Holding Employees
Accountable for Performance
Measures
Francis Ziegler
NDDOT Director
Executive
Involvement
(North Dakota)
• Each DOT’s needs to follow the guidance from
either the Executive Branch or Commission,
depending on who the CEO reports too.
• Performance measures represent what each state
wants
• In North Dakota executive strategic planning
sessions identify the vision, mission, goals,
objectives, and measures
"Each organization must create and
communicate performance measures that reflect
its unique strategy."
-- Dr. Robert S. Kaplan, Harvard Business School
Executive Involvement
(Cont.)
(North Dakota)
• Performance measures should be linked to the
strategic plan to make sure objectives are met
• Leadership owns the goals and the objective
chairperson reports to the goal owners
What is Done With The Measures is
as Important as What They Are
• In ND we report to the Governor, Legislative
body, and public by the use of a report card with
overarching measures
Everyone’s Responsibility is No One’s
Responsibility
• IN ND the Division Directors (DD) develop measures
to track their programs
• DD’s are held accountable for program successes and
failures, not individual measures
• Meet biweekly for a Project Delivery Status (PDS) to
review milestone dates
• Chief Engineer receives a weekly email on any
milestone dates that have lapsed
Without a yardstick, there is no
measurement; without measurement,
there is no control.
-- Anonymous
Everyone’s Responsibility is No One’s
Responsibility
(con’t)
• The Department’s Strategic Planning office tracks the
goals objective status and reports to Executive
Management
Everyone’s Responsibility is No One’s
Responsibility
(con’t)
• Monthly Managers Meetings include all Division
Directors and District Engineers meeting via video
conferencing
– Objective owners give a status of their strategic plan
objective and any performance measures associated
with it
– Districts report on any project concerns, delays, and
missed targets
. . . chart a course for every endeavor that we take the people's money for, see how well we are progressing,
tell the public how we are doing, stop the things that don't work, and never stop improving the things that we
think are worth investing in.
-- President William J. Clinton, on signing the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993
Holding People Accountable
• What must happen
– Buy in – Employees will fight the process until they
understand and buy into it
– Empower – “You can only hold employees
accountable if they have control”
– Own it – The one that controls the program should be
the owner of the measure
– Rewards & Recognition
Leadership is communicating to people their worth and
potential so clearly that they come to see it in themselves.
-- Stephen Covey, the 8th habit
Performance Measures Should
Cascade Through Your Organization
• After DD’s buy in to the process they start to
measure their own programs
• Divisions have developed their own mission
statements linked to the Departments
• Employees are empowered by giving them
ownership of programs
– Lack of appropriate resources/manpower issues need to
be addressed prior to holding people accountable
“It is much more difficult to measure non
performance than performance.”
-- Harold S. Geneen
Employees Will Carry Through With
The Items That You Deem Important
• Customer Satisfaction Survey (NDDOT)
• Five areas with an overall satisfaction greater than
90%
• Low areas indicate a need to refocus priorities
• Major increases in the past four years, but still need
improvements
• Overall customer satisfaction is 84%
2008 Customer Satisfaction Survey
Load carrying capacity
31%
54%
Service at renewal
90%
Service during registration
91%
Public input on activities
9%
6%
11%
62%
Notice of DOT activities
12%
57%
Current road condition info.
3%
81%
Rest Area Location
78%
Rest Area Information
78%
12%
3%
Rest Area Cleanliness
3%
90%
Rest Area Lighting
88%
3%
Rest Area Safety
88%
4%
Traffic flow through construction
15%
71%
Construction signing
5%
88%
Highway signing
3%
91%
Pavement striping.
10%
77%
Overall safety
4%
90%
Effectiveness of snow/ice removal
88%
Timeliness of snow/ice removal
87%
Debris removal
5%
8%
12%
77%
Smoothness of Non-Interstate
36%
40%
Smoothness of Interstate
21%
59%
Overall service of NDDOT
4%
84%
0%
10%
Very Satisfied/Satisfied
20%
Neutral
30%
40%
Don't know
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
Dissatisfied/Very Dissatisfied
100%
Summary
• What we’re doing is working
– Steady increases in customer satisfaction levels
– Legislative positive about NDDOT processes
• Received additional budget
– Employees are happy – For two years running NDDOT was
voted as one of the top ten employers in the state by the
Young Professionals Association (the only government
agency)
– Reason Foundation 2008 report – “Annual Study Ranks
States on Highway Performance, Overall Cost-Effectiveness,”
stated the following:
“North Dakota's state-owned highway system is the nation's most costeffective, an honor the state has held since 2001. North Dakota finished
first, or tied for first, in five of the report's 12 categories, including rural
interstate condition.”
"an effective performance measurement system is a
servant of the business, not its master." The primary
purpose of measuring performance is to develop,
deliver, and improve on world-class products and
services not to audit or find fault. For government
offices and business units, the essential responsibility
is to provide services to citizens, not monitor the
behavior of employees.
-- SERVING THE AMERICAN PUBLIC: BEST PRACTICES IN Performance
Measurement (June 1997)
Questions