A while back, I finished reading Atomic Habits by James Clear.
One chapter, in particular, left me reflecting deeply—it explored the idea of tracking habits and how metrics shape behaviour.
Naturally, it got me thinking about Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in community-based health and social care organisations.
How Do Your KPIs Reflect Your Purpose?
We’ve all seen it: the performance metrics that often leave us scratching our heads.
How do we ensure that the numbers we track align with the true purpose of our work—helping people?
When it comes to health and social care, the underlying reason most professionals choose to enter the field is simple yet profound: to make a difference.
Whether it’s in allied health, disability care, or social services, practitioners are driven by their passion for client outcomes.
They care deeply about the lives they touch, and their focus is always on client-centred care.
But here’s the problem: We often measure practitioner performance using metrics that don’t fully align with this purpose.
Things like client numbers, cancellations, and revenue targets dominate the performance landscape, but do these metrics truly reflect the real goal: improving lives?
Key takeaways
Here are some key takeaways that struck a chord:
- We optimise what we measure.
What we choose to track inherently drives our focus and actions. - The wrong measure leads to the wrong behaviour.
Misaligned metrics can unintentionally incentivise counterproductive or irrelevant activities. - KPIs have a dark side.
Numbers can take over, and we can become so driven by the metrics that we lose sight of the purpose behind them.
Aligning Practitioner and Organisational KPIs
This brings us to a vital question for our sector:
What is the ultimate purpose of community health and disability organisations?
For most of us, it’s about making a meaningful difference in people’s lives—helping clients achieve their goals and live more fulfilling lives.
Clinical staff in particular are deeply passionate about providing excellent care and improving client outcomes.
Yet, when it comes to KPIs, many organisations lean heavily on activity-based, revenue-focused, or throughput-driven metrics.
These organisational targets are important, of course, but they rarely capture what matters most: client outcomes.
So, how do we strike a balance?
Surely, there’s room for both organisational success and client-centred progress.
Can we design KPIs that reflect our dual focus on operational sustainability and impactful care?
In our experience, the disconnect between organisational goals and the true purpose of health care has led to some frustration—especially when the numbers feel more like a distraction than a driving force.
In our own allied health business, my husband and I have worked closely with our incredible business coaches to reimagine how we measure success.
The result?
A shift from purely output-based KPIs to ones that truly support our purpose of client success.
Rather than measuring practitioners purely on the number of clients they see or the revenue they generate, we focus on the actions that contribute to achieving our overall business goal: ensuring clients consistently meet their therapy goals.
By tracking key performance actions (KPAs) aligned with meaningful client outcomes, we’ve created a more sustainable and purpose-driven approach.
Here’s a simplified example:
The Power of Purpose-Driven KPIs
What’s the takeaway here? Your KPIs should be a reflection of your core purpose. For organisations in health and social care, that purpose is clear: to make a positive difference in the lives of those you serve.
Aligning KPIs and KPAs with client-centred goals ensures that both the team and the organisation are pulling in the same direction.
This means fewer distractions, more purpose-driven actions, and ultimately better outcomes for clients.
But it doesn’t stop there.
When KPAs align with a clear purpose, it gives staff a sense of ownership and empowerment.
They’re no longer just chasing numbers; they’re pursuing tangible, meaningful goals that directly impact those they serve.
A Call to Action
So, what are the KPAs you require of your staff? Are your KPIs focused on outcomes that align with your mission, or are they simply a reflection of output and efficiency?
It’s time to rethink how we measure success in our organisations. By placing our clients’ needs at the centre of everything we do and using KPIs that reflect that purpose, we can drive real change.
Let’s get curious: How can you start aligning your performance metrics to truly reflect the heart of your organization’s mission?
Need some help doing this work?
Do you need help creating strategies for navigating this balance?
Are you struggling to create, monitor and celebrate meaningful success in your organisation?
Together, we can ensure that our metrics serve not just our organisations but also the people we’re here to help.
At Unplex, we work alongside you and your team to turn your complex problems into solutions you can implement. We do this so health and social care organisations can deliver more and better care to the individuals they serve.
We’d love to get to know you and help you balance your KPIs with your purpose.
Just head on over to our connect page to join our newsletter, or send us an email at hello@unplex.com.au and we’ll be in touch!