What is benchmarking?

The company that I am working in is in neg regarding "benchmarking" - I may be a bit thick, but can anyone explain it or know of a internet website that would be relatively easy to understand?

Many thanks!

Benchmarking has very many different meanings.

In recent years Benchmarking was the word used for the process used to review most Public Servants' salaries.

Benchmarking is also a management process by which companies compare their performance within and without their industry sector.

Benchmarking is also a term used in land surveying.

from wikipedia:

Benchmark

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Look up benchmark in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Benchmark may refer to:

• Benchmark (surveying), a point of reference for a measurement
• Benchmark (crude oil), a reference for and discussion of cost and/or pricing of petroleum, such as Brent Crude and West Texas Intermediate in terms of benchmarks based on classification differences.
• Benchmark (computing), the result of running a computer program, or a set of programs, in order to assess the relative performance of an object by running a number of standard tests and trials against it
• Benchmarking (geolocating), a sport similar to geocaching in which participants individually go out and find benchmarks
• Benchmarking, the process used in management in which organizations evaluate various aspects of their processes in relation to the best practice, usually within their own sector
• Benchmark Capital, a venture capital firm behind various startups, including ebay.

The term benchmark originates from the chiseled horizontal marks that surveyors made, into which an angle-iron could be placed to bracket ("bench") a levelling rod, thus ensuring that the levelling rod can be repositioned in exactly the same place in the future.

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My guess is that you are working with a private sector company which wishes to engage in a benchmarking process with similar companies in the industry sector. Before embarking on the process they are communicating with the employees.