Looking for employees who want to be held accountable and who are proud of their ability to generate measurable results? ?Then you must develop ?Evidence Based Performance Measures? and hold people accountable for achieving them? says Francie Dalton, President of Dalton Alliances, Inc.

?High achievers and high potential employees leave organizations that tolerate mediocrity? she says, ?but mediocre performers settle in at such organizations because that?s where they?re safe.?

Establishing measurable performance expectations can be tedious and time consuming, but the investment pays tremendous dividends. According to Dalton, the top line benefits include:

• a metrics based context that permits the unemotional confronting of unassailably poor performance;
• sound rationale for rewarding or pruning staff;
• dramatically reduces the subjectivity typically attendant to the review process;
• clarifies explicitly the value organizations deliver to customers and shareholders;
• creates a culture of accountability.

?Proof of performance or the absence thereof? says Dalton. ?That?s what you get with Evidence Based Performance Measures. ?Properly constructed, EBPMs establish targeted outcomes in both quantitative and qualitative terms, each of which is supported by a series of subordinate outcomes that are also measurable.?

Not everything is measurable though ? right? ?Wrong? says Dalton. ?Even attitude, behavior, and other ?softer? aspects of performance can be made measurable. That?s my specialty? she said.