The Our Time Roadmap outlines our strategy for how we will accomplish the five key priorities and one enabler named in Our Time: Strategic Plan 2022-2027. To help translate these high-level goals into realizable objectives, the Roadmap sets out Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) by which we can track our progress.
What is a KPI?
Key Performance Indicators, or KPIs, are metrics used to assess how an organization is doing on a specific objective. They help determine our strategic, financial, and operational achievements in a way that can be measured.
As we track our KPIs, we can better identify strengths and weaknesses and pivot or redouble our efforts to improve how we work together towards our common goals.
What does a KPI mean to me?
By aligning your department or college’s strategy with the Our Time Roadmap’s KPIs, you will be able to stay focused on initiatives and outcomes that deliver the most value.
This will also help manage capacity constraints by allowing you to focus on projects that move the needle on U of G’s Strategic Plan and stop or pause projects that don’t contribute to these goals.
How does a KPI work in practice?
Let’s look at one of the goals in the Strategic Plan:
- Goal: Advancing U of G’s distinctive Student Experience
- Objective: Promote student satisfaction at U of G to ensure a distinctive student experience
While that is a great objective to strive for, you may not know exactly how your individual role, department or college can contribute. Additionally, there are many parts of the student experience; how do we know what aspects need improvement or when we’re succeeding?
That’s where KPIs come in. The KPI under this goal is:
- Overall experience at U of G rating – disaggregated by campus, diversity. Data to be captured via the Student Satisfaction Survey.
The KPI is much more tangible and easier to act on. Teams can review the previous Student Satisfaction Survey, note areas that need improvement and focus their efforts on that aspect of the student experience.
Questions?
In the coming weeks, your leaders will be hosting meetings to review the Roadmap with you in more detail. Don’t hesitate to ask questions, share your ideas and raise your feedback to your leader or by emailing ourtime@uoguelph.ca, as your voice matters.