Designing Performance Measures

With renewed focus on accountability and integrity, are you confident your agency effectively monitors and improves performance? 

The Australian Public Service is undergoing real reforms aimed at delivering better outcomes for people, businesses and the community. 

To do this, agencies should be ready with a clear view of the outcomes they are responsible for delivering, the factors influencing successful delivery, and mechanisms for monitoring and tracking success. 

The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) has in recent years ramped up scrutiny on performance reporting. It’s clear the expectation is for stronger performance reporting capability across federal government to:  

• Provide more meaningful information on what government does and the results it achieves  

• Promote sound investment decision-making by government 

• Foster performance for policy and program delivery, and evidence-based advice to government 

• Allow for demonstration of effective stewardship by accountable authorities, including through robust evaluations. 

Program design and evaluation is a mature public policy discipline that uses a program theory or program logic to identify the inputs and activities needed to achieve intended policy outcomes. Data collection and performance monitoring processes are baked-in to program design, and when implemented well, give decision-makers hands on levers across a program lifecycle. Performance monitoring in this context considers both the outputs and outputs of the program, providing assurance and offering executives the opportunity to ask the key questions of:    

• Are we delivering the right outputs to acheive intended policy outcomes?

• Are we delivering in efficient, effective and accountable ways?

Performance reporting can be far more than an overhead: it’s an exciting tool to ensure your agency is on track to deliver on its purpose. At Terrace, we recommend agencies start with connection to their legislative and policy mandate, then design (or improve) an operating model that effectively aligns business and technology capabilities to deliver value streams, with performance measures and supporting cultural elements baked in. In addition to this, we support the ANAO’s stance on the implementing the following key elements for effective performance reporting: 

This can seem quite daunting – especially if your agency needs to retro-fit these mechanisms. Our team at Terrace has both strong program evaluation experience and operational nous – reach out to us if you need a hand getting started, either with an existing program or a new initiative you want to establish a solid foundation for. 

The government's APS Reform Agenda looks to build a stronger Australian Public Service that delivers better outcomes for the community, acts as a model employer and contributes to a fairer and more inclusive Australia. This includes priorities to work in genuine partnership with communities, and to build the capability of staff to create a confident workforce and a robust, trusted institution that delivers modern policy and service solutions for decades to come.