Performance Is Everything

7Make It Happen Through Performance Management

“Evaluate what you want because what gets measured gets produced.”

—Unknown

In this chapter, we discuss some of the findings from our December 2011 Performance Management and Compensation Survey with AICPA Private Companies Practice Section (PCPS) members and the steps you can take to improve the performance management system in your firm. We trust these findings can help you identify key areas of your own performance management systems that need development and improvement.

We trust you now have a better handle on how to structure your firm for superior performance. The next step is to create or refine a performance management system that motivates team members and helps them achieve their goals. When professional services firms have welldefined performance management systems, we find their financial results to be much stronger.

Most firms have a business plan; some are good, and some are not so good. In either case, we have worked with a number of law, accounting, and other organizations, both large and small, that fail to put the building blocks in place that grow their people and unleash their talent.

One hundred and thirteen firms responded to our survey. Eighty-three percent of the respondents were owners in multiowner firms. The majority (65 percent) of firms have a performance management system for employees, but 35 percent of firms are still without one. We find it hard to believe such a high number of firms do not have any ...