If you are a new help desk manager, your new staff may have been self-managed, managed by a manager from a different department, or poorly managed by a former manager. Even if you have been the team’s manager for a while, you must assume there are issues with staff roles, work schedules, attendance expectations, performance, and training. For help desk performance management, it is important to setup team and 1:1 meetings with your staff. As you gain their trust you will learn what may be causing some issues with your staff and the operations of the team. So with all of these items, where do you start with help desk performance management.
Help Desk Performance Management: Quarterly team meeting
I recommend setting up a general help desk performance management meeting with the entire team. This is an opportunity to introduce yourself and start building a help desk manager/employee relationship. During the meeting you should be prepared with conversation starting questions to help the team open up. These questions should be focused on gaining valuable information about training, rewards, work environment, accomplishments, and improvements needed. Here are some good examples;
- What obstacles are in the way of the team doing the job?
- What does our team do best?
- What is one thing we need to implement today to be successful?
- What is one thing we need to stop doing to be successful?
- What training initiative should be available for the team?
- What notable things have the team accomplished this year?
- What in the work environment would allow the team to do our work best?
- How do you want to be rewarded?
Help Desk Performance Management: Quarterly 1:1 direct report
Next setup help desk performance management quarterly meetings with your direct reports. If you have supervisors, you must ensure they setup quarterly meetings with their direct reports. The goal of the quarterly meetings are to ask your direct reports questions related to training, rewards, work environment, accomplishments, and improvements needed. Notice they are similar to the team discussion questions;
- What part of your job gives you the most satisfaction?
- What obstacles are in the way of doing your job?
- What does our team do best?
- What ideas for improvement for our team do you have?
- What training would you like?
- What notable things have you accomplished this year?
- What in the work environment would allow you to do your work best?
- How do you want to be rewarded?
Help Desk Performance Management: Annual skip level meetings
If you do have at least one supervisor between you and your help desk agents, I suggest you setup skip level meetings. A skip level meeting is one where you individually meet with your direct report’s staff to discuss training, rewards, work environment, accomplishments, and improvements needed. Skip level meetings are an opportunity for help desk agents to meet with you at least once a year to give you unfiltered feedback and build a bidirectional level of trust. Before you implement skip level meetings, you need to meet with your direct report first to obtain buy in. Without the manager being on board, skip level meeting could look like a witch hunt.
Help Desk Performance Management: Weekly team
Meeting with the team weekly is a great opportunity to ensure information is flowing up and down stream. This is an opportunity to share company news and big events. Not only is it important for your employees to understand activities in your company but as a help desk agents they will most likely receive question from your callers. A major portion of the meeting time may be spent discussing the team’s operational
performance for the week. For a help desk this is handle time, average speed to answer a call, first contact resolution and other specific metrics. Discussing trends can influence better behavior and minimize negative trends. Many companies allow team members to share a success story from the previous week. An example may have been how you went the extra mile helping a customer with an issue. The will encourage staff to go the extra mile and give the team a sense of pride in their team. Also in the technical field there is so much information needed to provide support, an opportunity for individual to share a customer support tip learned is always positive. The manager should wrap up the meeting by discussing upcoming events for the team, support trends, and big upcoming changes to the environment. Here is a good agenda;
- Company news
- Operational performance
- Celebrating accomplishments
- Sharing something learned
- Upcoming this week
Help Desk Performance Management: Weekly 1:1 Meeting
Weekly 1:1 meetings with your direct reports will ensure there is alignment of expectations between a manager and employee. It also allows for ongoing performance corrections before they become big issues. Some people recommend that you allow the employee assist with the meeting agenda. This will make sure issues they want to discuss will be covered. Of course there are performance items you want to cover so keep your own private agenda list. Make sure your agenda includes some time to discuss training and career path. This will help your employee long-term. For the help desk it is important you have the individual’s performance against team averages in areas such as average handle time, first contact resolution, and other KPIs. It is also very important to review actual call recordings of the help desk agent providing support. Nothing is more powerful than an employee listening to their own support call and identifying what they did right and what improvement opportunities are present. Below is an example agenda;
- Employee agenda items
- Performance review of KPIs
- Call recording review
- Training opportunities
- Career path discussion
Being a new help desk manager, you may find you have a team which needs improvements. Setting up help desk performance management meetings to discuss staff roles, work schedules, attendance expectations, performance, and training is important to take your team from average to outstanding.
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