Benchmarking labour market performance and labour market policies: Theoretical foundations and applications

Over the last few years, benchmarking advanced to a key word in organisational development and change management. Originally, benchmarking was a tool in business studies summarising the process of comparing your own with a similar organisational unit (mostly the competitor) in order to improve the competitive position. Benchmarking must be distinguished from purely analytical methods of comparison: First, performance indicators must be developed which differ from traditional design. Secondly, an organisational unit must be found which can be classified as the best performer concerning the chosen indicators. The comparison then aims at finding options for the improvement of your own organisational unit in different hierarchical levels with the objective to progress in the position of the best performer.