Involves the use of metrics to compare performance results against world-class targets of cost, quality, and time. It asks an organization to calculate numerically its performance of specific activities and to compare this with what other businesses do. For example, the employee retention rate is a measure of the number of employees who stay with the company in a year. This is a quantitative measure. By benchmarking this with other companies' retention rates, a company can see how its performance compares with that of the outside world. This activity may alert management to a problem with employee retention, but it does not provide a solution. That comes from qualitative benchmarking.