Measurements Are Used Not Only to Assess Programs but Also to Determine Workers’ Pay

At First Place for Youth, the data the charity collects on its clients don’t simply help it measure and analyze its programs. It also helps determine how much its workers are paid.

“There is no place for people to hide,” says Sam Cobbs, chief executive of First Place, in Oakland, Calif., which serves young people who are approaching or have just passed the age when they have to leave the foster-care system. “As an industry, we have to be more accountable to ourselves and to the young people and more accountable for the dollars that we spend.”

Evaluating Performance

Becoming a data-driven organization wasn’t easy for First Place. The nonprofit’s turnover rate spiked to 40 percent, before dropping to its current rate of less than 10 percent.

But the use of client data to evaluate workers and set their compensation continues to stir debate among the organization’s employees.

Case managers who work with the charity’s young clients are assessed on both program results—such as how many young people in their caseload are working or have earned their GED—and how well they follow procedures, such as how often the employees filed their reports on time and how valid their information was. Supervisors are judged on the success of the people they manage.

Employees who do well get a raise, while average performers do not. If a staff member performs poorly and doesn’t improve with additional training and coaching, First Place asks that employee to leave.

No one likes to fire people, says Mr. Cobbs. But it’s crucial to have clear criteria for evaluating employees and to hold everyone in the organization responsible for meeting goals. Before First Place’s focus on measurement and data, which began in 2006, it was difficult to determine objectively who was doing a good job.

As a result, he says, the group ended up evaluating people on factors other than performance.

“The people who got the most rewards in the organization were the ones who talked the best about the work and were the most popular, just like high school,” says Mr. Cobbs.

A Sore Spot

But tying pay raises to performance has been a sore spot between workers and senior managers.

Employees are committed to helping young people succeed, but they question whether the data the organization uses to evaluate them accurately capture the time and energy they put into working with clients, says Connie Handlin, manager of First Place’s Contra Costa County program.

A case manager, supervisor, and other employees might work intensively with a young adult who needs extra help, meeting three times a week for months, she says.

But if the youth gets arrested and has to leave the program, she notes, that’s all the data will show.

“So now we have this snapshot of this young person who didn’t do well,” says Ms. Handlin. “And yet it doesn’t reflect all the work that was done with that young person.”