Solutions: Consulting

Get Performance Delivered: Comprehensive Consulting Services

The Performance Institute’s consulting services are geared specifically to federal, state, and local governments and provide access to comprehensive and experience-tested methodologies for government to achieve positive transformations within your programs and workforce.

The Performance Institute’s strategic consulting services focus on a comprehensive set of organizational performance issues, including strategic planning, performance measurement, resource alignment/management, reporting and evaluation, workforce, project management and process improvement.

Strategic Planning: Alignment and Execution
Mission, Vision, Strategies, and Tactics: Without the best guided facilitation, it’s hard to get the right executives, stakeholders, and partners together to set a clear plan designed to benefit the American people. The Institute has a talent for engaging public organizations in crafting, designing, and measuring hard-to-measure outcomes; people turn to us to measure the intangibles and outcomes that will be the best indicators of long-term success.

Performance Measurement: What Gets Measured Gets Done
The Performance Institute measures your existing data to determine what works and what doesn’t. Our services help government managers conquer their biggest challenges in performance management, including:

• Where to Start: Measuring outcomes not outputs
• Measuring too much: Performing an audit of measurement systems to determine what measures work
• Choosing the Right Measures: Selecting the measures that drive change in an organization

Resource Alignment and Management: Align Resources to Strategy
One of the cornerstones of the Institute’s services is our performance-based budgeting process, incorporating knowledge and experience with the appropriations process. We take our understanding of the government budget process and reflect it in budget formulation, justification and execution.

Design and Develop Internal Reporting Systems, including:

• Dashboard for both programs and employees
• Initiative tracking through the SMO
• Activity-based costing: “where are your resources now? How is your budget being used, and is it consistent with your strategic plan and the new direction of policy?

Performance reporting is about showing results to legislators, political leaders and the general public. Your steps include:

• Establish KPIs “Key Performance Indicators” to determine whether you were effective in the last year
• Understand what stakeholders are interested in hearing, provide credible performance data to back it up and have a schedule of credible independent third party evaluations

Performance Evaluation and Reporting
Performance measures only tell part of the story — tap the Institute to conduct a thorough program evaluation to make realistic recommendations for significant performance improvements. Then, use performance measures to communicate your results record to decision makers and the public through the Institute’s effective performance reporting techniques.

Human Capital Management
Workforce Management is about identifying the workforce of today and in five years creating a plan that aligns to your strategic goals.

• How much work will need to be done?
• What are your staff demographics based on skill sets, attrition and retirement?
• What skill sets do you need to perform the work and what skill sets do you have?
• What are your specific strategies to close that gap?

Human capital is the most important part of any organization, yet often managers lack the skills to clearly define and lead their staff to the greatest level of success. Employee development management ensures that employees have the guidelines for job performance success and managers have a framework for giving appropriate and helpful feedback.

• Develop the right measures for employees based on your human capital plan and the individual
• Ways to coach managers at employee performance feedback
• Internal tracking of performance and early warning signs

Process Improvement
Our expertise in transforming and redesigning processes for maximum efficiency, effectiveness and overall quality has contributed to dramatic reductions in cycle time, quality and cost savings in numerous organizations worldwide. A successful deployment is truly based on a culture driven by excellence and quality. Lean and Six Sigma are often integrated to provide a comprehensive toolset for organizations to solve problems and improve process performance. Some key points to think about:

• How do I get my senior leadership on board? Is it possible to create a grass roots effort?
• What do I do in regards to training? Should I become a White, Yellow, Green or Black Belt?
• How do I effectively select and mobilize leaders to sustain a deployment?
• How do I develop a deployment plan rooted in strategy that creates lasting change and achieves dramatic results?

Project Management
With its expertise in project management, the Institute’s consulting division provides comprehensive and high-impact advice and solutions to government agencies seeking to improve their project management policies, procedures and performance. Current and planned government policies emphasize project management in response to a growing concern over the high-risk of today’s projects.

Project Management Assessment Services

• Define project management processes and procedures
• Apply financial and performance evaluation techniques to compare and select projects
• Measure and evaluate individual or portfolio project management success

Project Management Support Services

• Draft statements of work and work breakdown structures
• Create earned value management plans
• Provide risk management plans
• Devise OMB Exhibit 300 budget justifications