National benchmarking process highlights strengths of Alliance members, helps identify areas for improvement
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Why benchmark? It’s an understandable question. Particularly when nonprofit human services staff are already swimming in paperwork—much of it to document what they are doing on a daily basis.
The simple answer is that benchmarking takes an outside perspective that can unlock the full potential of data that, in many cases, is already collected by staff. Indeed, benchmarking offers perspective by providing a snapshot of how an agency performs compared to its peer organizations.
“Not having that information is like driving without a working speedometer,” says Paul M. Lefkovitz, president of Behavioral Pathway Systems, which operates a benchmarking initiative for Alliance for Children and Families members. With benchmarking data, agencies can target areas needing improvement, reinforce initiatives which work well, and improve financial management.
“Benchmarking adds meaning to the information we collect internally,” says Elaine Rotenberg, who has a doctorate in psychology and is clinical director at Alliance member Alpert Jewish Family & Children’s Service (AJFCS), West Palm Beach, Fla.
In San Antonio, Alliance member The Children’s Center—the state’s largest emergency shelter—quickly realized after benchmarking that restraints in its residential treatment center were used more often than normal. When it began benchmarking in the first quarter of 2008, the center reported using restraints 138 times. The number dropped to 14 by the third quarter of fiscal year 2009, a 90 percent decline.
Making such an improvement required a top-down emphasis on more up-front training, frequent refresher training, and corrective feedback for staff during debriefings, says Steve Hampton, director of quality assurance for The Children’s Center. The staff’s success in reducing the use of restraint was celebrated as a significant achievement.
“That is something our staff is very proud of,” Hampton says.
Specific to the Alliance membership, reducing the use of restraints and medication errors are two of the most tangible ways benchmarking improves agency performance, Lefkovitz says.
Benchmarking can also reinforce staff for procedures that are working well—an important morale tool.
Rotenberg says after benchmarking she discovered that staff turnover at AJFCS is significantly below average, with retention in the 99th percentile.
“That has really reinforced the value we place on our staff recognition committee,” Rotenberg says. “We can say to the team that the efforts they are putting forth are working.”
Better Financial Management
The benchmarking process involves study of a host of financial and administrative metrics, including cost per client served, which can significantly improve financial management.
“In this economic environment, we are particularly forced to look at the unit costs,” Rotenberg says.
Other metrics collected include client satisfaction, fundraising, wages, administrative cost per client served, and cost per family and per hour of service.
Knowing that information can help agencies focus on improving costs, Lefkovitz says. He cites an example from one Alliance member that discovered its cost per unit of service for one program was so high that the organization shut the service down to focus on other areas.
“These days, any time money is spent it has to be justified,” he adds. “That’s why benchmarking is needed more than ever.”
Having benchmarking data not only has improved financial management at AJFCS, but it also makes it easier to write grants, Rotenberg says.
“It’s an added bonus trying to secure outside funds because now we can say what the agency looks like and how we compare to other organizations nationwide,” she says.
Hampton agrees. “This is something I can share with our grant writer, who can give a much better comparison about how we compare to others not only in the rest of the state, but at a national level.”
Getting Started
Embarking on a benchmarking initiative doesn’t have to be difficult, Lefkovitz says. Though the benchmarking study collects information about dozens of metrics, agencies can submit as much or as little data as they feel is appropriate.
“We see this as real world, practical research,” he says. “We’re not putting the numbers ahead of the mission.”
Collecting the information required for the national benchmarking initiative often makes use of data the staff at AJFCS is already collecting, Rotenberg says.
At The Children’s Center, Hampton and a database programmer oversaw data collection. Many of the changes needed to support benchmarking were relatively minor: some database fields were renamed and reports were amended. In some cases, the agency wrote new reports to analyze data it was already collecting.
Agencies submit the data to Behavioral Pathway Systems using a secure website, Lefkovitz says. “The actual submission of the data usually only takes a few minutes.”
Through the Alliance’s partnership with Behavioral Pathway Systems, members participate in the benchmarking process for a reduced fee. The fee of $1,000 per year gives members access to individualized reports that compare their performance to peer agencies, teleconferences that focus on how to use benchmarking to improve performance, and telephone and e-mail support.
Ultimately, the biggest barrier typically isn’t staff time or cost, both of which are minimal for many agencies, Lefkovitz says. More problematic is getting the entire organization to focus on the need for continuous improvement.
Because benchmarking lays bare where departments—and staff—are underperforming, some resistance is natural, he says. To combat resistance, top leadership needs to regularly communicate support for the process.
Once the data is received, leaders need to engage their staff constructively and reward them for improvement, Hampton adds.
“We started from the top down. We got more involved, especially in staff debriefings. If something happens, we ask what could have been done differently,” he says.
Without that kind of engagement, benchmarking ultimately is only another data collection exercise. “The data is only as good as what you choose to do with it,” Rotenberg says.
For more information about the members in this article, visit their websites: Alpert Jewish Family & Children’s Service and The Children’s Shelter.
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