19961007
HOW GOOD IS YOUR DEPARTMENT? TO FIND OUT, BENCHMARK
October 7, 1996
How does your department stack up against other departments? Are you strong in investor relations, but only average in issues management?
To answer questions like these, corporations are benchmarking their departments against those of non-competitor companies of similar size, often in the same industry.
Benchmarking--the formal process of comparing structures, processes and outcomes with others--gained a big boost with the advent of the Total Quality Management (TQM) movement in the 1970s. While many early benchmarking initiatives were begun as part of companies' quality efforts, today many companies are conducting smaller-scale benchmarking efforts that look at individual departments or functional areas.
Benchmarking should focus on identifying processes at other companies "that have a track record of working well," says Nick Laird, president of consulting firm Laird & Associates, Chevy Chase, Md. By adapting the best practices to their companies, executives should improve departments' "productivity, performance and hopefully competitive advantage," says Laird, whose firm specializes in benchmarking of corporate public affairs departments.
Before a department considers a benchmarking effort, they should first have conducted a self-assessment to determine if they are good or better than average in the areas they wish to benchmark, says Peter Shafer, managing director of the Public Affairs Network, a state affairs consulting unit of PR firm, the Hawthorn Group, Rosslyn, Va. An experienced benchmarking consultant, Shafer says there are two reasons for this:
The full benchmarking process consists of five phases, each of which includes a number of steps, says Laird (see box).
How much can benchmarking cost? A benchmarking conducted by a large outside consulting organization could cost more than $100,000. But corporations willing to do much of the work themselves can conduct a study for $10,000 to $15,000, says Shafer. When using internal staff, plan on having about eight members on the benchmarking team.
Departments do not need to conduct a broad benchmark looking at all corporate communication functions. In fact, keeping the focus as narrow as possible--say looking at just the annual report process--is a good idea, says Shafer.
A number of companies today are benchmarking the effectiveness of their media relations effort. Among them are leading firms such as Intel Corp. [INTC].
According to Katy Paine, president of media analysis and benchmarking company The Delahaye Group, Portsmouth, N.H., companies are able to compare their success with peers and competitors in terms of such measures as overall media coverage and marketing messages covered by the press.
After identifying companies that are doing better than one's own, Paine says the next step is to find out why, trying to gather such information as size of departments or budgets, or which PR firm a company uses. In media relations, many companies that benchmark carry out the process on an ongoing basis. (Laird, 301/657-9238; Hawthorn, 703/243-1333; Delahaye, 800/926-0028)