Public sector performance has never been under more scrutiny, with increasing community and political expectations to deliver the highest levels of accountability and performance.
KPMG International has commissioned a number of studies to stimulate debate on how performance in the public sector can be best managed. These show that the focus on performance has led to a proliferation of performance management systems and techniques. But many of these fall short of expectations.
KPMG’s commitment to public sector performance management
As a trusted adviser to public sector organisations, KPMG understands the distinct and dynamic environment of the public sector and look for progressive strategies to address the key challenges.
KPMG believes that successful performance management requires the following elements.
- A focus on performance management as opposed to performance measurement - concentrate on achieving the underlying objectives, rather than achieving the key targets.
- Recognition of the characteristics of the public sector — take into account the interconnected nature of many public delivery structures, the need to build consensus across many different stakeholders, and crucially, the fact that incentives and accountabilities replace profit and competition in driving behaviour.
- A culture of performance management through continuous, bottom-up improvement. This helps to embed performance management in the organisation and make it better equipped to withstand and adapt to change.
- Effective performance management frameworks with sufficient authority at leadership level — public managers need clear lines of accountability and access to good and relevant data to measure and explain performance.