Saving your time, money through Balanced Scorecard

  • Published
  • By Col. Tom Schluckebier
  • 66th Air Base Wing commander
Hanscom AFB --  If you are a regular Hansconian reader, you've seen numerous articles regarding the Balanced Scorecard.

Among other things, the Balanced Scorecard serves as a foundation for us to improve in important areas and one way to improve is to track performance.

Two of our Balanced Scorecard objectives are: (1) protect people, information and assets and (2) create a wellness-focused and safe workforce. As we track metrics for these two objectives, we have noticed areas that impact every single member of Team Hanscom. We need your help to improve performance -- and you may save time and money in the process.

Under the "protect people, information and assets" objective, we track the Base Crime Rate. In the past three months, the BCR has spiked from the 2006 fiscal year average of about 1.5 to 2.6 crimes per month per 1,000 persons -- a 73 percent increase.

After some analysis, we determined one of the primary contributing components to the increased BCR was an increase in larceny of non-military property. One of the root causes of those larcenies was failure to secure personal property. Whether in the office, in the Fitness and Sports Center or at the Base Pool, personal property should never be left unsecured, even for a few minutes.

Hanscom is a very safe and secure place, and our security forces personnel work very hard to keep it that way, but we need to do our part too. Locking doors and lockers, keeping purses and wallets out of sight and in a secure location, being vigilant and contacting security forces if you see a security vulnerability will help us lower the BCR and it might just save you some money and time.

Through the "create a wellness-focused and safe workforce" objective, we track reportable safety mishaps. Eleven Team Hanscom members were injured due to slips, trips and falls last winter -- that's eleven too many.

Now that winter has arrived in New England, it's important that Hanscom personnel familiarize and equip themselves to safely handle the wintry mix of weather that might be on the horizon over the next few months.

Don't get sidelined by slips, trips or falls on ice and snow. Be aware of your surroundings and ensure that your footwear is appropriate for the conditions you'll be walking in. Mitigate the risk of falls by using salt or sand and if you notice a problem area on base, report it to your building manager or to the Electronic Systems Center Safety Office.

Remember that we are all an important partner in ensuring workplace safety through our Team Hanscom Voluntary Protection Program. Time is one of our most precious resources -- by focusing on workplace safety, we should be able to reduce time spent away from the workplace due to preventable injuries.

Some of us don't think of the Balanced Scorecard as a means to save personal resources, but rest assured if we focus on reducing the BCR and reportable mishaps, some of us will definitely save our own time and money because we will have avoided a theft or an injury.