I have asked thousands of people in public safety why they got into the business. The answers tend to fall into a remarkably predictable category. “I wanted to help people.” “I wanted to make a difference.” “I wanted to serve my community.” I hear variations of those answers over and over again. And every time I do, I find myself wondering about something else.
If helping people and making a difference are important enough to attract people to the work, why aren’t organizations measuring those things?
Instead, organizations spend an enormous amount of time measuring things that are easy to count. Calls answered, reports completed, response times, training hours, overtime, sick leave, turnover, budget performance, production numbers, attendance, and completion rates can all be useful information. There is nothing inherently wrong with measuring them. Organizations need information, and leaders need to know what is happening. Good management requires some way of comparing actual performance with what was planned.
The problem begins when the measurement becomes more important than the reason for doing the work in the first place.
I find this particularly interesting because many of the same public safety agencies that tell me they are struggling with recruiting and retention also tell me they have problems with employee satisfaction. I don’t think that is necessarily a coincidence. My observation is that we may sometimes be failing to reinforce the very things that attracted people to the profession in the first place.
If an employee entered public safety because they wanted to help people and make a difference, but the organization’s daily emphasis is primarily on numbers, compliance, productivity, and avoiding mistakes, what are we continually reinforcing? We may be telling people, whether we intend to or not, that what we measure is what matters.
That isn’t unique to public safety. It happens in virtually every sector.
A hospital can measure how many patients moved through a department without measuring whether patients felt cared for or whether the care actually improved their lives. A school can measure attendance and test scores without asking whether students are becoming more capable, confident, and prepared for what comes next. A nonprofit can measure programs delivered and dollars spent without asking whether the people it exists to serve are actually better off. A business can measure revenue, transactions, and productivity without asking whether customers are receiving enough value to want to come back.
We can become very good at measuring activity while losing sight of results.
Activity tells us what people did. Results tell us what difference their work made. Sometimes the activity is the result, but often it isn’t. The danger is that activity is usually much easier to measure. We can count a report, a call, a training class, a transaction, hours worked, or the number of people who completed a process.
But how do you measure whether someone was genuinely helped? How do you measure whether an employee believes the work they do matters? How do you measure whether a customer feels that an organization kept its promise? How do you measure whether a supervisor helped someone become more capable? How do you measure whether an organization made a meaningful difference in the lives of the people it serves?
Those questions are harder. That doesn’t make them less important. In fact, it may make them more important.
I sometimes wonder whether we have allowed measurement technology to influence what we consider important. Because something can be put into a spreadsheet, dashboard, or performance report, we begin treating it as though it must be significant.
The fact that something is measurable doesn’t make it meaningful.
I believe organizations should first measure the things that resonate in the hearts and minds of their customers and the things that resonate in the hearts and minds of their employees. Start there. What matters to the people we serve? What matters to the people doing the work? What does the organization exist to accomplish? What difference are we trying to make?
Measure those things first.
After that, organizations can measure anything they want. They can measure productivity, process times, administrative activity, utilization rates, or whatever else they believe is useful. They can even measure the number of birds that flew by while their employees were driving to work.
I simply don’t care.
If a measurement doesn’t help us understand whether we are accomplishing our purpose, serving people well, or creating a workplace in which people can see meaning in what they do, I question why we are giving it so much attention.
An organization should be able to explain why it exists, what difference it intends to make, and what evidence would tell its leaders that it is actually accomplishing that purpose. Then the measurements should follow. Not the other way around.
Think about the people who come to work in your organization. Why did they choose to work there? What did they hope to contribute? What did they believe they could accomplish? What keeps many of them there years later? Those answers contain valuable information.
If people joined because they wanted to help others, are we measuring whether others are actually being helped? If people joined because they wanted to make a difference, are we measuring whether a difference is being made? If people joined because they wanted to solve problems, are we measuring whether the problems are actually being solved? If people joined because they wanted to serve, are we measuring the quality of that service from the perspective of the people being served?
And perhaps just as importantly, are we regularly reminding our employees that those things still matter?
Those questions don’t replace financial, operational, or compliance measurements. They put those measurements in context. Organizations need to know whether they are financially responsible. They need to know whether systems are working. They need to know whether work is being completed efficiently and whether standards are being met.
But efficiency is not the same thing as effectiveness.
You can become extremely efficient at doing the wrong thing.
You can also create a workplace where employees are very good at meeting the organization’s measurements while becoming increasingly disconnected from the reason they came to work there.
That is why I think every organization should periodically take a hard look at its dashboard and ask a simple question: What are we measuring because it matters, and what are we measuring simply because we can?
Then ask another question: Are we measuring the things that matter to the people we serve and the people who do the work?
The answers might be uncomfortable. They might also reveal something important.
We may discover that we have been measuring the work while failing to measure the reason for the work.
And when that happens, we shouldn’t be surprised if employees eventually become more concerned about hitting the number than accomplishing the mission.
The number was never supposed to be the mission.
It was supposed to help us determine whether we were accomplishing it.
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Author’s Note: The content provided in this article is designed exclusively for educational and informational purposes, reflecting opinions shaped by decades of leadership training and organizational consulting experience. It should never be interpreted as formal professional advice. By reading or engaging with this material, you acknowledge that no professional-client relationship is established and that these insights do not substitute for tailored guidance from a qualified professional familiar with your specific circumstances. Consequently, readers are strongly advised to seek independent counsel from licensed legal, financial, medical, or other appropriate advisors before implementing any strategies or making decisions based on these perspectives. Ultimately, you assume full personal responsibility for any actions you choose to take or omit as a result of reading this material, releasing the author and publisher from any liability for outcomes arising from your reliance on the text.
