The concept of benchmarking has been used widely by many different types of organisation seeking to learn more about their operational shortcomings. The process of benchmarking involves comparing operational performance with similar institutions, organisations or enterprises in order to gain some understanding of the best practices employed within a given industry. Once performance differences across an industry are understood then each participating organisation has the potential to integrate best practices within the scope of its own operations in order to attain measurable performance improvements.

The benchmarking process is usually centred upon performance indicators, which operate as a means of self analysis and help to identify key differences between participating organisations. The participants of a benchmarking exercise will collect data for these indicators in order to establish best practices in a particular field. Site visits or case studies are often used to showcase best practices, because this helps participants to understand more fully how the best practices have been developed and how they work on a daily basis.

Once the benchmarks have been established all that remains is for individual participants to return to their respective organisations and implement the process changes that should improve performance levels. This requires a commitment from participants that the organisation is willing to co-operate not just in the process of benchmarking, but in following up the recommendations in order to implement change. This is not simply a case of “following the leader”, but of constructively integrating the best practices that leading organisations have established into existing procedures.