There are many different key performance indicators (KPIs) that you can use to measure the success of your business or organization. But which are the most important? In this article, we list over 200 of the most important KPIs you should be tracking. We’ll go over each one and explain why it’s so important. By understanding and following these KPIs, you’ll be able to make better decisions for the future of your business or organization!
What is a Key Performance Indicator (KPI)?
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are performance metrics that organizations use to measure and track their progress toward specific goals. KPIs can measure almost any aspect of an organization’s performance, from financial results to customer satisfaction to operational efficiency. KPIs are also an essential aspect of Business Intelligence (BI) and Business Analytics (BA).
The origins of KPIs can be traced back to the early days of corporate management. In the 1920s, Frederick Taylor developed the concept of “scientific management,” which aimed to optimize productivity by breaking down tasks into smaller, individual components. To track progress and ensure that workers met Taylor’s specific performance goals, he developed a performance measurement system he called “key performance indicators.”
The modern concept of KPIs was developed by IBM in the 1980s. In response to the growing popularity of performance-based management techniques, IBM published a white paper entitled “The Measurement Game: How Managers Can Use Data and Analysis to Improve Performance.” It described a framework for developing and tracking KPIs. It introduced the concept of the “balanced scorecard,” which measures a company’s performance in four key areas: financials, customers, internal business processes, and learning and growth.
Since then, KPIs have become a staple of modern business management. Organizations of all sizes use the Key Performance Indicators to track progress toward specific goals and make data-driven decisions about where to focus their efforts and enable data-driven management (DDM).
What are the different types of KPIs?
There are different types of KPIs that business owners should be aware of to manage their companies effectively.
Quantitative vs. Qualitative KPIs
Quantitative KPIs are numerical values that can be measured and compared. They are often used to track financial performance, such as revenue growth or profitability. Qualitative KPIs, on the other hand, are non-numerical values that can’t be easily measured. They often track intangible factors, such as customer satisfaction or employee engagement.
Leading vs. Lagging KPIs
Leading KPIs are predictive metrics that can identify potential problems or opportunities. For example, a leading KPI for a sales team might be the number of new leads generated each month. Lagging KPIs are retrospective metrics that measure outcomes after they have already occurred. For example, a lagging KPI for a sales team might be the number of deals closed each month.
Input vs. Output KPIs
Input KPIs measure the resources that an organization inputs into its processes. For example, an input KPI for a manufacturing company might be the number of raw materials used each month. Output KPIs measure the results of an organization’s processes. For example, an output KPI for a manufacturing company might be the number of products produced each month.
Process vs. Actionable KPIs
Process KPIs are important for understanding how a company is performing, but they don’t provide information on what specific actions need to be taken to improve performance. Actionable KPIs, on the other hand, do just that – they indicate what steps need to be taken to improve results.
For this reason, tracking both types of KPIs is essential to have a complete picture of how the company is doing. Process KPIs can help you identify areas where improvement is needed, while actionable KPIs can help you take the necessary steps to make those improvements.
Strategic vs. Operational KPIs
Operational KPIs are the metrics that help you understand whether your company is running smoothly on a day-to-day basis. They give you visibility into whether your processes are effective and efficient and whether your team is meeting its goals.
On the other hand, strategic KPIs help you understand whether your company is on track to achieve its long-term goals. They give you visibility into whether your overall strategy is working and whether you’re progressing toward your objectives.
How to choose the right KPIs?
It is difficult to choose the right ones, because relevance is important. It’s also important that people don’t get lost in creating KPIs and managing them. It’s good to use fewer KPIs but focus on them rather than having hundreds of them and getting lost. Some KPIs can also be combined with many other KPIs or are a good indicator for decisions. Choosing the right KPIs is something managers still need to learn. Maybe different KPIs are more important today than 5 years ago, so it is important to check which performance metrics should be measured continuously.
KPIs are important tools for companies to measure performance. However, it is not easy to choose the right ones and it is important not to get overwhelmed. It is an iterative process where managers should constantly review which performance indicators they should measure. The most important thing is to focus on a few KPIs rather than trying to track too many. This way, companies can make better decisions and improve their performance.
Choosing KPIs based on the SMARTER Criteria
When selecting KPIs based on the SMARTER criteria, there are a few things to consider. One is that the extended version of SMARTER (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound, Evaluated, Re-evaluated) is a better fit for organizations than the traditional SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound). The extended version takes into account factors such as whether the indicator is specific enough, how measurable it is, how achievable and relevant it is to the company’s goals, and how much time is needed to achieve the goal.
Using the SMARTER criteria can help companies select relevant KPIs that align with their goals. It can also help ensure that these indicators are constantly evaluated and re-evaluated to ensure that they are still relevant and help move the company closer to its goals.
Choosing KPIs based on the Six A’s Criteria
When it comes to choosing suitable KPIs, use the Six A’s Criteria to make sure that KPIs have all the attributes to be helpful and valid:
- Aligned: The KPIs should be aligned with the company’s strategy.
- Attainable: The KPIs should be achievable and realistic.
- Acute: The KPIs should be relevant and timely.
- Accurate: The KPIs should be accurate and precise.
- Actionable: The KPIs should be actionable and able to influence decisions.
- Alive: The KPIs should be updated regularly to reflect changes in the business environment.
How to use KPIs effectively?
There is no one-size-fits-all answer when it comes to using KPIs for management. The best way to make them accessible to employees and factor them into every day of a business will vary from organization to organization. However, there are a few general tips that can help make KPIs an essential part of a data-driven organization:
- Make sure your KPIs are relevant and meaningful. Employees need to understand what the KPIs are measuring and why they are essential.
- Communicate the goals behind the KPIs. Employees need to know not only what the KPIs are but also what they are trying to achieve with them.
- Use KPIs throughout your organization. Ensure everyone in the company is aware of and understands the KPIs, not just managers and executives.
- Use data visualization tools to help employees understand the data behind the KPIs. Charts, graphs, and other visuals can help employees see how their work impacts the KPIs and vice versa.
- Use performance tracking tools to help managers track progress towards the KPIs. This will help ensure everyone is working towards the same goal and allow for course corrections if necessary.
Common pitfalls using KPIs
When it comes to using KPIs, companies often fall into the trap of making things more complicated than they need to be. A common mistake is to track too many KPIs instead of focusing on the three to five most important ones. This abundance of KPIs can lead to overwhelmed employees and a cluttered dashboard that provides no real insights or misleading information.
Another common mistake is choosing KPIs that are too important or irrelevant. For example, if you’re tracking the number of new customers in a month, that may not provide valuable information if you’re a company that sells complex products or services. Instead, you’re better off tracking customer retention rates or average purchase value.
A common mistake is to give everyone in the company the same metrics to track. This can lead to frustration among employees who feel that their work is not meaningful or does not contribute to the overall goal. It’s important to tailor KPIs to the role of each individual in the company to ensure everyone is working toward the same goal.
List of KPIs – 200+ Business KPIs to track
There are a lot of different factors that go into making a company or organization successful. But if you want to manage and track your business’s success effectively, you must be aware of some key performance indicators (KPIs). As we have already learned, every department and seniority level should have its own relevant and precise KPIs and goals that they are working towards.
We categorized the KPIs into the following topics:
- Strategic Management KPIs
- Sales KPIs
- Operations KPIs
- Project Management KPIs
- Marketing KPIs
- Human Resources KPIs
- Customer Service & Support KPIs
- Procurement KPIs
- IT & Technology KPIs
- Social Media KPIs
- Financial KPIs
Strategic Management KPIs
Strategic key performance indicators (Strategic KPIs) are essential for C-level and top managers to track the company’s performance and make data-driven strategic decisions. The most important KPIs include total revenue, net income, profit margin, and customer churn rate. These KPIs show how the company is performing and can help managers identify areas where they need to make changes to improve performance.
- Revenue
- Revenue per Employee / Revenue per FTE
- Total Costs
- Net Income
- Profit Margin
- Operating Margin
- Gross Margin
- Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC)
- Customer Lifetime Value
- Customer Satisfaction Score / Net Promoter Score
- Customer Churn Rate
- Sales by Product or Service
- Sales Target in % (Actual/Forecast)
- Operating Expenses Ratio
- Net Profit Margin Percentage
- Return on Assets (ROA)
- Return on Equity (ROE)
- P/E Ratio
- Current Ratio (Assets/Liabilities)
- Debt to Equity Ratio
- Working Capital
- Employee Satisfaction Rating
Sales KPIs
Sales KPIs are essential to driving sales forward. By tracking pipeline health, lead generation, general activity, and productivity, companies can gain valuable insights into their sales process and representatives.
- Sales Growth (YoY, QoQ. MoM)
- Sales Target %
- Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
- Customer Churn Rate
- Lead Response Time
- Lead Conversion %
- Lead to Opportunity Conversion %
- New Qualified Opportunities
- Total Pipeline Value
- Lead-to-Opportunity %
- Opportunity-to-Order %
- Average Order/Purchase Value
- Average Sales Cycle Time / Lenght
- Upsell %
- Cross-Sell %
- Sales Volume by Location
- Revenue per Sales Rep
- Profit Maring per Sales Rep
Operations KPI
Operations KPIs are essential to the success of any organization. By tracking and managing these key performance indicators, business leaders can optimize operations and ensure that the company runs as efficiently as possible. There is a variety of different KPIs that can be tracked to measure operations, depending on the specific industry and business model. However, the most critical KPIs for managing operations include productivity, quality, customer satisfaction, and waste reduction. By monitoring these metrics closely, businesses can ensure that they are meeting their targets and improving their performance over time.
- Labor Utilization
- Employee Turnover Rate
- Employee Absence Rate
- Employee Training Rate
- ROI of Outsourcing
- Labor Materials
- Operating Margins
- Customer Lifetime Value
- Processes and Procedures Developed
- Cash Flow
- Project Schedule Variance
- Order Fulfilment Cycle Time
- Delivery In Full On Time Rate
- Rework Rate
- Customer Complaints
Project Management KPI
Project management KPIs are important metrics that help project managers track the progress and status of a project. By monitoring these metrics, project managers can make better decisions about course-correcting a project that is veering off track. To effectively manage a project, project managers need to be aware of these key performance indicators and understand how they impact the success of a project.
- On-Time Completion %
- Milestones on Time %
- Estimate to Project Completion
- Adjustments To Schedule
- Planned vs. Actual Hours
- Resource Capacity %
- Budget Variance (Planned vs. Actual)
- Budget Iterations
- Planned Value
- Net Promoter Score
- Number of Errors
- Customer Complaints
- Change Requests
- Billable Utilization
- Return On Investment (ROI)
Marketing KPIs
Marketing key performance indicators (Marketing KPIs), are vital to any company looking to measure the success of its marketing campaigns. By using KPIs, businesses can track such factors as website traffic, generated leads, and conversion rates. This allows them to adjust their campaigns, strategy or operations to achieve the best results. In addition, regular analysis of marketing KPIs can help businesses spot trends and identify new growth opportunities or avoid spending money on non-performing campaigns and channels.
- Total Revenue
- Revenue by Product or Service
- New Customers
- Cost per Acquisition (CPA)
- Cost per Lead
- Sales Target & Growth
- Average Order Value
- Upsell & Cross-Sell Rates
- Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV)
- Organic Traffic
- Bounce Rate
- Engagement Rate
- Click-Through-Rate (CTR)
- Goal Conversion Rates
- Website-Traffic-to-Lead Ratio
- Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs)
- Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs)
- Lead-to-MQL Ratio
- MQL-to-SQL Ratio
- Average Time to Conversion
- Landing Page Conversion Rates
- Cost-per-Click (CPC)
- Return on Investment (ROI)
- Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)
- Net Promoter Score (NPS)
Human Resources KPIs
Managing a company’s most important asset–its workforce–also requires using key performance indicators, or KPIs. HR KPIs can help business owners and managers better assess and manage employee productivity, satisfaction, and engagement. By tracking these factors, companies can improve their overall performance. Some of the most important HR KPIs include turnover rate, staff retention rate, training cost per employee, and recruitment cost per hire.
- Absenteeism rate
- ROI of outsourcing
- Succession planning rate
- Open/closed grievances
- Promotion rate
- Female to Male Ratio
- Average Time Stay
- Time to productivity
- Successor gap rate
- Worker composition by gender, experience, and tenure
- Internal mobility
- Manager quality index
- HR effectiveness
- Employee satisfaction rates
- Training ROI
- Gender Diversity By Role
- Part-Time Employees
- HR functional operating expense rate
- Labor cost per FTE
- Labor cost revenue percent
- Labor cost revenue expense percent
- Total benefits as a percentage of labor costs
- Overtime Hours
- Revenue per FTE
- Profit vs. compensation per FTE
- Human capital ROI
- HR functional cost per employee
- Cost per Hire
- Quality of hire
- Vacancy rate
- Turnover rate
- Turnover Rate By Group
- Training Cost per Hire
- Resignation/retirement rate
- External hire rate
- Time-to-fill
- Diversity, experience, and gender hire ratio
- Recruiting funnel metrics
- Talent import/export ratio
- Voluntary turnover rate
- Retention rate
- Recruiting expense per new hire
- Retirement rate forecast
Customer Service & Support KPIs
Customer service and support are essential for any business. By tracking key performance indicators (KPIs), companies can improve customer satisfaction, retention, and more. Some of the most important KPIs for customer service and support include customer satisfaction and retention rates, average handle time, first contact resolution rate, and the number of repeat customers. Tracking these factors can help businesses better assess the effectiveness of their customer service and support teams and make necessary changes to improve overall customer satisfaction.
- Customer Churn
- Top Agents
- Service Level
- MRR Growth Rate
- Number of Issues (By Type)
- First Response Time (FRT)
- First Contact Resolution Rate
- Average Response Time
- Average Resolution Time
- Most Active Support Agents
- Cost Per Conversation
- Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)
- Net Promoter Score (NPS)
- Positive Customer Reviews
- Customer Effort Score
- Customer Retention Rate
- Support Costs / Revenue Ratio
- Knowledge Base Articles
- Employee Engagement
Procurement KPIs
Procurement is an essential part of any business. By tracking key performance indicators (KPIs), companies can improve their procurement processes and save money. Some of the most important KPIs for procurement include costs, savings, purchase volumes, discounts, and supplier performance. Tracking these factors can help businesses better assess the effectiveness of their procurement team and make necessary changes to improve overall procurement performance.
- Compliance Rate
- Number of Suppliers
- Purchase Order Cycle Time
- Supplier Quality Rating
- Supplier Availability
- Supplier Defect Rate
- Vendor Rejection Rate & Costs
- Lead Time
- Emergency Purchase Ratio
- Purchases In Time & Budget:
- Cost of Purchase Order
- Procurement Cost Reduction
- Procurement Cost Avoidance
- Spend Under Management
- Procurement ROI
IT & Technology KPIs
One important key performance indicator (KPI) for IT is the cost-effectiveness of the department. IT Cost KPIs can be tracked by measuring the number of help desk tickets resolved per employee, the number of software licenses used, or the amount of money saved through efficiency improvements. Another important KPI for IT is how well the department meets its security objectives. These IT security KPIs can be measured by tracking metrics such as the percentage of malware blocked, the number of data breaches averted, or the average time to resolve a security incident. IT also needs to track its performance in terms of how well it is meeting the needs of the business. IT Operations KPIs can be gauged by metrics such as customer satisfaction with IT services (employees), the percentage of critical applications available at all times, or the time it takes to roll out new applications and services.
- IT Costs vs. Revenue
- IT Team Turnover
- Total Tickets vs. Open Tickets
- Average Handle Time
- Total Support Tickets
- Open Support Tickets
- Ticket Resolution Time
- Reopened Tickets
- Unsolved Tickets Per Employee
- IT Support Employees per End Users
- Total Projects
- Projects on Budget
- Accuracy of Estimates
- IT ROI
- IT Costs Break Down
- New Developed Features
- Number of Critical Bugs
- Team Attrition Rate
- IT Support Employees Per End Users
- Uptime %
- Server Downtime
- Security Related Downtime
- Backup Frequency
- Cybersecurity Rating
- Amount Of Intrusion Attempts
- Mean Time To Detect
- Mean Time To Repair
- Average Time Between Failures
- Phishing Test Success Rate
Social Media KPIs
Social media key performance indicators (Social Media KPIs) are metrics that businesses use to measure the performance of their social media campaigns, marketing, and followers. By tracking these KPIs, companies can determine whether their social media strategy is successful and identify areas where they need to make changes. Companies can track many different social media KPIs, but some of the most important ones include reach, engagement, and conversion rates.
- Social Share of Voice (SSoV)
- Total Reach
- Total Impressions
- Followers or Fans or Subscribers
- Audience Growth Rate
- Share Rate (Shares or ReTweets)
- Interest Rate (Likes, Reactions, Favorites)
- Response Rate (Comments, Replies)
- Key Post or Hashtag Reach
- Link Clicks
- Site Traffic From Social (By Platform)
- Conversions From Social (#)
- Conversion Rate From Social (%)
- Revenue From Social (#)
- Social Program ROI
Financial KPIs
No matter how small or large, every business needs to track financial key performance indicators (Financial KPIs) to make informed decisions about where to allocate resources and how to grow the company. The most important financial KPIs include cash flow, expenses, sales, profits, and asset utilization. Tracking these metrics allows businesses to identify areas where they are performing well and need improvement. Additionally, comparing current results against past results can help companies to anticipate future trends and plan for growth.
- Gross Profit Margin
- Gross Profit Margin Percentage
- Operating Profit Margin
- Operating Profit Margin Percentage
- Net Profit Margin
- Net Profit Margin Percentage
- Operating Expense Ratio
- Working Capital Ratio
- Debt-To-Equity Ratio
- Quick Ratio / Acid Test
- Current Ratio
- Berry Ratio
- Return on Assets
- Return on Equity
- Cash Conversion Cycle
- Accounts Payable Turnover Ratio
- Accounts Receivable Turnover Ratio
- Vendor Payment Error Rate
- Budget Variance
- Payroll Headcount Ratio
