Indicators for measuring performance of building construction companies in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Slow economic growth, high competition, and construction industry restructuring have put a strong pressure on construction companies to continually improve their productivity and performance. Many studies on performance measurement have been carried out at the project level. However, recently, the demand for performance evaluation and management at the company level has increased. This paper aims to identify a set of KPIs that can be implemented by construction executives in measuring the performance at the company level in Saudi Arabia. List of 47 potential performance indicators have been identified through the literature review. A survey questionnaire was conducted on a randomly selected sample of large construction firms in Saudi Arabia. The statistical analysis of the collected responses was provided in 10 significant KPIs. Findings indicate that the traditional financial measures can no more be the sole determinant of firm success. Other performance indicators such as external customer satisfaction, safety, business efficiency, and effectiveness of planning are increasingly becoming important. The results of the study is a set of KPIs that are useful as a first step in developing a national benchmarking system for enhancing the performance of construction firms in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.