For public transit agencies, ridership — a popular industry-wide measure — can no longer be used as the biggest determinant of success. Transit agencies looking to measure what matters should start with their own agency values and mission statements as a guide. As organizations begin to rethink the factors that contribute to success, it is important that the formula that is applied to the agency as a whole is also applied to the CEO or General Manager.
We recently partnered with a transit agency in the Midwest looking to adopt an innovative method for performing their CEO’s annual review. While working on a new Strategic Plan, this agency had aligned around four areas of success driven by the agency’s values. Demonstrating their commitment to living out those values and success outcomes, agency leadership decided to link those items to the annual review, working with TransPro to develop a web-based appraisal tool that the Board of Directors could use to rank the CEO’s performance against them.
- THE NEED: An updated CEO performance review process that incorporated its newly defined success outcomes and core values.
- THE SOLUTION: An interactive, web-based appraisal tool that the Board of Directors could use to evaluate the CEO against this criteria.
- THE RESULT: An agency publicly committing to living out its core values at every level — even to the point of grading its CEO on her adherence to those values.
This level of commitment to outcomes and values can then cascade down through the agency to managerial and administrative staff appraisals. It’s an innovative practice that can have lasting effects on the culture of a transit agency and the community it serves.
Agencies that measure performance in this manner are committed to measuring what matters and defining success according to their values. They choose not to live and die by ridership, but instead to ensure the agency values are embraced throughout all levels of the organization.
