By Kyle Fraser, Trainee Accountant at Hive Business

In an office or a dental practice where you want to excel, a visible target is often very helpful to know exactly what you are aiming for, and where you are at. Here at Hive, this year we have implemented writing our KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators) on a glass wall in the office where everyone can see them. With one turn of the head, every month, displayed are a new range of digits that relate to the workflow of the office. Numbers can be particularly purposeful, and if you are up for a challenge, they motivate you to be better.

A good story to instil the power of decimals takes us back to a steel factory in early 20th Century America. A well-educated mill manager was struggling to get the best out of his employees when one day the big boss came into talk to him.

“How is it that a man as able as you, cannot make this mill turn out what it should?” The manager replied: “I don’t know, I have coaxed the men; I have pushed them, I have sworn at them. I have done everything in my power. Yet they will not produce.”

As the day closed, the boss grabbed a piece of chalk and asked how many heats of steel the men on their shift had produced that day.
“Six,” they replied.

And so the big boss wrote a number 6 on the floor and walked away into the night. The next evening, he returned and the six had been rubbed out and replaced with a “7”. The next day after, the “7” had been erased and a “10” took its place.

The use of a single visible number had made the workplace more productive and before they knew it, they were producing more steel than any other of their competitors in the area.
At Hive, we work the same. A strong set of meaningful numbers are very important to us and they are always good indicators to tell us how resourceful we have been. Last month’s figures are there to push productivity so that the aim is to better the output of our last period. When we have a promising group of results, we try to exceed them as when we settle, we don’t grow – and where is the fun in that?

As Dentists, keeping track of patient satisfaction rating, Average Daily Yields (ADYs) or Monthly Turnover are just some KPI’s which give you visibility on your growth. Displaying these updates where all can see them, could very well propel your team and drive more results. Read more about the KPI’s we recommend you should be tracking.

If you are interested or trying to find new ways to be more productive in the workplace, please get in touch.