Performance improvement programs are showing up at all levels of government with innovative federal, state, and local government programs leading the way. The use of analytics in municipalities continues to drive improvements in city services.  Cities—large and medium-sized—are diving whole heartedly into analytics as a means to drive efficiencies in city services and response rates as well as to increase citizen engagement.

A growing number of cities are evaluating data to inform next-generation decision-making and resource allocation. Side walk and pothole repair, as well as trash collection and even snow removal are some of the services cities monitor.  However, a number of municipalities and states are going beyond these basic city “bread and butter” issues to tackle ever more sophisticated challenges of modern governance.

Once such city is Louisville, Kentucky.  LouieStat, a performance improvement process was launched in 2012. LouieStat was designed to identify and measure key performance indicators with the goal of answering two questions:

• What results are we trying to achieve?

• How would we know if we are achieving them?

Regular, periodic meetings are held with all stakeholders in order to track progress toward goal. This process has been used to improve responsiveness to constituent concerns as well as to reduce sick time usage, unscheduled overtime and work related illness and injury.  

Many other cities use statistical analysis and performance measurement to tackle other thorny municipal problems.  Next up for some municipalities is permitting and inspections. Other municipalities have their eye on childhood obesity and student achievement. 

For a deeper dive into performance measurement in state and local government, read more here.