Everyone benefits from having a clear set of goals. Easily defined targets of performance to work towards and with which to consistently measure ones performance. Now there are a number of definitions of “Goals” in the work environment but for the sake of this article, I’m going to stick to the group of goals that reside between one’s metrics (the specific actions measuring one’s performance) and long range career goals (for example, working towards a promotion into the Desktop team). I’m also going with the assumption that the Technician position is one of working directly with the customer and lower on the job list than a more advanced Analyst or Engineer who may be performing more development or management work.
Technician goals, like all job goals, should be clear, concise, easy to understand and supportive of the company’s overall strategic plan. Goals need to be developed through a conversation between the Help Desk management and the technicians. While most teams will have shared goals, there also needs to be room for a couple individual goals specific to each employee. For example, while raising the team’s customer service scores is great for a group goal, you miss the opportunity for the individual to work on their own areas of improvement. By providing the opportunity for individualized goals, one technician may have a goal of producing knowledge base articles while another employee has a goal around the processing of peer performance numbers. There also needs to be a balance between hard skill goals like Call Resolution and soft skill goals such as Leadership, Communication or Work Methods.
Once you have your goals defined, you need to look at proper weighting. By this I mean you not all goals should carry the same amount of importance in one’s review. An example here is lowering the Leadership goal for an entry level technician but increasing the importance of acquiring certifications to help promote training. This varied weighting helps the Technician prioritize their focus.
After you have worked out your goals, you can start designing the specific methods of measurement which become your metrics. While designing metrics is a whole other conversation, I will say make sure the metrics you do create are consistently measurable and that your system(s) have the ability to capture and manipulate the data. Too often I come across goals and metrics that are well thought out but never take into account the company’s ability to actually capture the data within their software. Goals you can’t measure are worse than no goals at all as they simply set the employee up for failure.
Here is an example goal set that I have used in the past for my Help Desk teams. The percentages simply reflect the weighting each goal has.
Hard Skills
- Personal Customer Service Rating (weight=30%): equal to or greater than 80% satisfaction.
- First Contact Resolution (weight=30%: 70% or better (this percentage will depend on your team’s specific abilities)
- Maintain or Acquire Certifications as defined by job description (weight=15%)
- Knowledge Base Articles weight=25%): Create or update a minimum of 4 articles per month
Soft Skills (all weighted equally)
- Leadership: Ability to lead and direct others
- Work Methods: How they go about doing their work. Covers efficiency, strategic thinking, using available resources
- Teamwork: Interaction with others. team members, department members, customers and vendors.
- Communications: Both written and verbal, formal and casual. Also covers confidentiality
- Business Understanding: How well do they draw correlations between the specific work and the needs of the organization as a whole. How well they understand the needs and work functions of the departments they support.
Whole classes can be taught around the development of goals so admittedly, this is a very condensed conversation on the topic. Use your HR department, your management peers and examples from other industries to develop you team’s goals. By creating quality goals, you are providing a solid anchor for the majority of your team’s management.
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