Planning Motivation Control

What are the performance metrics. The main indicators for assessing the activities of the enterprise. Integral indicator as a way to determine the effectiveness of work

TOPIC 13. INDICATORS FOR ASSESSING THE ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES OF THE ENTERPRISE AND THEIR ANALYSIS

In market conditions, there is always an element of risk in the implementation of production, economic, commercial and other activities. It is expressed in the production of a product that may receive insufficient demand, in the loss of profit, bankruptcy etc. Therefore, the desire to reduce the degree of risk requires careful economic calculations results of work in all areas of production, economic and commercial activities enterprises, their analysis and evaluation. Their implementation presupposes the existence of appropriate evaluation criteria, economic indicators and appropriate methods of calculation, accounting and generalization.

Variety of properties and features various kinds production, economic and commercial activities of the enterprise determines the variety of indicators. At the same time, the problem of their use is that none of them plays the role of a universal indicator by which it would be possible to clearly judge the success or failure in business. Therefore, in practice, they always use a system of indicators that are interconnected and evaluate or show various aspects of the enterprise's activities. Allocate indicators individual, group (private) and general. Depending on the purpose of the analysis, indicators can be expressed in the form of absolute, relative and average values. Each specific economic indicator has a qualitative certainty (space, time and quantity). A number devoid of at least one of the two definitions is not an indicator. According to established practice, a criterion is understood as a sign that allows to produce comparative assessment options for activities, calculations, characterized by many features.

An indicator is also a sign, but characterizing any one side of a phenomenon, action, their quantitative or qualitative characteristic (side) or the degree of completion of a certain task. In our country, science and practice formed a system of economic, financial and statistical indicators, developed methods for calculating and accounting for them, but they were designed for a centrally planned economic system. With the transition to market relations, this system of indicators, both in terms of their calculation and accounting, and the role in justifying decisions, has undergone and is undergoing certain changes. So, for example, if under the conditions of a planned management system in assessing the activities of an enterprise, such indicators as the fulfillment of the plan, the volume marketable products, the volume of gross output, then in market conditions the following indicators are put forward: sales volume, profit, profitability and whole line optimization. Orientation of production to meet demand has sharply increased the value of the assessment various options meeting demand.


All indicators, based on market requirements, can be divided into:

appraisal, characterizing the achieved or possible levels of development or results of a particular activity;

costly, reflecting the level of costs for the implementation of various activities.

Such a division is very conditional. It depends on the purpose of the analysis. For example, the indicator "production costs" in one case can be considered as an estimate, characterizing the achieved level of labor costs, and in another case (during planning) it can be defined as a cost indicator, which allows you to set the amount of costs in the provision of services. The same can be said about the significance of indicators. This largely depends on the nature (type) of activity. For example, the indicator of profit, despite all its importance, is far from being of equal interest to everyone: the lessor (land, buildings, equipment, etc.) is more interested in the movement of liquidity in the company, and shareholders are interested not only in the size dividends, but also the stock price, which depends on the growth rate of their sales volume.

From current practice, it follows that the most important performance indicators that have been widely used are:

The total sales volume of the enterprise.

Gross profit.

Conditionally net profit.

Conditionally pure products.

Profit after payment of interest on loans and credits.

Profit after taxes.

Profit after payment of all additional payments.

Liquidity after the implementation of new capital investments in the development of production.

Liquidity after payment of dividends.

The performance of the system (enterprise) as a whole and its individual elements.

IN Lately for the procedure for assessing the productivity of employees, the scope of application was expanded - it began to be used not only for top managers. Evaluation of key performance indicators (KPI employees) has ceased to be hallmark foreign companies, case studies can be found in various industries and for the most different categories employees from marketers and business analysts to financiers and economists.

Managers are assessed by competencies by Aleksey Shirokopoyas, Development and Assessment Expert managerial competencies. Developer of educational and game programs. Project founder. 8-926-210-84-19. [email protected]

Typically, KPI-based motivation systems measure key performance indicators (KPIs of employees) because they are based on SMART criteria. Therefore, such motivation systems are convenient for applying to employees employed in profit centers, where there are objective, and most importantly, measurable criteria: sales volumes, financial key performance indicators (KPI employees), deadlines, etc., and work based on SMART -goals and objectives, has a specific result. However, not all types of work can have such goals and objectives. For example, how to evaluate process activities (not implying the achievement of a specific result), where there are no SMART tasks and those who are "remote" from the economic and operational processes of the company - "clerks": a secretary, a call center operator, system administrator support services, inspector personnel office work, accountant, personnel officer, etc.? These workers (back office) perform routine functions, and, unlike the work of managers, the work of "clerks" is difficult to evaluate. How to assess the quality side of the work of this category of personnel?

Key performance indicators (KPI employees) - what should I pay attention to?

In this case, it is necessary to evaluate the performance of functions. To a large extent, this is only qualitative assessment, and, as you know, a qualitative assessment is an expert assessment. The method proposed in the article helps to evaluate the work from this side.

Each leader appreciates in his employees the ability to perform work quickly and efficiently. And laments when these requirements are not met. Often he has to put up with this and hope that he will someday find a better employee, but everything repeats with a new employee. Why is this happening? To answer this question, let's delve into the nature of the parameters under consideration and their relationship.

What is "working speed"? From physics, we know that speed is the ratio of the amount of work to the time it takes to complete it. This means that the manager evaluates his employee according to three parameters: the amount of work, the time it takes to complete it, and the quality of the work.

Thus, any activity can be evaluated by three key performance indicators (KPI employees), let's call them the "efficiency triad" (see Appendix):

  1. Number of work- production rate, share of excess production, additional orders in excess of the job description, etc. .
  2. Quality of work– technology compliance, error-free, no customer complaints, defects, etc.
  3. Work completion time- compliance with the set deadline, early implementation, exceeding deadlines, etc.

Moreover, each leader can decide for himself what kind of work he evaluates:

  • the number of operations per job function (for example, the function of a lawyer is the preparation of contracts, and the number of contracts is the number of operations in this function);
  • the scope of functions in excess of the standard, which is defined job description(for example, a lawyer is required by law to process at least 100 contracts per month);
  • solution of additional tasks, instructions of the head in excess official functions(projects, one-time tasks, etc.).

However, it is not so easy to "reconcile" the speed of work and quality. Indeed, one can be convinced that it is easy to implement only any two parameters of the "triad" and it is difficult to make sure that all tasks are completed on time, efficiently and in the right amount. It is difficult to balance such a system - and this is the responsibility of the leader.

Most often, the work is done efficiently and on time, but perhaps this will not be the entire amount of work. Often an employee manages to complete all tasks, but either with a decrease in the quality of some of them, or with violation of deadlines.

And you can completely forget about the expectations of early completion of all tasks while maintaining excellent quality to the authorities. Not only that, managers are accustomed to seeing an employee's ability to complete an increased volume of tasks ahead of schedule and with superior quality as signs of underutilization rather than talent. Isn't this the reason for the modern personnel trend of "talent search"? The employers' dream of so-called talent is the dream of employees who are able to sustainably fulfill these three criteria to the fullest. Agree, there are not so many of them.

In itself, accounting for tasks and functions is a creative matter. They have different significance, which means they should be with different weights. In addition, all key performance indicators (KPIs of employees) can have their own weight in the system (see Table 1), which is determined by the manager based on current tasks, work characteristics, etc., thereby highlighting what is most important. For example, timing is important for the recruitment department, and quality is important for the accounting department.

The final grade is calculated as a weighted average of grades. This is the sum of the products of the assessment for each of the key performance indicators (KPI employees) and its weight:

35% x 3 + 40% x 4 + 25% x 1 = 1.05 +1.6 + 0.25 = 2.9 (with a maximum of 4 points)
or
35% x 75% + 40% x 100% + 25% x 25% = 26.25% + 40% + 6.25% = 72.5%

The second option for calculating the final score of this technique is given in the Appendix.

It is worth repeating: naturally, such assessments are subjective. If the scope of work can be determined and the time frame is measurable, then the quality (in the absence of specialized measurements, for example, the number of customer complaints or the results of a mystery shopping assessment) is assessed subjectively.

Key performance indicators (KPI employees) - what increases the objectivity of the methodology?

Firstly, evaluation criteria are formulated in a special way. This was not done by chance: after a month, the manager cannot always remember in detail which deadlines were violated, and how many cases the employee completed with proper quality. However, he developed a general, holistic picture of the work of a subordinate, written in “large strokes”. With the same "large strokes" he is invited to draw a "portrait of efficiency" of the employee.

Secondly, the objectivity of the methodology increases the practice of its application. More than ten years of experience in using the methodology shows that the effectiveness is high when it is filled out by both the manager and the employee himself. They then discuss their results, and this makes a lot of sense:

  • the employee remembers his tasks better, and the manager can forget something, confuse, because he has several subordinates;
  • the manager has his own view on quality issues, while the employee tends to forgive himself for minor “sins”;
  • the manager is often inclined to consider the violation of deadlines poor quality work, confusing these concepts, and an employee can take pride in the quality of work, while neglecting the value of meeting deadlines or volume.

Third, by virtue of these effects, both sides strive to reach an agreement, which, as the satirists have formulated, is "the product of non-resistance of the parties." Since the main practical application of this method is the ability to regulate the monthly or quarterly premium (see Table 2), it is this circumstance that makes the technique valuable, because agreement leads to justice, and this is more important than the accuracy of measurements, and motivates more than mathematically accurate and sometimes impersonal scores.

Fourth, the objectivity of the methodology increases due to the “scale effect” if it is applied in all divisions of the company. This effect makes it possible to compare the result with objective data, and this is another powerful verification criterion and a source for correcting results. So, a senior manager, having received a complete picture of the assessments for the company (a set of performance assessments of managers employed in profit centers, and assessments of the effectiveness of employees of the company's cost centers), can compare it with financial and other objective key performance indicators of an employee (KPI of employees) of the organization's efficiency in in general. It may turn out that overall score of all employees according to the Efficiency Triad methodology will be overestimated compared to the objective key performance indicators (KPIs of employees) of the organization. Then the employer has the right to introduce a correction in the payment of bonuses by his authority.

Table 2 shows that employee Danilin had a vacation in February, and in accordance with the company's policy, no bonus was accrued during this time. Shirokova has a tendency to increase efficiency. For other workers, efficiency has declined.

Please note: the implementation of even 50% of the plan can be rewarded, especially since at the same time three key performance indicators (KPIs of employees) of the “triad” are difficult to achieve, and two out of three can be high due to the resource of the third. In this regard, any number less than 50% is also a definite achievement.


Key performance indicators (KPI employees) - systematic application of the method

The method can be applied in a cascade (when higher-ranking employees evaluate downstream ones), across the entire organization and regardless of whether employees have “objective key performance indicators (KPIs))” or not. The cascading application of the method gives the assessment a systematic and additional objectivity, especially when it comes to awarding bonuses.

And if, moreover, the method is applied for a long time, then it acquires a number of useful properties. Let's consider them.

  1. The higher manager, evaluating the lower one, at the same time evaluates the activities of his unit: after all, the results of the work of the manager are made up of both his personal efforts and the efforts of his subordinates. Dignity this method is that the superior gets the opportunity to compare data and draw conclusions about the effectiveness of the head and his subordinates, the unit as a whole, and even the management style.

So, the figure shows that the subordinates of the head of department 1 have different skills (this is clearly shown by the "mini-diagrams"): the engineer works slowly, but with high quality, the specialist works quickly, but not with high quality. The superior manager evaluates the work of the chief, and hence the entire department 1 as follows: the department solves a large amount of tasks with average quality and with some violation of deadlines. A general analysis the work of the entire department shows that the manager has an additional amount of tasks - in addition to those that his subordinates solve, and this may indicate problems with delegation. In addition, the activities of the boss somehow "worsen" the quality of the engineer's work and "slow down" the work of the specialist. As a result, the terms and quality of the work of the department are not above average. The head of the head of department 1, perhaps, should think about his effectiveness as a manager.

The head of department 2 works quickly, but gives out fewer cases than his subordinate. Leading specialist slowly performs a large amount of work. This means that this boss takes on those tasks that can be solved quickly, while the quality of his work cannot be called low. Obviously, everything is in order here with delegation, quality of work and meeting deadlines, and hence with responsibility.

  1. Analysis of performance dynamics over time. You can see if the efficiency of the worker grows during probationary period or decrease over the years. The most illustrative picture is created by comparing the dynamics of efficiency assessments with other factors. So, in addition to the comparison of the level of efficiency with the vacation period shown in Table 2, one can see signs of an upcoming “burnout”, which are especially noticeable against the background of unchanged motivation, a drop or increase in efficiency associated with a change in leadership, the impact of corporate news on the productivity of employees or departments, and etc.
  2. Analysis of the work style of an individual employee: a comparison of different parameters of the "triad" will show the zones of its effectiveness and inefficiency. For example, one always works quickly, but not with sufficient quality, while the other solves only part of the tasks quickly and efficiently. From this, recommendations are born on the use of workers: the first one should be put in the area where speed is needed, and in relation to the second, one should also understand his motivation and interests in solving specific problems.
  3. Comparison of the ratings of employees allows you to judge their usefulness for the organization, and comparing the ratings of the heads of departments - to make a rating of departments and managers. So, at the end of the year, you can calculate the average or total annual estimates and determine who is more efficient and who is less and due to what factors: who is the “fastest” worker, who is the most “thorough”, who at the same time performs more tasks. At the same time, the content of labor and the employee's belonging to one or another unit do not play a role.

So, despite the obvious subjectivity of the Efficiency Triad method, its useful properties are obvious:

  • the method is applicable to all positions, regardless of whether they are managerial or executive;
  • employee performance evaluations can be accumulated and compared;
  • accumulating estimates, you can track the dynamics of the work of individual employees and even departments, monitor the onset of "burnout", draw conclusions about their strengths and weaknesses;
  • comparing the assessments of subordinates with the assessments of the manager, one can draw conclusions about the management style, identify areas of inefficiency in departments;
  • due to the standard approach, the methodology is easily implemented in document management systems (Lotus Notes, MS Outlook, etc.) and ERP (based on Oracle, SAP, Microsoft, etc.), which are widely used in the corporate world;
  • the method can become an addition or a common format for existing systems for evaluating the effectiveness and efficiency of MVO, key performance indicators (KPI employees), bring their data to a single view.

And most importantly, this is not just another “precise tool”, but a way to mediate a dialogue between a manager and a subordinate on the issue of remuneration. After all, nothing reduces employee motivation as much as the lack of recognition and understanding of development paths. In such a dialogue, the employee can understand what his boss is dissatisfied with and what he pays attention to. In other words, the method gives motivation a very important managerial effect - feedback to the subordinate about his work.

should be calculated to diagnose corporate problems. Key performance indicators of an employee allow you to take timely measures to improve the efficiency of his work.

Publication author

One of the stages in the development of knowledge about labor processes in the enterprise management system should be the development of approaches to determining its level and to developing criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of measures aimed at increasing the level of efficiency and productivity of personnel. The motivation of the staff contributes to the improvement of working capacity. Implementation in practice of the results of the study of the processes of motivation of workers will allow better use of the labor potential of enterprises.

The impact of motivation on work

Motivation is a set of forces that make a person perform any work. These forces can be internal or external. Internal forces that make a person achieve goals are called motives, and external forces are called incentives.

The level of labor motivation is a value that characterizes the motivation of employees, their desire to work to achieve both personal goals and company goals. Approbation of the approach to assessing the level of motivation of the personnel of enterprises makes it possible to empirically determine the range of values ​​of the motivation indicator, depending on the specifics and scope of the company.

What is a criterion?

At the preparatory stage of the study, it is necessary to develop criteria by which the effectiveness of the mechanism for improving a certain process in the enterprise will be assessed. The efficiency criterion should be understood as a measure of efficiency assessment, in which certain means of achieving the set task are selected.

For the subject, the criterion becomes a guide to which the phenomenon being evaluated should strive in its development. The criterion is associated with the established task and the conditions for its implementation, it must establish and determine the level of achievement of the tasks set.

Development of criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of the enterprise

By its nature, the criterion is qualitatively and quantitatively determined. When developing a criterion, a number of rules should be taken into account. First, the name of the criterion must correspond to its essence. Secondly, the criterion must be clear and understandable, and it must also serve a specific purpose and support certain strategies or initiatives.

In addition, it should be established whether the definition of this aspect of efficiency is possible. If so, by what methods. It is advisable to establish whether it is possible to express the criterion in mathematical terms and write down the formula; Is the measurement system clear? whether it is clear what data is needed for the calculations. It is also necessary to establish how accurate the obtained data will be, whether some loss of detail is acceptable, to determine how often such calculations should be carried out; determine whether this frequency is sufficient to track the impact of activities on improving performance; determine where data should come from to track criteria; determine who is responsible for collecting, compiling and analyzing data; how the data will be used.

Integral indicator as a way to determine the effectiveness of work

There are many criteria for assessing the effectiveness of the work of employees of the enterprise. One of them is the graphic-analytical method. The value of the resulting indicator determines the length of the vector, forming a labor efficiency pentagon. Here, the indicators and criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of the company's personnel are the main functions of management:

  • planning;
  • making decisions;
  • motivation;
  • control;
  • organization.

If the values ​​of all the resulting indicators are in the range from 1 to 2, then the level of labor efficiency is high, if all indicators are in the range of 1-0.5 - the level of motivation is characterized as "medium", the level of efficiency is characterized as "low", when the value of the resulting parameters are in the range from 0 to 0.5.

Application of the pentagon

The pentagon can have a regular and irregular shape. If its form is correct, the organization equally uses tools that help increase labor efficiency in all management functions. The irregular shape of the pentagon means that one vector is developed more than others, or all vectors are developed differently. This indicates the incomplete use of the labor potential at the enterprise.

The level of labor potential of employees is determined using an integral indicator, the value of which can be in the ranges from 0 to 2.5, from 2.5 to 5 and from 5 to 10. If the value of the integral indicator is from 0 to 2.5, then this indicates about the low level of potential. The range of 2.5-5 indicates an average level. High level labor potential of labor is achieved with an indicator value of 5, but for some enterprises - from 7.

Achieving a high effect from the activities of the employees of the enterprise

Taking management decisions, it should be taken into account that a low indicator of the level of labor potential of employees leads to low growth rates of labor productivity, and a high indicator is one of the prerequisites for achieving rapid growth rates both by increasing motivation and by directly participating in decision-making, planning, organization and control its activities.

It should be noted the growing role of labor motivation tools in the face of the uncertainty of the future situation, insufficient awareness or the spread of disinformation in work collective, lack of knowledge and experience in the field of planning, lack of confidence in the financial and social stability of team members. The problem of achieving the desired effect from workers is relevant not only for countries with economies in transition, it worries progressive scientists and politicians, business leaders and managers all over the world.

The development of criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of activities in the face of increased competition becomes very important. Height wages, which occurs in line with the growth of labor productivity or slightly ahead of it, creates favorable incentives to seek the most advanced advantages in competition.

At the same time, the social effect of incentive measures should not be underestimated. A decrease in the motivating and stimulating role of wages and incomes leads to the opposite effect - a drop in labor productivity, inefficient use working hours, degradation of the quality of labor potential and other negative socio-economic consequences. The question arises of determining the main criteria for assessing the effectiveness of employees, since economic and social dimensions have an impact on labor potential.

Criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of employees

The basis for studying the effectiveness of labor motivation methods is a system of criteria that characterize the complex and systemic impact on the management object. These include the movement of personnel, its qualifications, as well as how improving the work of employees of the enterprise will affect the main economic indicators the firm itself.

In addition to all this, there are other criteria, for example, working conditions and its organization. Here it is necessary to take into account how many times the employee did not come to work for an unexcused reason, how many times he was late. It is also necessary to pay attention to the number of employees who have a free schedule, and how many people at the enterprise work in combination.

Indicators for evaluating the effectiveness of the company's employees

Taking into account all the criteria for evaluating the effectiveness, it is necessary to develop a system of indicators. In this regard, it is worth grouping all the criteria for the effectiveness of labor methods on the basis of homogeneity:

  • personnel movement indicators;
  • social and psychological climate;
  • economic labor indicators;
  • indicators of labor organization;
  • educational qualification level;
  • socio-economic and innovative activity.

To assess the effectiveness of methods aimed at improving the performance of staff, it is necessary to conduct a study of qualitative and quantitative criteria for assessing the effectiveness of labor. Quantitative indicators include payroll, marriage losses, total personnel costs, etc.; to quality - satisfaction with work, the degree of freedom in decision-making and awareness of staff about the activities of the enterprise. In order to obtain the necessary information about qualitative indicators, it is necessary to use the results of various sociometric or opinion polls, for example, a survey to study the level of the motivational mechanism in the company.

The indicators of the educational and qualification level of the personnel affect such economic indicators of the enterprise as the number of mastered innovative types production, costs of the enterprise, the volume of marketable products, capital productivity and labor productivity.

Economic indicators

The cost of improving labor productivity can not only improve the performance of staff, but also contribute to the improvement of the entire company. The main criterion for evaluating the effectiveness of an enterprise is profit. The main task of any enterprise is to make a profit, therefore, all measures to improve individual processes in the company are aimed at this.

Economic indicators and criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of personnel and, as a result, enterprises play the most important role. The main indicators that can be used to measure the effectiveness of measures to improve labor potential are the following:

  • laboriousness;
  • wage fund;
  • number of staff;
  • working time fund;
  • average salary;
  • gross personnel costs;
  • return on personnel costs;
  • recovery of personnel costs.

Economic Criteria

TO economic criteria To assess the effectiveness of an enterprise, it is customary to attribute income, profit, costs, the size of gross, sold and marketable products, profitability, capital productivity, and also how the enterprise uses its capacity. Of course, the main criterion is profit. A company's profits can increase either by increasing revenue or by reducing costs. But most effective method increase profits - reduce costs and increase revenues.

To achieve the goals, the management of the enterprise must take into account the orientation of the basic principles, which are the basis for analyzing the effectiveness of methods to improve the productivity of personnel. These include efficiency, efficiency, consistency, objectivity, etc.

Criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of operating systems management

The purpose of the assessment is to obtain the necessary information about the effectiveness of the management mechanism in the enterprise. This mechanism is aimed at meeting the needs and goals of the firm. It can become effective only if the interests, needs and goals of the parties concerned are harmonized.

Target operating system is to ensure the effective implementation of the company's goals and objectives. The main performance indicator for the operating system is how the goals are realized. To determine effectiveness, it is necessary to quantify the goals, after which it is necessary to compare in fact goals achieved with what was planned by management.

The choice of criteria and indicators for assessing the effectiveness of management is carried out individually for each enterprise, and the list of indicators in the assessment will vary. An example is the improvement of collective bargaining regulation, which may affect the improvement of conditions and wages.

In this article, we will try to understand these issues.

Site evaluation criteria

The first step is to determine the criteria by which it will be possible to evaluate the site, and arrange them in order of importance.
  • Ease of use of the site
  • Site design
  • Functionality
Why did I put the criteria in that order? For such reasons.
Website visibility by search engines
The main task of any site is to provide visitors with relevant information. For example, if we sell puppies of the Central Asian Shepherd Dog in Kharkov, then our site should be seen by those who want to buy them and who are interested in this topic, right?

We type in Yandex the query “Central Asian Shepherd Dogs in Kharkov”, and we see the website of the dog kennel in the first place:

The visibility of the site by search engines, I would single out as the main criterion by which we can evaluate the site. If the site is not found by search engines (and most of natural traffic is created by search engines), then they will not visit, they will not see, and in fact it will not matter whether there is a site or not.

Main and mandatory conditions to ensure the visibility of the site is its placement on the server and filling in the necessary content. Then the search engine robot will write this content into the database and will issue it upon the corresponding request.

Ease of use of the site
The second most important evaluation criterion, I chose the usability of the site (usability). Finding the site itself is half the battle. It is also important to find on the site the material that interests the visitor. There are sites that contain huge amounts of content, but they are nonetheless simple and easy to use. And there are those where there are five sections, but nothing can be understood.

For example, when posting vacancies on the NetBee website, I was unpleasantly surprised by the employer's registration form. I decided to upload my avatar, but after uploading it, all the fields that I filled out were cleared! I had to beat them up again. It was difficult to find the “Add a job” link, although this was the main thing that interested me. When I tried to add a vacancy, instead of its parameters, fields for filling in data about my company were opened, which were made very inconveniently. As a result, I just closed this site in the hope that someday they will put it in order.

The site "Work in Kharkov" is quite another matter. Everything is quite simple, understandable, convenient. Adding a vacancy or resume is done without problems, registration is simple, the site is simple and transparent.

Site design
The design of the site is often brought to the fore. In the view of many customers, it is the design of the site that is the main and often the only criterion for its quality. I will not argue - appearance always plays an important role.

One of the Best Sites by BeInspired (Hand-picked Most Beautiful Sites - electronic journal for designers):

This site loaded for about ten minutes, and then almost completely slowed down the work of my old laptop, but it's worth a look - very unusual effect deformation of the image with the mouse. I couldn’t immediately understand what it was (it looks like a catalog of some establishments), but you must admit, it’s impressive!

And this is another site that loads instantly and has a fairly simple, one might say, design:

Of course, the site should look nice and neat, but this work can be done already during the existence of the site, since the appearance does not affect how search robots see the site. They have no eyes, so they can only read texts, or rather, the HTML markup of the document. And the sooner they can do this, the sooner the site will start to give returns.

As a rule, website design requires a lot of time, much of which is spent on coordination with the customer, color selection, creation and editing of graphics. All this time the site is “under development”, search robots do not index it, no one deals with its content, and all employees of the customer’s company are passionate about design, although they are not experts in this.

Of course, a completely raw site should not be posted on the Internet either. The ideal option is to quickly create a fairly competent and professional design (a few days will be enough for this), then place the site on the Internet, and fill it with content that meets the site's theme as quickly as possible.

After that, you can safely start testing the site, adjusting its appearance (up to a complete rework), without worrying that potential customers will be lost. Even if the site will be just a white page, on which it will be written, say, “We sell puppies of the Central Asian Shepherd Dog in Kharkov” and a phone number is indicated, it will already work.

In some cases (for companies that do not want to show the site before its design is fully approved), you should make a stub where all the keywords and contacts of the company will be present. It is good if this page is designed in the style of the company, or at least there is its logo.

Site functionality
By the “functionality” of the site, I mean the implementation of the content management system (content) of the site (CMS), as well as various services (if they are needed, for example, an order basket, a search form for goods or services, user registration, management of voting, polls, publications, etc. .d.).

Of course, the most important part is the site content management system (CMS), as it has to be used quite often. CMS should be understandable, understandable and convenient, as it will be used by ordinary PC users who may not know anything about Web design and HTML.

In addition, a good CMS should correctly form the site structure so that the site is quickly indexed by search engines, in particular, provide the ability to edit meta tags.

Site navigation should be simple, clear and convenient, and the site itself should open quickly and behave predictably. For example, if there is a process that takes time, such as loading an image or searching, it would be correct to display a status bar or preloader so that the user sees that the site is not frozen, but is doing something.

What do you think a good website should be? How would you prioritize and what criteria would you choose?

Precious stones must undergo an evaluation procedure, the essence of which is a comparison with other products according to predetermined characteristics. The combination of these characteristics forms the basis peer review. Four parameters, called 4 C, are tried on for diamonds: carat weight - "weight", color - "color", clarity - "clarity", cut - "cut".

At the stage of determining the weight of the stone, special scales are used. If the diamond is already in the product, the calculation is carried out according to the formulas. The weight of diamonds is expressed in carats (ct), where 1 carat equals 0.2 grams.

Transparent diamonds are almost never found in nature. Each stone has a shade, albeit a faint one. The expert must determine the saturation, the intensity of the color of the diamond under standard lighting. In accordance with the exemplary palette, the stone is assigned a score according to the second criterion C.

The clarity of a diamond implies the absence of any internal defects. The rating given for this position indicates the integrity, uniformity of the stone.

Cut quality is the fourth criterion for evaluating cut diamonds. Here the object is characterized in terms of shape, correctness of the created faces.

The totality of indicators ultimately determines the price of the stone.

How does the diamond grading system work?

  1. Varieties of systems
    To date, several evaluation methods have been developed by which the characteristics of diamonds are determined. The generally accepted is the American system of assessment (GIA), created with the participation of the Gemological Institute of America. It is used by experts from different countries peace. The Belgian and Scandinavian classifications are also known. The first was developed by the Higher Diamond Council of Belgium, the second by the Scandinavian nomenclature. In Russia, there is an assessment methodology TU 117-4.2099-2002. The information below is in accordance with GIA systems and specifications.
  2. Determination of the mass of stones
    Diamonds are weighed on carat scales, where three decimal places are great importance. The mass of the stone is written down to the third digit if this third digit is nine. Otherwise, the indicator is rounded to two decimal places.
    Small specimens are screened (a set of sieves is used) into groups by size. Their implementation is based on these values. Lots of diamonds can be crushed and combined, which affects the total mass.
  3. Color Detection
    Absolutely colorless diamonds have an increased value, but there are more colored stones in nature. They are conditionally divided into two groups:
    – diamonds in shades of yellow (“cape” series), – diamonds of an unusual color.
    Representatives of the first group are subjected to visual evaluation in accordance with reference colors. The GIA color scale with fixed sets is widespread. The distribution is increasing: first, colorless diamonds, then options with a barely noticeable yellow tint, then stones with a clear yellow color. Each color is assigned a Latin numeral. Grouping starts with D (colorless stones) and ends with Z (yellow stones). Brown diamonds are also evaluated on this scale, and only color saturation is taken into account.
    The second group (unusual colors) includes diamonds, the characteristics of which are outside the scale.
  4. Purity rating
    The procedure for finding defects is carried out in the presence of standard lighting. Also, the authenticity of the color is revealed if the diamonds represent a group with a fantasy scale. The characteristics of the stone indicate whether there are internal and external defects. In the absence of such a diamond is considered to be of high quality, therefore it is of great value.
    The assessment is made with or without an increase in the object. If there are any flaws, factors that affect or have affected the condition of the stone are taken into account:
    - origin,
    - size,
    - location,
    - color brightness
    – various external characteristics.
  5. Quality of diamond processing
    Cut is a factor that affects the price of a diamond. Decrease in cost can be caused by violations of proportion, deviations in symmetry, polishing defects. This procedure has vague criteria, so it is considered difficult. What will repel one buyer may attract another, as the requirements for appearance Everyone's diamond is different. Due to the ambiguity, the quality of the cut of stones is often a speculative moment, because professionals can give a low price to clearly good material and overestimate the cost of average-quality diamonds.

Based on site materials