Helpdesk Systems

The most important thing to remember when measuring performance is that you are trying to measure the things that make the most difference (not just the things that can be measured). The problem is that many of the things that make the most difference are not easily quantifiable.

For example, it's easy to measure how many hours someone works. But they may have wasted that time, derailed projects and created lots of rework for people in that time. Time is not a good measure of results.

The employee may have delivered on a project, but in doing so they may have alienated all their team mates and annoyed the major clients so much that they leave and find other suppliers. Results alone are not a good measure of success.

Some of my most productive and best team members in the past are the ones who spent less "face time" in the office than other team members - they were just more productive when they were there and could form stronger relationships with team members and clients.

Performance is a blend of what you do and how you do it. Performance reviews that just focus on the task and the what are less effective than ones that also balance the process of how the task was done.

I prefer to measure task success, understanding & compliance with internal procedures and practices as well as their approach which includes things that are important to your company.

The sort of things you may want to consider includes things like cross team collaboration, attendance and punctuality, initiative, dependability, attitude, judgment, communication, productivity, interpersonal relationships, organisational & time management, knowledge sharing, safety etc.

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff