Guide to Building an Impactful Facilities Dashboard
Ann Forman Lippens, Managing Director, Research
Facilities leaders have access to an unprecedented amount of data. To better organize metrics and inform decision-making, leaders are turning to operational dashboards.
This publication explores how to build a facilities dashboard. It includes over 700 facilities performance metrics with guidance on filtering, selecting, and tracking the most essential ones. It also demonstrates the best ways to display and share these metrics internally and with campus stakeholders.
Below you can learn more about each section, review example dashboards, or download the study as a whole.
Determine your best-fit performance management tool
Scorecards
Scorecards track progress toward achievement of strategic objectives. The goal of a scorecard is to explicitly link unit activities to institutional goals. Facilities leaders use this tool to clearly demonstrate to other senior leaders how their unit advances broader institutional priorities.
Dashboards
Dashboards offer a snapshot of current performance on select performance indicators, including targets and historical trends. There are three main types of Facilities-centric dashboards: a Facilities Management dashboard, dashboards for specific functions or departments (such as elevator maintenance or utilities), and sustainability dashboards.
Decide which metrics to elevate
Section 1: Compendium of facilities metrics
700+ facilities metrics organized into ten categories, with suggested quick-start guides for each one. Download our editable version to ease your search.
Section 2: Leader-centric facilities metrics
Recommendations for metrics to share with specific audiences (e.g., board, CBO, president). Download our editable version.
Section 3: Select core performance metrics
Considerations for pinpointing core facilities metrics to elevate to a dashboard. Download our editable version to start the process of selecting your own metrics.
5-step metric selection filtering process
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Apply a reality check
Set aside metrics not readily accessible, regularly tracked, supported by reliable data, or easily communicated to others
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Map to strategic objectives
Identify metrics that most directly measure progress on Facilities’ strategic objectives
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Swap lagging for leading metrics
Where feasible, identify leading indicators in lieu of measures providing information “after the fact”
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Account for high-priority imperatives
Add “hot-seat” metrics that shed light on pressing yet temporary areas of concern
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Ensure balance of metric categories
Force trade-offs in over-represented areas by sorting metrics by function or strategic perspective
Deploy user-friendly dashboard layout and format
Insufficient context
Representative stakeholder questions:
- Is the metric above or below the target?
- Should the metric increase or decrease?
- How does this compare to historical data?
Too much information
Representative stakeholder questions:
- Where should I focus my attention?
- What are the most important metrics?
- Can you summarize this for me?
Overly complex visualizations
Representative stakeholder questions:
- What do the different colors mean?
- How do I interpret this graph?
- What’s the difference between the trend lines?
Set principled performance targets and action triggers
Rigorous metric selection and a compelling dashboard format do not necessarily compel corrective action when performance lags. In fact, dashboards can be dramatically undermined by the failure to stipulate associated performance targets or action triggers: thresholds that signal underperformance on core metrics and mandate a response or action.
While often used synonymously, performance targets and action triggers serve different purposes. To ensure progress on selected metrics and compel action when performance lags, institutions should establish both.
- Performance targets are fixed or ranged goals that drive progress on core metrics.
- Action triggers (though less common than performance targets) represent the single-most effective tracking mechanism to ensure leaders respond to concerning data in a timely fashion.
Targets clarify performance goals, while triggers signal when goal achievement is highly unlikely without immediate corrective action.
Example dashboards and scorecards
Energy dashboards
Vertical Transportation Equipment (VTE) dashboard
Facilities management scorecard
Facilities management dashboards
Sustainability dashboard
Classroom utilization dashboard
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