Benchmarking (March 2016 Office Hours)

One of the top questions cities ask GovEx is “how do we leverage benchmarking to improve our performance?” Benchmarking is tricky because it requires finding another city to compare yourself to, and most cities don’t have an identical twin – they have cousins. During this office hours, we highlighted multiple practitioners who have first-hand experience with benchmarking initiatives. We discussed the difference between internal, external and best practices benchmarking; examples of how benchmarking adds value; and practical advice on navigating the benchmarking mirage.

Listen to the Recording (or download)

• Explore the North Carolina State Treasurer’s Financial Condition Benchmarking Tool
• Read about experiences from the North Carolina benchmarking project
• See the Valley Benchmarking consortium’s 2013-2014 report
• View our new Affordability Index for mid-sized cities

And don’t forget to vote for future office hours topics!