Benchmarking

comparisons as a tool for development

Benchmarking is a method for analysing the differences between your own organisation and others on the basis of various comparative figures in order to find paths to change. The method has long been widely used in the private sector, and increasing interest can now also be clearly seen in using the method in municipalities and county councils.

The Council wants to support the development of benchmarking for municipalities and county councils. One contribution to such methods development is the report posted below that was written after a visit to Norway in February 2006. In Norway, the Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities (KS) has conducted a three-year benchmarking project in cooperation with the central government. The project has involved more than 200 of Norway's 400 municipalities in networks for benchmarking. The Association has offered a standard method, process leadership, fully developed sets of indicators and both methods support and IT tools to carry out the quality surveys that are an important part of the networking in the project.

If you want to learn more about the approach being used in Norway we recommend this report:
Network for more efficient municipalities [requires Acrobat Reader]