Case Studies:
Education / Universities

Kamehameha Schools Communications Dashboard
by Kamehameha Schools and KDPaine & Partners

Summary

The Kamehameha Schools Communications Dashboard project is the perfect example of how and organization should define measurable goals, identify specific measures of success, and then use those metrics to continuously improve a communications program. The program began with a mandate for measurement from senior management. Out of that mandate came an RFP and ultimately a “Dashboard Development Workshop” in which all members of the communications team participated in setting the specific measures of success. Once those metrics were defined, an automated system was set up that requires each project undertaken by the communications team to define results and, more importantly, to tie those results back to stated organizational and departmental goals. Metrics include outcome, outtake and output measures. At any given moment, Kamehameha School’s communications professionals can see which projects and programs are best contributing to the goals. Their dashboard shows where resources need to be allocated and which programs are most effective at achieving the goals.


Background

The term “dashboard” began to surface in corporate America about a decade ago when harried CEOs decided that the problem was not a lack of information, but rather too much information being sent to them on a daily basis. They needed to define the specific “gauges” that they needed to follow in order to know whether their organizations were headed in the right direction. The idea was that, like your car, this organizational dashboard would have warning lights that would indicate what areas they needed to pay attention to, regular financial reporting so they could quickly determine whether they had enough “fuel” or resources to get where they were going, and specific gauges for different departments so they’d know instantly which areas were performing well and which were performing poorly.

The first gauges to populate CEO's dashboards came from sales and manufacturing and featured metrics like “revenue per employee,” “percentage of contract wins,” and “sales vs. goals”. Soon customer satisfaction and loyalty scores were finding their way on to dashboards and inevitably the spotlight came around to communication. The Kamehameha Schools dashboard is an Internet-based application that can be used by anyone in the communications department to enter data, track projects and report results, all with just a few key strokes.

The Client

Kamehameha Schools is a private educational institution in Hawaii that was founded by the last of the Hawaiian rulers, Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop. Her legacy, which included most of the land in Hawaii, became one of the largest endowments in America. The mandate of that legacy was to provide educational opportunities for native Hawaiians, and thus Kamehameha Schools was founded in 1887as a k-12 educational institution.

As the school entered the 21st century a new CEO was brought in and after significant community input and research developed a new mission and set of goals for the school. Additionally she demanded accountability at all levels of the institution. When a new director of Community Relations and Communications was brought on board in 2005, it was the perfect opportunity to bring the same level of accountability into the communications department. All the other departments were feeding data into an organizational “dashboard” and CRC would need to do so as well.

The Dashboard Development Process

Kamehameha Schools selected KDPaine & Partners to help them develop their Communications Dashboard in the spring of 2005. The dashboard includes metrics from:

1. Media Management

2. Internal Communications

3. Government Relations

4. Community Relations

5. Technical Outreach

6. Advertising

7. Brand Management

8. Executive communications

Each department would have its own specific set of metrics and dashboard, but all the data would be compiled into one overall communications dashboard. Each departmental dashboard needed to be customized to the department’s objectives.

The first step was to collaboratively define the measures of success. After a communications audit of existing materials and plans, an all-day group meeting took place attended by all managers and many staff members from the eight departments.

At the meeting it was determined that the overall function of goal of CRC at Kamehameha Schools was to reach out to, engage and communicate messages to the native Hawaiian population. While each department did so in a different way with different tactics, ultimately that was the job expected of them. As a result the following departmental metrics were defined and incorporated into the overall CRC dashboard.

1. Total number of contacts with native Hawaiians each quarter

2. Cost per contact

3. Total number of opportunities to see Kamehameha Schools’ key message generated each quarter

4. Cost per message communicated

5. Percent audience agreement with Kamehameha Schools key messages


The next step was to define the metrics for the individual departments. Subsequent meetings and discussions took place to define measurable objectives for each department. For example, for media management, the metrics were defined as “Percent of articles containing one or more key messages” and “Quote Accuracy over time” “Extent of Discussion on Key Issues” among others.

For the Technical Outreach group, the metrics included open rates as well as “Ratio of Unique Visitors vs. Repeat Visitors” on the web site.

For more project oriented groups, the metrics included “Total number of native Hawaiians reached by project” and “Native vs. Non-Native Hawaiians reached by project.”

Measuring Outputs, Outtakes and Outcomes

As part of the definition of the dashboard, it was important to ensure that all three components of success -- outputs, outtakes and outcomes -- were measures. So, for example, output measures include the tracking of all media coverage to determine if articles contain key messages, and reflect the schools mission. Outtakes are measured by an annual opinion survey, conducted to measure the extent to which members of the target audience understand and believe in the organizations key messages and support the mission. Finally, outcomes include the number of cooperative agreements made with local community groups, the number and quality of applications, the number of brand licenses signed and the outcome and progress of bills in the state legislature.

Setting Measurable Objectives

The most important part of the dashboard, however, was the incorporation of mandatory goal setting. For every project tracked, the staff member has to define a specific goal that it supports. There are three separate sets of goals:

1. Organizational goals – the goals established by the CEO for the institution itself

2. CRC goals – those goals defined by the VP of CRC for her department

3. Departmental goals – the specific goals for the specific department

Every project or task must support at least one of those stated goals. As a result, the managers can easily look at the Dashboard and determine the extent to which any of the goals are being supported. If there are too many projects in support of one goal at the expense of others, a manager can easily spot the problem and adjust resources as necessary.

Budget and time factors are included, so managers can instantly see what it is costing in both time and money to support the various goals.

Results

The first reporting cycle is underway and some staff are using the dashboard to track and report results. Not everyone, however, is on board, and one of the key lessons learned is that technical training on how to enter data is not sufficient. There needs to be a better understanding of how to use the data and why it is important to keep the data up to date.

Among the metrics included are the results of an annual opinion survey to determine if the target audience is the results of attitude and opinion surveys to determine

Costs

The initial dashboard cost $18,000 to develop. Subsequent iterations and modifications and training are approximately $15,000 per year.