CERM Performance Indicators

CERM PI’s Customer Service Quality survey measures customers’ expectations alongside their perceptions of a facility or service’s actual performance across a comprehensive range of dimensions, including staff responsiveness, facility cleanliness, and value for money. By capturing both expectations and experiences, the methodology provides a far more robust and diagnostic assessment of service quality than single-item measures such as Net Promoter Score (NPS), enabling clients to understand not just overall sentiment, but the specific drivers underpinning performance.

In addition to these core measures, the survey captures overall satisfaction, loyalty, and perceived customer benefits, providing a well-rounded view of the customer experience. A largely standardised survey framework is applied across different facility types, allowing for the development of meaningful benchmarking comparisons. At the same time, we retain the flexibility to tailor surveys to meet the specific needs of our client partners.

Findings are presented in a detailed report, delivering clear, evidence-based insights that support informed decision-making and targeted performance improvement.

How it works

Libraries

CERM PI's Library Surveys are a powerful tool that quantify the role and significance of libraries to local communities. They measure the quality of service and satisfaction customers have with their libraries, and the benefits they experience from attending such as connectiveness and wellbeing. The survey measures customers’ expectations compared to their perceptions of the library's actual performance in a range of dimensions such as resources, programs and events, staff responsiveness, facility cleanliness, patron behaviour and social impacts. Any identified gaps between expectations and performance are opportunities to target specific areas to raise the overall service delivery and impact of the library service.

We employ a relatively standardised survey across libraries to allow for benchmarking criteria to be developed. However, we can also cater surveys to the specific needs of our partners. For instance, some councils not only consider the experiences of their current users but also broaden their research scope by including the perspectives of non-current users. We facilitate this by tailoring surveys and organising focus groups to gain deeper insights and understanding. Additionally, we provide extra support to councils that require assistance with forward-looking strategic planning and decision-making, which includes services like document and policy analysis and strategic consultation.

How it works

Theatres

A new approach to council facility research for CERM PI, Theatre Audience Service Quality (TASQ) research, is led by an expert and experienced team including Professor Ruth Rentschler and Dr. Boram Lee. Expanding upon their research that has explored audience development, TASQ projects can be approached in diverse contexts and methodological ways. For instance, utilising surveys, policy analysis, and/or focus groups, TASQs can assist in building an understanding of the demands from the audiences of the theatre services from a multicultural, gender and LGBTQIA+, and disability perspective in metropolitan, regional, and shire theatres.

To shape workplace culture effectively, leaders must first understand it. Our research-led approach delivers deep, evidence-based insights into how employees experience their workplace, how they feel, and how those perceptions influence behaviour, performance, and overall satisfaction.

While every organisation’s culture is unique, it can be systematically profiled to bring clarity to what is often a complex and intangible environment. Some cultures are characterised by agility, flexibility, and responsiveness to change, while others emphasise consistency, structure, and clear behavioural expectations. Understanding these dynamics enables organisations to identify strengths, uncover areas for development, and implement targeted strategies that genuinely engage and support their workforce.

A key component of our approach is the measurement of Psychosocial Safety Climate (PSC), which is increasingly recognised as a critical factor in organisational performance and employee wellbeing. PSC reflects the extent to which leadership prioritises psychological health and safety through policies, practices, and communication. With growing focus across industries and regulatory environments, understanding PSC provides valuable insight into risk, engagement, and the sustainability of workplace practices.

Our approach also examines organisational values alignment, assessing the degree of congruence between the values an organisation seeks to promote and those that are perceived, experienced, and enacted by employees in practice. This provides valuable insight into whether organisational values are being meaningfully embedded within day-to-day behaviours, leadership approaches, decision-making, and workplace culture. Strong values alignment is associated with greater trust, engagement, authenticity, and organisational cohesion, while misalignment can contribute to cynicism, disengagement, and cultural inconsistency.

Beyond culture alone, we examine organisational climate, mindset, and behaviour. We measure key drivers such as trust, fairness, innovation, resilience, optimism, and organisational citizenship behaviours, alongside PSC, providing a comprehensive view of how your people both experience and shape the workplace. These insights equip leaders with the knowledge to foster a high-performing, aligned, and sustainable organisational culture. 

How it works

For more information, refer to the organisational culture project overview.

Values alignment study

As an extension of CERM PI’s successful research into organisational culture, this project offers organisations the opportunity to explore how well their organisational values are understood, enacted, and experienced by staff. While many organisations articulate values in strategic plans, this research explores whether organisational values are clearly understood and consistently expressed across the workforce and aligned with employee expectations.

Key features:

• Survey tools assessing how well your organisation’s values are understood and enacted across the workforce.
• A detailed report highlighting strengths and gaps in value alignment.
• Actionable outputs, including:
  • Staff-informed value maps showing how values are perceived across teams.
  • 'Values in Action' behavioural frameworks to translate value into daily practice.
  • Practical recommendations for embedding values into recruitment, onboarding, and performance management systems.

Founded in 2024, CERM PI’s Placemaking Benchmark Survey provides local governments with a reliable tool for both strategic and operational planning, offering actionable feedback to support more effective placemaking strategies.

The survey focuses on the operational aspects of local government placemaking, which are key to delivering and managing high-quality public spaces. The placemaking indicators were developed based on council input gathered in 2023 through interviews and surveys, alongside insights from the literature, as part of a project supported by the Local Government Research & Development Scheme administered by the Local Government Association of South Australia.

How it works