“KPI is not a magic wand” – Rethinking performance measurement in the public sector

WE@WORK
Nov 11
8 min read

Updated: 2 days ago

By Respect Vietnam

In the context of ongoing administrative reforms and rapid digital transformation, the application of KPIs in civil servant management is seen as a progressive step toward improving the performance of the public sector. However, as highlighted in the book “KPI – Key Performance Indicators”, performance measurement has often been implemented ineffectively in many organizations around the world.

At RespectVN, we believe that without an approach tailored to the specific characteristics of the public sector and the organizational culture in Vietnam, KPIs can easily become a mere formality—creating pressure rather than motivation. This article aims to challenge some of the prevailing recommendations and propose a more innovative, human-centered, and meaningful approach to using KPIs.

In this piece, Respect Vietnam responds to the recommendations of Dr. Bùi Thị Ngọc Mai from the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics, presented in her article at https://www.quanlynhanuoc.vn/2025/10/14/mot-so-khuyen-nghi-doi-voi-xay-dung-va-ap-dung-kpi-trong-danh-gia-cong-chuc/ regarding the design and application of KPIs in evaluating civil servants. Her article is sharp, focused, and offers many practical recommendations for developing and implementing KPIs in civil service assessment.

Respect Vietnam also supplements these recommendations are based on foundational principles similar to the “Lean Chopsticks” or “One Page 4 Change (OPC)” framework — a concise, impact-driven model that we at Respect Vietnam have studied and applied for over a decade across both for-profit and non-profit organizations, in Vietnam and internationally.

“Performance is not just a number – it’s a journey of learning, improvement, and creating public value.”

1. Challenging the recommendations on KPI design in civil servant performance evaluation

*Respect VN’s comic: Leaders and staff struggling to define their goals and work outcomes.*

1. On Designing KPIs Based on Function and Job Position

➡️ Recommendation: Develop KPIs from the duties, authority, and job descriptions of civil servants, aligned with the characteristics of the agency and locality.

➡️ Objective: Ensure that KPIs accurately reflect the legal and administrative role of each position.

👉 Counterpoint: While this recommendation is correct from an administrative perspective, it is insufficient to guarantee strategic relevance and adaptability. In practice, job descriptions are often legalistic and administrative, failing to fully capture the organization’s strategic priorities—especially in the public sector, where priorities can shift rapidly due to political and social demands.

🎁 Suggested Approach: KPIs should be designed not only from job descriptions but also from organizational strategy, execution capacity, and individual learning potential. The OPC (One Page for Change) framework enables linking high-level objectives (vision, policy) to concrete civil servant behaviors, overcoming the limitations of purely administrative descriptions.

RespectVN's comic: Organizational leaders struggle with hundreds of indicators in the competency framework, yet still wonder why profits don’t grow and the brand doesn’t strengthen — because the actual goals are ignored.

2. On Developing a Multi-Dimensional KPI Set

➡️ Recommendation: Use various types of KPIs such as input, process, output, outcome, citizen satisfaction, and public service ethics.

➡️ Objective: Provide a comprehensive measurement of civil servant performance, from resources utilized to social impact.

👉 Counterpoint: This recommendation is reasonable but does not address the issues of focus and feasibility in implementation. Creating too many layers of KPIs (input, process, output, outcome) can lead to fragmentation, overload, and a lack of strategic alignment.

🎁 Suggested Approach: The OPC framework proposes an integrated KPI system, where indicators are selected according to the principle of “less but meaningful,” aligned with priority objectives and actual execution capacity. KPIs should not merely serve as a measurement list but act as tools for guiding behavior and learning.

3. On Ensuring KPI Are SMART

➡️ Recommendation: Each KPI should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

➡️ Objective: Enhance clarity, implementability, and effectiveness in performance evaluation.

👉 Counterpoint: While SMART is a widely used principle, it is not sufficient to ensure KPIs are truly valuable in the complex public sector environment. A KPI can be very SMART yet still fail to reflect the real issues that need improvement or fail to motivate action.

🎁 Suggested Approach: RespectVN adds the principles of Relevance to Strategic Priority and Learning Potential—KPIs should reflect the organization’s strategic priorities and generate a feedback loop for learning. The OPC framework helps visualize this on a single page.

*RespectVN's comic: Lean vs. non-lean thinking about processes.*

4. On Civil Servant Participation in KPI Development

➡️ Recommendation: Allow civil servants to participate in the design of individual and unit KPIs.

➡️ Objective: Increase commitment, clarity of objectives, and feasibility.

👉 Counterpoint: This is a very valid recommendation, but the participation method needs clarification. Simply asking for opinions or letting individuals draft their own KPIs can lead to a formalistic approach or lack of organizational alignment.

🎁 Suggested Approach: The Chopstick Way employs a multi-level co-creation method—civil servants engage in KPI design through strategic dialogue, reflection, and linking organizational goals with individual roles. This fosters intrinsic commitment, not just administrative agreement.

5. On Differentiating KPIs by Level & Position

➡️ Recommendation: Design different KPIs for leaders and specialists, aligned with strategic or operational roles. ➡️ Objective: Ensure KPIs accurately reflect the focus of work according to hierarchical level.

👉 Counterpoint: This recommendation is valid but should avoid rigid stratification. In the public sector, leadership and specialist roles often overlap, especially in cross-sector or urgent tasks.

🎁 Suggested Approach: The OPC framework allows KPI design along a linked value chain, not just by hierarchy. KPIs for leaders and specialists can be designed to interact and reflect one another, creating an organizational learning system rather than a top-down control system.

6. On the Number of KPIs

➡️ Recommendation: Use 3–5 KPIs for non-managerial civil servants, and more for leaders, depending on the position.

➡️ Objective: Avoid overload or insufficiency in performance evaluation.

👉 Counterpoint: This recommendation is reasonable but should be complemented with principles for selective choice based on execution capacity and learning potential, not just position.

🎁 Khuyến nghị: Suggested Approach: The OPC framework recommends 3–5 core KPIs, selected according to the following principles: (1) Linked to strategic priorities; (2) Capable of generating learning-oriented behaviors;

(3) Supported by periodic feedback data

“KPIs cannot measure trust, proactivity, or a service-oriented mindset—but it is precisely these qualities that define a modern public service.”

*RespectVN's Comic: A single page drives OPC change, helping the entire organization overcome COVID-19 through alignment on goals and work outcomes.*

2. Challenging the Recommendations on KPI Implementation

1. Building Supporting Tools and Data Systems

➡️ Recommendation: Invest in performance management software, visual reporting systems, and high-quality input data.

➡️ Objective: Enhance transparency, accuracy, and efficiency in tracking KPIs.

👉 Counterpoint: This recommendation is valid but should come with a caution against “formalistic technologization”—implementing software without linking it to analytical and reflective capacity.

🎁 Suggested Approach: Technology must be paired with organizational learning capabilities. OPC is not just a digital tool but a mindset framework, helping civil servants understand KPIs as a learning instrument rather than merely a reporting mechanism.

2. Enhancing Capacity for Officials and Civil Servants

➡️ Recommendation: Organize in-depth training on KPI development, measurement, and analysis.

➡️ Objective: Shift mindset from task management to performance management.

👉 Counterpoint: This recommendation is essential, but training should move beyond technical skills toward systems thinking and reflective practice.

🎁 Suggested Approach: RespectVN proposes a training model of “Learn to Do – Learn to Lead – Learn to Create Value”, helping civil servants understand KPIs as an integral part of personal and organizational leadership capability.

3. Linking KPIs with Incentives and Development

➡️ Recommendation: Connect KPI results with rewards, allowances, promotions, and training opportunities.

➡️ Objective: Motivate KPI achievement and address poor performance fairly.

👉 Counterpoint: While this recommendation can drive motivation, caution is needed to avoid turning KPIs into a tool for chasing short-term achievements.

🎁 Suggested Approach: The OPC framework recommends linking KPIs to learning and improvement, not just rewards and penalties. KPIs should reflect progress in capability development, not solely output results.

4. Ensuring Transparency and Fairness

➡️ Recommendation: Publicize evaluation criteria, implement multi-source feedback, and account for regional conditions.

➡️ Objective: Enhance fairness and accurately reflect capabilities in each context.

👉 Counterpoint: This recommendation is valid, but organizational culture and the capacity for multi-source feedback should also be considered.

🎁 Suggested Approach: The Chopstick Way proposes a 360-degree feedback mechanism combined with individual reflection, enabling civil servants not only to receive evaluations but also to self-assess and continuously improve.

5. Periodic Review and Adjustment of KPIs

➡️ Recommendation: Evaluate and update KPIs in response to changes in the environment and strategy.

➡️ Objective: Keep KPIs relevant & effective over time.

👉 Counterpoint: This recommendation should be elevated into an organizational learning cycle, rather than just an administrative review.

🎁 Suggested Approach: The OPC framework integrates a Lean Learning Loop, allowing KPIs to be adjusted according to learning cycles rather than administrative cycles.

6. Controlled Pilot Implementation of KPIs

➡️ Recommendation: Start with a few qualified agencies, then expand with adjustments.

➡️ Objective: Ensure feasibility and avoid blanket implementation without a solid foundation.

👉 Counterpoint: This recommendation is reasonable, but pilots should follow a learning-oriented model, not just an administrative one.

🎁 Suggested Approach: RespectVN proposes piloting under a “Lean Learning Organization” model, where KPIs are not only applied but also interpreted, reflected upon, and continuously improved.

“Innovation in the public sector does not start with a KPI table—it begins by placing people at the center of change.”

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PILOT IMPLEMENTATION OF LEAN KPI

Several provinces have started piloting the lean KPI method proposed by RespectVN — a new approach to public administration that links development strategy with concrete actions at all three organizational levels: organization – department – individual.

For local governments, the process of defining KPIs begins with reviewing and prioritizing the province’s strategic goals (for example, based on tasks outlined in the Central government’s four strategic resolutions on science & technology, international integration, law, and private economy – see diagram below).

Based on provincial priorities, communes define more specific action priorities — the tasks they need to perform to contribute to the province’s overarching goals. Subsequently, specialized departments translate these priorities into their own operational tasks according to the commune-level priorities. This chain of alignment is designed according to the principles of “streamlined – interconnected – measurable,” ensuring that every level can see and track its contribution to the overall results.

Instead of each level owning a separate set of KPIs — which can easily lead to overlap, conflict, or irrelevance; instead of each organization or position having too many KPIs, making it possible to achieve only a few — the streamlined KPI method creates a shared, clear, interconnected system of priorities across all levels, allowing the entire organization to operate in alignment with the same strategic direction.

When priorities are clearly defined at each level, the process of building KPIs for individual positions becomes easier and more meaningful. Each person not only knows “what they need to achieve” but also understands “why it matters” within the broader local strategy.

Notably, the outcomes of each working session, once consensus is reached, are presented visually on the OPC — a single-page tool developed by RespectVN and synchronized on the platform thechopstickway.com, allowing all levels, from province to commune and department, to monitor, update, and manage KPIs transparently and interconnectedly. This provides a solid foundation for lean, effective, and easily supervised governance.

Ongoing Pilot Project:

The People’s Committee of Phu Tho Province and Respect Vietnam are collaborating to implement the S2M pilot project with three main modules:

Technical support for Hung Vuong University and partner enterprises to develop a set of criteria and assessment tools for evaluating student competencies, aiming to design training programs aligned with the needs of the modern labor market.
Support for the Provincial People’s Committee in piloting at one commune and one ward to streamline regulations on organizational structure and functions of local government and individual job positions, enhancing work capacity for key roles such as land administration officers and staff at commune/ward public service centers.
Support and accompany vocational schools in Phu Tho Province in identifying strategic priorities in a rapidly changing socio-economic context.

(This pilot project is part of the VILM2030 – Vietnam Innovative Learning Management program.)

Respect Vietnam is more than a consulting firm—it is a movement reimagining how organizations thrive from the inside out.

Rooted deeply in Vietnam’s culture and committed to human-centric excellence, RespectVN has spent the last decade pioneering transformative solutions that redefine the future of work—not only in Vietnam, but across the region. Our award-winning approaches break old patterns, debunk outdated myths, and challenge conventional wisdom. We've empowered thousands of individuals and hundreds of teams to unlock their inner potential, turning everyday workplaces into engines of innovation, resilience, and meaningful success.

From elevating manpower quality and labor productivity to driving organizational transformation, aligning business models, and advancing both local and international standards—Respect Vietnam is helping shape a future where excellence is not imported, but inspired from within.