Key Performance Indicators Examples to Measure Success

Key performance indicators (KPIs) are essential tools that help organizations measure their success and drive performance improvements.

This comprehensive guide covers 100+ KPI examples across various departments: sales, marketing, finance, customer support, operations, project management, engineering, human resources, IT, and social media. Additionally, we explore department-agnostic KPIs that apply to all employees, such as productivity, quality of work, and team collaboration.

Read on to discover the most effective KPIs for your team and how to leverage them to achieve your business objectives.

100+ Department-based key performance indicators examples to measure success

This list covers over 100 KPI examples for ten departments. It is neither an exhaustive list nor are these examples prioritized in any particular manner.

You will definitely find some relevant examples in this list. Use the KPIs that are relevant to your organizational goals. However, you are unlikely to need all of them.

Sales KPI examples

Sales KPIs are measurable values that help assess the effectiveness and efficiency of the sales team. They target various aspects, such as sales growth, conversion rates, customer acquisition costs, and sales cycle lengths, to ensure that the sales strategies align with business goals and drive revenue growth.

1. Appointments booked: Number of sales meetings scheduled, indicating sales team activity and potential customer interest
2. Number of sales presentations given: Total presentations to potential clients, reflecting engagement efforts and market reach
3. Sales made: Completed sales transactions directly impacting revenue
4. Average sale value: Revenue per sale, indicating product/service value and pricing strategy effectiveness
5. Sales qualified leads (SQL) to sales conversion: Percentage of SQLs resulting in sales, showing lead quality and sales effectiveness
6. Presentations to sales conversion: Conversion rate from presentations to sales, assessing presentation effectiveness
7. Cost of customer acquisition: Average cost to acquire a new customer, indicator impacting profitability
8. Sales pipeline: Total value of sales opportunities, forecasting future sales potential
9. Sales vs. last year's sales: Current sales compared to the previous year, showing growth or decline
10. Customer orders: Orders placed, indicating market demand and sales success
11. Upsells: More expensive products sold, reflecting sales strategy success

Marketing KPI examples

Marketing KPIs are metrics used to evaluate the success of marketing initiatives. They measure aspects like brand awareness, lead generation, customer engagement, and return on marketing investment (ROMI) to ensure that marketing efforts effectively drive business objectives and generate value.

1. Total leads: Total potential customers, indicating marketing reach
2. Marketing qualified leads (MQLs): Leads likely to become customers, showing marketing targeting effectiveness
3. Sales qualified leads (SQLs): Leads approved by sales, indicating lead quality
4. Cost per sales qualified: Cost for acquiring an SQL, assessing marketing efficiency
5. Sales by lead source: Revenue by lead source, showing effective channels
6. Click-through rate: Ad/link engagement rate, indicating content effectiveness
7. Cost per conversion: Cost to turn a lead into a customer, measuring marketing ROI
8. Total impressions: Times an ad/content is viewed, indicating reach
9. New subscribers: New service/newsletter sign-ups, showing audience growth
10. Website visits: Number of site visits, which reflects online presence strength
11. Visitor bounce rate: Single-page visitors, indicating content relevance
12. Page views: Website page views, an indicator showing content engagement

Finance KPI examples

Finance KPIs are indicators that help evaluate an organization's financial health and performance. They measure aspects such as profitability, cash flow, expense management, and return on investment (ROI) to ensure that the financial strategies support business growth and sustainability.

1. Gross profit margin: Revenue over cost of goods sold, showing profitability
2. Net profit margin: Remaining revenue after all expenses, indicating overall profitability
3. Accounts receivable days: Days to collect payment, affecting cash flow
4. Monthly recurring revenue: Monthly ongoing revenue, indicating financial stability
5. Annual recurring revenue: Yearly ongoing revenue showing long-term financial health
6. Customer lifetime value: Total expected revenue from a customer, indicating long-term profitability
7. Average subscription days per customer: Subscription duration, showing customer loyalty.
8. Cash balance: Available cash, indicating liquidity
9. Cash burn rate: Cash spending rate, showing financial sustainability
10. Cash runway: Time before running out of cash, indicating financial planning effectiveness
11. Revenue per employee: Revenue generated per employee, showing workforce productivity.
12. Revenue growth: Sales increase, indicating business growth

Customer support KPI examples

Customer support KPIs are measurable values that help evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of the customer support team. These KPIs target aspects such as response time, resolution rate, customer satisfaction, and support ticket volume to ensure customer representatives resolve issues promptly and effectively, enhancing the overall customer experience and fostering loyalty.

1. First response time: The average time taken to respond to a customer query, crucial for customer satisfaction
2. Resolution time: The average time taken to resolve a customer issue, impacting customer satisfaction and efficiency
3. Customer satisfaction score (CSAT): A measure of customer satisfaction with the support received, reflecting the quality of service
4. Net promoter score (NPS): A measure of customer loyalty and the likelihood of recommending the service to others, indicating overall customer satisfaction
5. Ticket volume: The total number of support tickets received, helping to gauge the workload and efficiency of the support team
6. First contact resolution rate: The percentage of issues resolved on the first contact, indicating the effectiveness of the support team
7. Ticket backlog: The number of unresolved tickets, highlighting the efficiency and capacity of the support team
8. Escalation rate: The percentage of tickets that need to be escalated to higher levels of support, indicating the complexity of issues and training needs
9. Average handle time (AHT): The average time spent on each support interaction, impacting overall efficiency and customer satisfaction
10. Support cost per ticket: The average cost incurred per support ticket, reflecting the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of the support operations
11. Customer effort score (CES): A measure of the ease with which customers get their issues resolved, indicating the user-friendliness of the support process
12. Agent utilization rate: The percentage of time support agents spend actively working on support tasks, indicating productivity and workload balance
13. Agent satisfaction: The satisfaction levels of support agents, affecting their performance and overall service quality
14. Support channel effectiveness: The performance of different support channels (e.g., phone, email, chat), helping to optimize resource allocation
15. Repeat contact rate: The percentage of customers who have to contact support multiple times for the same issue, indicating the effectiveness of issue resolution

Operations KPIs examples

Operations KPIs are metrics gauging the efficiency and effectiveness of an organization's operational processes. They focus on areas like production efficiency, process optimization, supply chain management, and cost control to ensure that operations are streamlined and contribute to overall business performance.

1. Customer complaints: Number of complaints received, a proxy for customer satisfaction and product/service quality
2. Support tickets: Support requests reported, reflecting product/service issues and support effectiveness
3. Average response time: Response time to inquiries, showing customer service efficiency
4. Deliveries on full and on-time (DIFOT): Orders delivered complete and on time, indicating supply chain efficiency
5. Return rate: Percentage of returned products from total shipments, showing product satisfaction and quality
6. Cost of inventory on hand: Inventory value, affecting cash flow and storage costs
7. Inventory turnover: Frequency of inventory replacement, indicating sales effectiveness and inventory management
8. Labor costs: Employee compensation costs, impacting profitability
9. Customer satisfaction: Customer contentment levels, crucial for retention and brand reputation
10. Lost customers: Customers stopping purchases, indicating market position and customer loyalty
11. Customer retention: The ability to keep customers over time, crucial for stable revenue
12. Customer churn: Rate of customers leaving, affecting long-term revenue and market position

Project management KPI examples

Project management KPIs are measurable values that help track project progress and success. They focus on project timelines, budget adherence, resource utilization, and stakeholder satisfaction to ensure relevant stakeholders deliver projects on time, within budget, and meet the desired outcomes.

1. Actual cost of work performed (ACWP): Costs incurred for work done, indicating budget adherence
2. Cost of managing processes: Expenses for overseeing projects, affecting overall project profitability
3. Cost performance index (CPI): Cost efficiency measure, indicating budget management effectiveness
4. Cost variance (CV): Difference between budgeted and actual costs, showing financial control
5. Budgeted cost of work performed (BCWP): Budgeted cost of actual work, indicating planning accuracy
6. Missed milestones: Missed project milestones, showing project progress and management effectiveness
7. Overdue project tasks: Tasks behind schedule, demonstrating project management and timeline adherence
8. Planned vs. actual work hours: Comparison of planned versus actual work hours, showing project planning accuracy
9. Budgeted cost of work scheduled (BCWS): Budget for scheduled work, indicating future financial planning
10. Projects canceled: Terminated projects, affecting resource utilization and planning
11. Projects completed on time: On-time project completion, crucial for client satisfaction and efficiency
12. Resource utilization: Efficient use of project resources, affecting cost and productivity
13. Return on investment (ROI): Financial return on project investment, indicating project success
14. Schedule performance index (SPI): Schedule efficiency measure, showing time management
15. Schedule variance (SV): The difference between scheduled and actual work, indicating project timing control
16. Tasks complete: Completed project tasks, showing project progress and team productivity

Engineering KPIs examples

Engineering KPIs are metrics used to evaluate the performance and efficiency of engineering teams. They target areas like code quality, deployment frequency, system uptime, and technical debt management to ensure engineering practices contribute to product development and innovation while maintaining high standards of reliability and performance.

1. Code quality: Ensuring high standards in code, reducing bugs and maintenance costs
2. Deployment frequency: Increasing the number of deployments, improving product delivery speed
3. Lead time for changes: Reducing the time from code commit to production, enhancing development efficiency
4. Mean time to recovery (MTTR): Minimizing the time to recover from failures, improving system reliability
5. Defect density: Reducing the number of defects per code unit, ensuring higher software quality.
6. Customer-reported issues: Lowering the number of issues reported by customers, enhancing user satisfaction
7. Cycle time: Decreasing the time taken to complete a task from start to finish, boosting productivity
8. System uptime: Maximizing the system's operational time, ensuring availability and reliability
9. First pass yield (FPY): Increasing the percentage of products passing quality tests the first time, reducing rework and waste
10. Technical debt: Managing and reducing technical debt, ensuring long-term maintainability and performance
11. Test coverage: Expanding the percentage of code covered by automated tests, improving reliability and early bug detection
12. Velocity: Increasing the amount of work completed in a sprint, enhancing team productivity
13. Incident response time: Reducing the time taken to respond to incidents, improving overall security and reliability
14. Innovation rate: Increasing the rate of new features or products developed, driving growth and competitiveness

Human Resources KPI examples

Human resource KPIs are measurable values that help demonstrate the effectiveness of workforce planning and talent management strategies. They focus on employee retention, training and development, employee satisfaction, and recruitment efficiency to ensure HR practices support organizational goals and foster a positive work environment.

1. Employee qualification support: Support for enhancing qualifications, crucial for workforce capability
2. Leadership skill development: Development of managerial skills, crucial for team effectiveness
3. Employee survey usage: The application of surveys for feedback crucial for employee engagement
4. HR tool utilization: Use of digital HR tools and automation, enhancing process efficiency and reducing manual workload
5. Succession planning: Preparation for turnover in key roles, ensuring organizational continuity
6. Employee retention/attrition rate: Keeping employees over time, especially relevant for operational stability and institutional knowledge retention
7. Employee turnover rate reduction: Decreasing the employee departure rate, crucial for stability and cost reduction
8. Training budget use: Effectiveness in training budget use, affecting workforce skill and development
9. Labor cost management: Efficiency in handling labor costs, impacting profitability
10. Cost optimization: Reducing costs while maintaining efficiency, crucial for financial health
11. Profitability increase: Strategies for enhancing profitability, crucial for business growth
12. Time to hire: Decreasing the duration taken to fill a vacant position, impacting the ability to maintain operational productivity
13. New hire time to productivity: Decreasing the period required for a new employee to reach full productivity, crucial for overall efficiency and return on investment

IT KPIs examples

IT KPIs are metrics that help measure the performance and effectiveness of the IT department. They focus on areas like system performance, cybersecurity, incident response times, and technology adoption to ensure that IT services are reliable and secure and effectively support business operations.

1. Network uptime: Operational network time, crucial for business continuity
2. Average response time: Response time for IT issues, indicating support efficiency
3. Employee satisfaction with IT: Satisfaction level with IT services, affecting productivity
4. Account creation success: Successful account creations, indicating system efficiency
5. Account termination success: Efficient account terminations, crucial for security
6. Active Directory performance index: Performance measure of Active Directory, affecting user experience
7. Alert-to-ticket ratio: Alert conversion to tickets, indicating issue identification
8. Data center availability: Operational data center time, crucial for data accessibility
9. Call center PBX availability: Call center system reliability, affecting customer support
10. Data center capacity utilization: Data center usage, affecting resource management
11. Email client availability: Email system reliability, vital for communication
12. Incidents from change: Issues from IT changes, indicating change management effectiveness These KPIs offer valuable insights for monitoring and improving performance across different departments. To be truly effective, each KPI should be aligned with the organization's overall goals and strategy.

Social media KPIs examples

Social media KPIs are metrics used to assess the impact and effectiveness of social media activities. They measure follower growth, engagement rates, content reach, and conversion rates to ensure that social media strategies drive brand awareness, customer engagement, and business growth.

1. Likes: Engagement level on social posts, indicating content popularity
2. Engagement: The level of audience interaction, a crucial indicator for brand presence and loyalty
3. Followers growth: Increase in followers, showing brand reach and appeal
4. Traffic conversions: Social media visitor conversions, indicating online marketing effectiveness
5. Social interactions: Total social media interactions, showing audience engagement
6. Social sentiment: Public perception from social content, affecting the brand image
7. Social shares: Content sharing rate, indicating content virality and appeal
8. Web visitors by channel source: Visitors originating from social channels, showing channel effectiveness
9. Social visitors conversion rate: Conversion rate from social media, especially relevant for measuring ROI

Department-agnostic employee key performance indicators

Productivity

Productivity as an employee KPI measures the efficiency and effectiveness with which an employee completes tasks relative to the time and resources used. This KPI evaluates the amount of work or output produced over a specific period, considering the quality standards set by the organization. It can be quantified by comparing the employee's output against predefined benchmarks or industry standards, ensuring the work meets or exceeds the expected quality levels.

For example, in a sales team, the number of sales or turnover is a productivity indicator that compares the sales of a previous year or specific period. In marketing, tracking the traffic-to-MQL ratio helps understand the total traffic the platform generated vs. the number of marketing-qualified leads from that traffic. By analyzing this traffic-to-MQL ratio, organizations can better understand their best-performing media and increase their investment there.

Such productivity KPIs help organizations measure how effectively each department achieves its core business objectives.

Quantity of work

The quantity of work KPI assesses the volume of tasks or projects an employee completes within a given timeframe. Unlike productivity, which considers the efficiency and effectiveness of work output, quantity of work focuses purely on the amount of work done. It is measured by tracking the completion of tasks, deliverables, or projects against planned targets or workload expectations without directly factoring in the resource expenditure.

For example, a quantity of work metric for a marketing department is the number of newly generated content in a month. For a sales department, it would be the number of outbound messages sent or calls performed.

Quality of work

Quality of work as an employee KPI measures the standard of output produced by an employee in terms of accuracy, completeness, relevance, and presentation against predefined criteria or industry benchmarks. This indicator assesses how well the work meets or exceeds the organization's quality standards, customer satisfaction levels, and compliance with regulatory requirements. This KPI is crucial for ensuring the organization's products or services are of high quality, positively affecting the company's reputation and operational efficiency.

Some components of the quality of work KPI are:

• Accuracy: The degree to which the work is free from errors or discrepancies—e.g., nr. of successful email campaigns for marketing
• Completeness: Ensuring the employee finishes all aspects of the work—e.g., completing a new customer onboarding process without forgetting any steps
• Compliance: Adherence to industry standards, legal requirements, and company policies—e.g., an HR department completes all compliance procedures for new hires
• Relevance: The work's appropriateness and alignment with project objectives or customer needs
• Presentation: How the work is organized and conveyed, affecting its perception and usability by others

Attendance and punctuality

The attendance and punctuality KPI tracks employees' adherence to work schedules, including consistently arriving on time and minimizing unscheduled absences. Attendance and punctuality measure employees' reliability and commitment to their organizational role. You can quantify this KPI by recording occurrences of:

• Late arrivals
• Early departures
• Unscheduled absences

And compare them against the company's attendance policy. Managers can gain insights into employee engagement, motivation, and overall performance by tracking attendance and punctuality KPIs.

For example:

• In healthcare, attendance and punctuality KPIs monitor nurses' and caregivers' attendance to guarantee they provide high-quality patient care
• In the retail business, attendance and punctuality KPIs monitor the attendance levels of their sales associates to guarantee they provide top-notch customer service
• In manufacturing, attendance and punctuality KPIs monitor worker attendance on an assembly line to guarantee meeting production goals Regular absences and being late to work can suggest employees are unhappy. Hence, tracking how much time your staff takes off is important.

Initiative and proactiveness

Initiative and proactiveness as a KPI evaluate an employee's willingness to undertake responsibilities beyond their standard job requirements and their ability to anticipate future challenges or opportunities. This metric assesses an employee's engagement, resourcefulness, and forward-thinking approach to work and the organization's goals.

It can be measured through qualitative assessments, such as peer or managerial reviews, highlighting specific instances where the employee demonstrated exceptional initiative or proactive behavior.

Team collaboration

Team collaboration as a KPI measures an employee's effectiveness in working within a team setting, including their contribution to achieving team goals, communication skills, and ability to support and enhance team dynamics.

This KPI evaluates how well an employee:

• Engages with others
• Shares knowledge
• Contributes to a positive and productive team environment

Companies can measure team collaboration through peer feedback, participation in team projects, and contributions to team meetings and problem-solving efforts. Soufiane Erraji, IT Senior Manager at Procter & Gamble, suggests two interesting methods for measuring collaboration within an organization:

How to get the most out of your KPIs

Align your KPIs with business goals

In a sea of KPIs, it is essential to understand that not all may suit your strategic and operational goals. Ask yourself these questions to choose KPIs that match your goals:

1. What do you want your business to do?
2. How will you spend money this year?
3. How will you know you've met my goals?
4. Is money your only goal in the business?

After answering these questions, you can choose indicators that link your personal and team goals to the organization's overall goals.

Choose meaningful, relevant KPIs for each role

Selecting the most relevant key performance indicators is one of the significant challenges most companies face, as KPIs vary within the same organization depending on the people working and their associated roles or positions.

For example, in a manufacturing company, the General Manager may prioritize the overall efficiency and productivity of the production process as the ultimate measure of success. So, they would focus on metrics such as production output, cost-effectiveness, and resource utilization to ensure the company's profitability and sustainability.

However, the Vice President of Operations, who oversees brand promotion and customer engagement, might emphasize customer satisfaction metrics more. For them, the Net Promoter Score (NPS) and customer retention rates could be the key performance indicators that reflect the success of marketing strategies. This happens because the perspectives of a General Manager and Vice President are different, and they operate with varying goals in mind.

Each role has key performance indicators reflecting its unique contribution to the organization's objectives.

Ensure relevance and regularly reassess KPIs for growth

Evaluating KPIs over time enables organizations to identify trends (or poor performance) and areas needing improvement. By regularly checking their KPIs, organizations notice when something has gone wrong and require an investigation. They can promptly devise a strategy to mitigate the issue and implement it before it has far-reaching effects on the organization's performance.

Tip: You should not stick rigidly to a predetermined set of KPIs. Instead, you should change your approach as circumstances evolve. Because businesses aren't static entities, your KPIs should also change as the organization grows.

For example, a startup might initially focus on brand awareness. However, as the startup grows, customer retention and satisfaction become more critical.

Ensure people in your organization understand your/their KPIs

Without context, KPIs can be meaningless targets for employees. Every employee should know what's being measured, how it's being calculated, and, more importantly, what they should do (and shouldn't do) to positively affect the KPI. This context will make your employees feel valued and connected to the broader organizational goals and objectives.

Stoyan Mitov, CEO of Dreamix, stresses the need to get employees onboard from the goal setting stage:

Avoid over-monitoring: Create a stress-resilient workplace culture

Although KPIs can be used to assess performance and pinpoint areas that require enhancement, an exclusive emphasis on these metrics may adversely affect your employees. Leaders who are too focused on KPIs might prioritize short-term results over their people's health and well-being. This approach can create a toxic workplace, high employee turnover, and lower long-term productivity.

In 2016, Wells Fargo got caught up in a scandal. The pressure to meet targets compelled their employees to engage in unethical actions—they were making millions of unauthorized accounts to reach their sales goals.

Therefore, while KPIs are essential, organizations must prioritize a balance between their metrics and the human elements of their business.

Set realistic KPIs and elevate your organization's performance with Deel Engage

Selecting the right KPIs from a long list can be daunting, mainly if you haven't defined your organization's goals. Prioritize setting goals critical to your business's success rather than imitating goals from other companies. Here's how Deel Engage can help you:

• Set clear KPIs that align with your organizational goals to track milestones and drive performance
• Create competency-driven career paths for employees to have full transparency of what is expected for every role and seniority and give your people a structured and transparent career growth path
• Add goals to your performance review process—implement an unbiased and highly customizable review process that collects goal data and insights about your people's strengths and areas for development
• Boost employee engagement and performance with our learning management module—address knowledge and skill gaps with thousands of learning resources

Take the first step towards maximizing your team's potential—request a demo now.