Steady growth in the reporting of both financial and non-financial KPIs is putting employee satisfaction alongside earnings per share in annual company reports. According to tracking by Black Sun, 75 per cent of businesses now include financial KPIs and 60 per cent non-financials in their reports and accounts.

The leading financial metrics are earnings per share, cashflow, operating profit, total shareholder return and return on capital employed. The top five non-financial indicators are employee satisfaction, carbon emissions, customer satisfaction, health and safety commitment, and community involvement.

Black Sun recognises that companies still face a challenge around the quality and availability of information internally to measure strategic progress against KPIs. Indicators need to be clearly defined, benchmarked, compared to previous years and have clear targets set. If a KPI changes, the consultancy notes, explain why.

It is also important to strike a balance between financial and non-financial KPIs. But the rise in both employee and customer satisfaction metrics is encouraging, since it recognises the cause-and-effect linkages long understood as part of the impact of both staff and customer loyalty on profitability. 

View the research here