Understanding the drivers behind human behaviour can be fascinating. The simplicity and powerful impact that a fundamental principle like the Hawthorne effect can have on employee productivity is staggering. And the wonderful thing about it, is that is doesn't have to cost anything, It doesn't take much effort to implement and the results are there every time!
The Hawthorne Effect is a principle that has been proven over and over: when people are being observed, tracked, measured and held accountable, their behaviour changes. As a Lean Six Sigma practice working in contact centres for more than three decades, we live and die by the expression...
"You can't manage what you don't measure"
Most contact centre representatives can spend more than 60% of their time off of the phone working on non-phone activities. While telephony service metrics are in abundance, the same rigour to the other 60% of their work does not exist (in most cases). Lean and Six Sigma is premised on measuring every task or there will be no understanding of how well it is being done. Without measurement, there can be no analysis to isolate needed improvements, no benchmarking, no decision making. Moreover, without it employees lack clarity on what defines success, what they need to do to progress in their jobs, and what their areas for improvement are. From the organizational perspective, measurement allows for informed decisions. Trade offs can be made with full knowledge of both the financial and other impacts of either doing or not doing something. When 60% of the work is "off the radar", that represents 60% of the business that you cannot manage....sounds scary yet believe it or not it still is the norm.
The Hawthorne Effect can transform unmotivated, under-performing employees into star performers overnight. This requires a cultural change, the formation of habits and the integration of measures and goals with performance reviews, quality evaluation programs, motivational programs, operational strategy and overall approach to business. After a while it starts to work on it's own because everyone understands what they need to do.
True Hot Dogs per Hour
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 centre 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 centres 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.
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 ‘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 centre talking time in Moncton New Brunswick may be ‘on average’ higher than talking time in Toronto for the same types of enquiries.
Measuring people who know they are watched
Measuring is the key to performance management & Lean success...
There is a corollary worth planning for. Changes in behaviour are directly correlated to the periods during which people are observed, so when people know their activity is being tracked, most will do their very best. That may or may not be representative of a realistic work standard.
Since Lean management is all about identifying and eliminating waste and cutting out unnecessary steps in the workflow, we must measure how long each activity takes in order to demonstrate and justify the benefits of implementing change. Every task must be measured therefore, or there will be no understanding of whether the task has succeeded. Without measurement, there can be no analysis to find the improvements that need to be made. Six Sigma professionals must decide whether they can develop their projects with the Hawthorne Effect in play, or whether they need to do their measurements quietly on their own.
Using measurement to establish collaborative and realistic expectations creates buy-in, accountability and focus.
Measurement therefore becomes the catalyst for a business case for lean changes but it also becomes a powerful underlying driver for self driven - performance management.
Chopping Heads is Rarely the Answer
Is There a Common Thread? CEO's React...
CEO's React...
During downturns, back-office support departments like HR, Legal, Admin etc. are obvious targets for downsizing. This short-term reaction almost never addresses the root cause however.
At first glance, it might seem to be the fiscally responsible action to execute however it might be prudent to consider a deeper dive into the operations to understand how work is distributed, who does what, what the activities are and how often those activities occur and when do they occur.
The root-cause and related answers will then become obvious. In most cases, arbitrary downsizing is NOT the answer. In fact there may even be justification to invest in other areas to optimize for longer-term efficiency and effectiveness.
With over 80 operational efficiency audits completed, Tele-Centre Assist Inc. (TCA) has proven over and over that taking simple steps to reduce unnecessary back-office activities led to significant savings. On average, 75% of the total savings came from substantive changes in the workflow and who does what while enhancing the support areas by redesigning them or restructuring how or where they were done. Integrated performance metrics is an important example that is almost always missing from the mix.