Baselining Productivity

Whether you operate a call centre or a back office department, establishing realistic performance metrics is critical in order to manage effectively. The key word here is “realistic” because any performance metric must also consider both quantitative and qualitative factors in order to strike the right balance of both quality and output volume.

Extraneous Impacts  

In a call centre for example, agents are typically measured by how many calls they handle. At first glance this may seem reasonable as this is the primary function of the role. Since there are so many factors that are outside of the control of  call center agents, management must recognize all of the impacts a performance metric can have on the value proposition, strategic direction and the internal culture of the organization.

"True Hot Dogs per Hour"

The mathematical logic associated with “True Calls per Hour” for call centers is not new and it can/should be applied to all other work types beyond just telephone calls.

The link that follows is a sample 1 hour “Munch’n Learn training session that summarizes the mathematical approach to normalizing agent occupancy and balancing quality, location along with other key variables to arrive at a standardized baseline for performance management purposes.

LINK TO: 1 Page Explanation of "True Hot Dogs per Hour"

In this example, we use a hot dog vendor with multiple locations to illustrate the concept.

If you need to compare the ‘rate’ of production handling between different people, teams, queues or locations, the concept of of ‘True Hot Dogs per Hour’ will help.

Summary

In summary, higher production metrics isn't always better and that different locations, as an example, may have very real reasons as to why rates vary – for example call center talking time in Moncton New Brunswick may be ‘on average’ higher than talking time in Toronto for the same types of enquiries.

Eric Young
President
Tele-Centre Assist Inc.
www.telecentreassist.com