It’s another one of those business acronyms… ‘KPI.’
Business folks in the know are supposed to know that ‘KPI’ is a worker’s ‘key performance indicator.’
I Googled, or maybe Binged it, to be sure.
I’m not sure if ‘KPI’ supplants ‘metrics,’ another indicator of performance, that’s been around, probably, since early 2000?
‘Metrics,’ and the more nouveau ‘key performance indicator (KPI),’ are supposed to help business leaders understand how things are going… how everything is measuring up.
‘KPI’ seems more tightly focused on individuals. On how Jane, or Joe, Martha, or Fred are measuring up.
I’ve been away from my PR career for a while, but I’ve been imagining what PR workers’ KPI might entail… what might factor into their performance indicator.
Since there’s so much high tech, now, would something high tech, like website traffic, factor in… in some way? Are Jane or Fred managing website traffic, sufficiently, to meet goals?
Who knew about website traffic, back in my day?
If there’s such a thing as a post-career measurement of performance, a KPI for someone who’s been away from the game, my KPI may have surged some, the other day — in my own estimation, anyway. All because of PR messaging I’d written, explaining why two roads in our northern California community were about to be closed for repaving work.
In the scheme of things, this may not seem big, but in our little area out here, it seemed a little big.
Folks residing along the roads would have to find parking on other streets. And the work would be getting underway in just a couple of days. There was little lead time, as they say, in business.
I realized I had to help. The reason why is a long story. But it was invigorating, getting all caught up, again, in crisis communication. Rapidly mulling messaging strategies and writing messaging rapidly, took some doing… on an extremely tight deadline, no less. With only portions of the roads requiring repaving, folks would be wondering why the roads would have to be closed off, entirely, to traffic.
In what seemed to me, only a few milliseconds, the words ‘full access’ came to mind. And I started writing:
Work will be underway to repair and replace pavement in areas on both roads, with workers and construction equipment requiring full access to the two roads.
‘Full access’ were key words, in my estimation, anyway. Why must the two roads be shut down, entirely to traffic? Why such inconvenience? The simple answer, as they say in business, was workers and construction equipment would need full access.
And – by God! – those words seemed to work. Folks moved their cars out to other streets. The big road construction equipment rumbled in, the road construction workers got to work. Right on schedule.
And from what I’ve heard, no one complained.
Even if my post-career KPI might be pulsating a little, right now, I’m not about to pat myself on the back. Although I did facetiously tell my family that, someday, books will be written about the words… ‘full access.’
And if that should wind up happening, remember where you first heard about the words…
Right here, in the Daily Post. That’s where!
Harvey Radin is former senior vice president in charge of corporate communications and media relations, Bank of America Western Region. He makes his home in Redwood City, CA.