Benchmarking with others

How well are we doing compared with others? Who should we be comparing ourselves with? And whose performance should we seek to emulate?

A certain amount of informal benchmarking comes with all our work. After all, as consultants we’re well-placed to tell you how you are doing compared to other similar organisations. However, we’re increasingly responding to a demand for specialist benchmarking surveys. The model is that you pay a modest fee to participate in detailed research with other comparable organisations. We crunch the numbers and analyse the trends – and produce both an overall report and personalised assessment for your eyes only. At the moment we’re doing this for annual funds in UK universities, following the success of our benchmarking work for Oxford colleges.

As well as a chance to get constructive feedback, benchmarking is also a great opportunity for networking with other development professionals who face the same challenges as you do.