Hawkeye.  And while the topic of percentiles sounds pretty dry, it’s actually something everyone in business should know a little bit about.  And we promise, we’ll make it easy and fun to understand.  By the way, we’re just impressed that you clicked on a post about percentiles!  That might mean your inner geek needs some attention.

While we do love a good statistics lesson, we’ll forgo an in-depth discussion of percentiles here.  Let’s just say that they’re a quick and easy way of understanding where you rank against everyone else.  Percentiles are based on a one-hundred point scale and tell you what percentage of other businesses rank below you.  So, if a report tells you that your client satisfaction is in the 80th percentile, that means that you scored better than 80% of all organizations on that same measure.  If that same report said your client satisfaction is in the 10th percentile, that would mean that you only did better than 10% of other organizations.

As anyone who ever took a class that was graded on a curve knows, your score on a test matters, but so does everyone else’s.  So, if you got a 50 on that Statistics test, but everyone else got 20s, 30s, and 40s, you might still snag an “A” for the course.  In that case, if you had the high score at 50, you’d be at the 100th percentile.  In other words, you scored better than 100% of the class.

So, what does all this have to do with business? Actually, a lot.  One important application is in customer and employee satisfaction.  If you average 9.0 on a 10 point scale in customer satisfaction, you’d probably be pretty proud.  But, what if that 9.0 equates to the 25th percentile?  Yikes!  You’d only be doing better than 25% of other businesses; 75% of other businesses are scoring better than 9.0.  What looked like a great score suddenly looks a little different.  The opposite can be true too.  Imagine a survey in which you get a low score, let’s say 5.0 out of 10, but a high percentile.  A great example of that might be an employee survey on satisfaction with pay.  A score of 5.0 could still be in the 90th percentile if no one is elated about their pay (and who every says that they’re paid enough?).

Understanding both your score and where you rank against others is not only important to your improvement efforts, but it might also be critical to your bottom line.  For hospitals, percentile rankings are already used to help determine reimbursement levels for payments from Medicare. And guess what happened within two years of implementation of that program?  It drove performance to near perfection on many measures.  In other words, anything less than perfect drops to the bottom of the percentile rankings.  So, you can get a 99 on the test, but if everyone else got a 100, you might still get an “F.”

Leaders need to know not only how their own business is doing, but also where that performance stands against others.  Neither piece of information stands alone.  You need both to truly understand your business.  So, if you’re ready to decipher all that data from your last employee or customer survey and use it to make some real meaningful improvements, contact Hawkeye Business Solutions at 540.232.9920 or info@hawkeyebusinesssolutions.com.

Filed Under: Performance Measurement

April 17, 2016 by David

Unlock Solutions Through Respect for People

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Maybe you’ve heard of Lean.  It’s the name we give the philosophies, tools, and systems originally developed by Toyota to build highly reliable and consistent cars.  Lean isn’t just for cars, though. It’s been adopted by thousands of companies in dozens of industries worldwide and is a proven catalyst for improving quality, reducing costs, and boosting employee morale.

One of things we at Hawkeye love about Lean is its core focus on a very important concept: Respect for People.

No one knows the real way your company runs better than your employees.  And while we’d like to say we have all the answers, the reality is your employees often already know how to fix your biggest business problems.  They’re just not engaged enough to tell you.  Lean’s focus on going to the “gemba,” the place where work is done, and involving those who do the work in developing solutions unlocks the power and creativity of your workforce.  You might be surprised.  A day on the work floor might provide more fresh ideas than ten days in a conference room.

If you want to learn more about Lean and how it can help jumpstart your business and engage your team, contact Hawkeye Business Solutions at 540.232.9920 or info@hawkeyebusinesssolutions.com.

Filed Under: Lean

April 12, 2016 by David

Means to An End: Keeping Your Mission in Sight

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There are moments that remind you what’s really important.  We at Hawkeye had just such a moment this week.

While at a meeting with a large regional healthcare provider, a respected leader in the organization was discussing the challenges they had faced over the last several years in adapting their organization to changes in the external environment.  Those external changes have meant this organization had to make more than $30 million in changes to its cost structures annually just to keep pace with declining reimbursements.  The leader noted that at times in their journey, it felt like the focus was on their finances.  If they could just reach their financial goals, they could consider themselves successful.

What she said next was powerful: “We had to stop and remind ourselves that money is just a means to an end.  Our mission is to serve the healthcare needs of our community.  There’s no doubt we need a healthy margin to do that, but the margin isn’t the end, it’s the means to the end.”

While some businesses do exist solely to make money, we bet your business has a higher purpose, too.  We should never lose sight of that purpose and the lives we touch in fulfilling the missions of our business.  It’s not impossible: we can make money and enrich the lives of our customers and employees.  Sometimes, you just need some perspective on which is the real goal of your company.

If you want to work a partner who understands that your business is more than just a profit and loss statement and who can help your business fulfill its mission and improve its profits, contact Hawkeye Business Solutions at 540.232.9920 or info@hawkeyebusinesssolutions.com.

Filed Under: Business

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Recent Blog Posts

  • Lean and Six Sigma Are Transforming Healthcare
  • Achieving Excellence in Healthcare Using Baldrige
  • Why Everyone Else’s Grade Matters As Much As Yours
  • Unlock Solutions Through Respect for People
  • Means to An End: Keeping Your Mission in Sight

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