Metrics For Change Management – Organizational Change Management KPI

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Article by 
Cascade Team
  —  Published 
April 11, 2023
March 16, 2024

Organizational Change Management KPIs Overview

Let's talk about KPIs For Change Management. We’ve covered a number of KPI examples in our KPI examples mini-series, and in this post, we're going to look at some of the best KPIs for change management projects. “Change Management” is a bit of a buzzword, but it is important for any organization to adapt easily to changes.

The business landscape and conditions are constantly changing, so you must be adaptable to be successful. This is why change management is a key concept to understand and implement in any workplace.

Changes can occur in many ways and change management helps ease any tension creating a smooth process.

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However, there is nothing full-proof when it comes to making changes. The biggest challenges for any organization are resistance to change and alignment. No matter what approach is used to implement the changes, there should always be ways of measuring change management:

KPIs For Change Management 

(ITIL & COBIT Change Management Metrics)

Here are the most useful KPIs for change management in any organization. These metrics can be monitored on a regular basis to measure the success of the change management strategy within a company.

Reduction in the number of unauthorized changes

One of the most important requirements for change management is the establishment of a change management culture throughout the organization. Such an environment should have little tolerance for unauthorized changes of any type. An effective way to measure the success of your change management strategy is to track the number of unauthorized changes and work towards getting the number close to zero.

Want to minimize your stress and save time on status reports with a tool that helps you track change management KPIs in real time? Check out this list where we’ve gathered and analyzed the 7 best options for change leaders in 2022. 

Number of changes rejected due to any reason

This KPI gives a useful insight into the process of approval and focuses on checking if you require any improvement to perform the process more efficiently. This factor can help improve the notification and communication between the customer and the service provider.

Increase in the number of changes introduced to services meeting customer requirements

Measuring the total number of successful changes with a customer service viewpoint in relation to the overall number of changes can be an effective way to predict how well a change management strategy has worked.

Reduction in the change requests backlog

A great situation to be in, is where change requests are handled as soon as they are received. Proposals from clients for alterations to the system or product would not queue up awaiting action and ultimately disappointing the client.

Such effectiveness doesn't always exist but any organization can work towards reducing the pile-up of backlogged change requests. This measure gives an idea of how change management is performed within the company.

An overall reduction in the number of failed changes

Tracking the success of your organization naturally depends on tracking where you had to struggle the most to get desired results.

Increase in overall change success rate

Another considerable KPI to measure for the success of change management in a company is tracking the percentage of changes implemented successfully, either through the mechanism of an RFC or a review.

An increase in the overall success rate of changes is great and indicates that the organization is progressing in the right direction.

Number of changes following the lead time process

The lead time process and its adherence are of utmost importance in the life cycle of change implementation. Any request for change failing at this can be rejected easily. Such a denial can lead to further delay in the improvement of service.

Reduction in the number of incidents attributed to changes

An overall decrease in the number of incidents that can be traced back to changes is an essential KPI. Incidents are typically unavoidable but the number of incidents that attribute to changes indicates how well the organization manages changes.

Improvement in the average time taken to implement changes based on type, urgency, or priority

A measure of how long the organization takes to respond to requested changes is important to improve the performance of change management.

However, not all changes are the same and they should not be treated equally when measuring. This KPI takes into consideration various types of changes, their priority, and urgency during the assessment.

Number of successful changes implemented in a particular time frame

This KPI is aimed at giving you a clear figure of the work value delivered to the customer. There are many factors that should be considered to achieve this KPI with a high success rate.

Changes performed during business hours

Some changes can be performed during business hours only. This is because of the unavailability of various teams and constrained resources.

Consider the example of a change requested to unrack a decommissioned router. It can be accomplished during business hours only due to the feasibility of pick and delivery.

What Is Lead Time In Change Management

Number of emergency changes performed with or without incident

Change management requests are aimed at helping you understand the need for improvement and any service flaws including hardware upgrade, lead time issue or maintenance which could have led to the change request in the organization.

Number of changes causing an interruption in any service during business hours

Certain live projects require live users to analyze and test the service and they should be conducted during business hours only. As a service provider, this should be considered as it can be rare but not negligible.

The number of changes that cause interruption during business hours is an important KPI determining the capability of the organization to handle changes.

Keep track of your change management KPIs

Measuring the performance and improvement of KPIs is a vital part of any effective change management plan.

You can track the performance of the above-listed KPIs to get a clearer picture of where the organization excels in terms of change management and shows where it requires applying a better effort or strategy.

Of course, there are other more holistic KPIs you can measure as part of the change management process, which will also give you clear insight into how your organization is handling the changes around it or within.

These can be things like the commercial income line, team morale, or organizational resilience through change. The latter can be measured through staff productivity, turnover, and other KPIs around performance.

Ultimately, your team's 'buy-in' and motivation can sometimes be the best way to measure the successful change in an organization.

Hopefully, you've found this list of KPIs for change management useful. If you're looking for a way to effectively track your progress in these KPIs, then why not give check out Cascade's KPI features! and change management metrics dashboard.

You can not only track your KPIs, but also manage your entire strategy from one place, share it with your team, and ensure everyone stays on the same page!

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