Metrics for Help Desk Staff

Ask the staff what metrics they feel they are good indicators of their individual and collective performance, and which ones they have no control over.

For the ones they do have control over, take the individual averages for that metric over the number of hours worked by that individual in a month. Construct a floating average and standard deviation. For each metric, determine each individual's average number of standard deviations from the group average. Take the average of those numbers.

You now have a number which accurately states how well someone performed overall in a given month compared to their teammates. If that number is more than a certain number of standard deviations (1 is good) above the team average, provide incentives based on the percentage of performance per total employee dollar cost above that figure.

Using this metric:
- people are compared to the rest of the team, not arbitrary numbers they may have little or no control over;
- hours worked is a factor, so people can take sick leave and vacation leave without it affecting their result, and overtime will not increase their ranking;
- it doesn't matter what the total workload is coming in;
- it doesn't matter what the type of work is;
- it doesn't matter how long it takes to resolve a typical issue for that Help Desk;
- it doesn't matter if the workload composition alters drastically at any point; and
- it doesn't matter if procedure or policy is changed in the middle of a month (although those who can adapt more quickly will score higher).

Good metrics to throw into the initial basket are:
- total tickets closed without reopens, customer complaint, or failure to follow procedure/policy;
- percentage of customer callbacks (ticket reopen) within one hour after ticket closure;
- percentage of customer callbacks (ticket reopen) within one month after ticket closure;
- percentage of escalated tickets returned for incorrectness or incoherency;
- number of substantial articles/corrections/documents added to the Help Desk documentation or wiki which were approved for publication; and
- other, depending on how your Help Desk operates and any local or business-specific processes or procedures.

Marion,

Since you said Help Desk, I'm going to assume you are providing IT help desk support for your internal employees. With that in mind, you should consider the following metrics:

- Customer Satisfaction / Quality: This should be your #1 metric and highest weighting factor.
- First Contact Resolution: This will reward those agents that truly resolve problems on the first attempt and not the agents who just take a lot of calls only to be resolved by another agent.
- Average Handle Time: Yes, I know...many people hate using this metric, but it is all about cost these days and AHT has a direct influence on your bottom line.
- Total Contacts Handled: Be careful with this one though. If you have 24x7 support, your 3rd shift agents may not have the opportunity to work on as many contacts as your prime shift agents. Also, your most technical agents may take the most difficult problems therefore they may have the lowest contacts handled average. We have found this metric works best if you separate your agents into Level 1 and Level 2 category. Level 2 agents have a lower bar for total contacts handled to even the playing field.
- "Discretionary": We perform different programs with this bucket. Sometimes this is based on a team competition, peer recognition, or just a manager's discretion. It should be a lower weighted element of your overall plan, but you always need some discretionary ability.

I hope this helps!

Good luck!

Scott

Hello Marion - I have a presentation that recently created for a client when optimzing their Service / Help Desk operation that speaks to high-performing KPIs. If you would like to forward me an email I will send you my presentation - it might help you out!

Thanks, Scott Casson