Topic: Raising Employee Morale-examples of incentive ...



Raising Employee Morale

By Kelly Sherrill

What initiatives are in place in your support organization to raise employee morale? In these difficult economic times, management must take positive steps to consistently address employee morale. Lets take a look at several different initiatives that can help improve employee morale, increase productivity, lower support cost, and improve customer satisfaction.

Lets break down the various types of incentive programs into the following categories.

Perks and Small Gifts

I am sure that all Help Desk managers are familiar with the small perks such as providing donut/bagel days, springing for pizza lunches, giving free car washes and hiring a masseuse to provide stress-relieving massages. I suggest that you focus on the personalities of the Help Desk staff and reward them with perks that matches their outside interest. For example, if you have an individual who likes to read then a gift certificate from a local bookstore would be more appropriate. If you have an individual who enjoys using tools to fix or make improvements to their home then a gift certificate from one of the local building supply stores would be a hit. For someone who likes to hunt or fish a gift certificate from a sporting goods store would be an excellent suggestion. The key here is to match the small gift or reward with the individual so they realize that you personalized the gift and made an extra effort to say thanks.

Performance Incentives

Significant good performance should be rewarded with recognition and/or monetary incentives. Recognition should always be visible to the professional’s fellow employees (except for monetary rewards). Recognition can be published and shared with fellow employees on a Wall of Fame, Help Desk web site, Help Desk break room bulletin board or other similar locations. Monetary incentives can be granted to professionals who meet or exceed their personal and/or team performance goals, receive significant nonsolicited positive customer feedback and when the Help Desk team exceeds their SLA commitments.

Establishing monetary incentives is a tremendous opportunity to challenge the Help Desk professionals and create excitement in the organization. Monetary incentives may be difficult to implement in these difficult economic times. But the fact of the matter is management may be able to allocate a small percentage of their support budget to motivate the support staff to reach specific performance goals. The most effective monetary incentives are structured to provide a minimum, target and maximum level of achievement and are measured during a twelve-month period. This type monetary incentive is usually calculated on the support staff’s base salary and can be very effective at improving performance and employee morale. Allowing the professionals to realize the maximum reward if they are able to exceed the target goal is a tremendous motivator and if they happen to fall short of the target goal they at least have the opportunity to receive a minimum reward. The bottom line is that they are in control and are accountable for the final results.

Recommend creating three or four performance goals that directly focus on improving the bottom line of the company and/or overall performance of the support organization. Establish a minimum, target and maximum percentage for each specific goal. Each minimum goal must have a baseline number that must be reached or no monetary reward is available for that particular goal. These percentages can be as aggressive as your budget will stand, but the rewards to the organization and the support staff far outweigh the monetary cost.

Retention Programs

Retention programs should be established within the Help Desk that focus on career advancement opportunities within the Help Desk and the company. Create a career-planning document for each position within the Help Desk, identifying different career paths and the requirements of moving from one position to another with timeframe and skill requirements. Providing Help Desk professionals with clear career advancement opportunities motivates them to excel and increases their morale.

Each Help Desk professional should be required to complete a career planning document that outlines their career path choices, the technical requirements for reaching their selection, and timeline for achieving their career path selection. Help Desk management must review this document with the professional every six months to check on their status and offer guidance. Management should take an active role in each professional’s career development by suggesting or recommending training or certification courses that will help the professional to improve their qualifications and increase their changes of reaching their career goal.

Keeping your Help Desk staff motivated, challenged and focused on career development is a tremendous challenge. Help Desk managers and supervisors have struggled with finding different ways to keep their staff focused on career development.

One possible solution is to identify several IT support groups within the Information Technology Department that professionals from the Help Desk would consider as career advancement opportunities. Discuss with the management of these support groups the possibility of a Help Desk professional being loaned to their support group for a week or even a month. They would be assigned to shadow a Level 2 support technician who would mentor them on their daily job responsibilities.

This would be an opportunity for a Help Desk professional to experience the role of a Level 2 support technician and determine if this would be a possible career path opportunity. This would also provide insight into the problem resolution skills of Level 2 support and may give the Help Desk professional additional problem resolutions skills to improve their First Contract Resolution (FCR) rate. This also gives them a break from the daily routine of providing problem resolution over the phone. They may actually get to meet some of their customers in person as they work with the various Level 2 support technicians.

These type opportunities are as varied as the number of IT support groups working within your Information Technology Department. This will not only build a better working relationship between the IT support groups and Help Desk but also allow Level 2 support to see the caliber of professionals working in the Help Desk.

Structure Training Curriculum

Training is also effective in retention and morale of the Help Desk professionals and acts as an incentive in today’s fast moving technical industry. Without training, the professionals will tend to move from organization to organization to gain more knowledge to make themselves more valuable in the market. In an environment where training is not available, the attrition rate increases, morale decreases and it is more challenging to be consistent with knowledge and strategic support skills. The Help Desk professionals should have a structured training program that covers all aspects of their job and ensures that each professional has received the same level of training. A structured training program should include training on the all the applications associated with the Help Desk desktop, Standard Operating Procedures, Hardware/Peripheral Devices, Proprietary Applications, High Impact Training and Taking Live Calls. Without a structured quality training program management is sending the message that training is not important and this leads to low employee morale because it takes them longer to become successful.

Conversely, organizations can go too far with training curriculums that allow professionals to become overqualified. When this happens, attrition tends to increase and morale tends to decrease. This is one important reason why it is important to measure statistics like attrition, number of professional certifications, the applicability of those certifications to the Help Desk’s business, FCR and customer satisfaction. Keeping these statistics in balance becomes a continuous process.

Employee Empowerment

In these difficult economic times, we are seeing downsizing and a general theme of "doing more with less" within the Help Desk. If your professionals are unsure about their personal and professional future, this may show up in their interactions with customers. Quality metrics and customer service levels could drop and staff morale could suffer. Both of these potential effects require an increased commitment by Help Desk management to continually communicate, both with professionals and with upper management. The point is that even though you may not be able to guarantee their employment, your commitment to the staff is to communicate with them on a regular basis and allow them to be a part of the solution instead of contributing to the problem. Hold meetings with the Help Desk staff to keep them abreast of critical information and involve them by asking for suggestions on how they could help to reduce cost, improve service levels, and add additional value to bottom line of the business. You may be surprised with their ability to provide quality suggestions and identify cost saving recommendations.

Now is the time to stress customer care skills and train and empower your staff to be accountable for the customer experience. Take care of your people; your team needs to hear management being positive. Don't stop investing in the organization, but base your investment on an enterprise perspective. Do a rigorous self-examination of your support organization and take advantage of the skills your staff possesses. Utilize specific support professionals in various roles that allow them to demonstrate their abilities to peers and management outside the support organization. Suggested roles and responsibilities could include the following: Customer Care Advocate, Knowledge Engineer, Training Coordinator, Quality Control Coordinator, Help Desk Statistical Analysis, Business Continuity Coordinator, or Documentation Coordinator.

Matching individuals with the specific requirements of the job is challenging, but extremely rewarding when an individual steps into a role that was made for them. Recognition of their talents and skills says more to them than you will ever imagine. Employee morale can be greatly improved by allowing them to demonstrate their talents and skills in the right situation and exceeding your expectations. Managers are only as good as the staff they manage and it is your job to make sure you place the employee in a position to succeed so they have the opportunity to demonstrate their skills and move on to the next level.

Certification

Making the commitment to certify the Help Desk staff and management is an investment in the future of the Help Desk and indicates to the support staff that they are recognized as professionals. This commitment is a tremendous motivator and has long-term positive affects on improving and sustaining employee morale. When a company decides to certify their staff through a reputable, quality program, then that company is creating pride, consistency, a different perspective, a common knowledge platform and inciting enthusiasm within the Help Desk. This enthusiasm within the Help Desk will lead to a rededication and refocus of their career because the certification sets them apart from others in the support organization. Certification is a personal achievement and in today’s competitive environment employees are motivated to pursue both technical and customer support certifications. Certification allows the Help Desk staff to have a central focus and common goal toward providing quality support to their customers.

I hope the above suggestions provided you with several different options that you can choose to help raise employee morale and improve the level of support being provided by your Help Desk. Improving employee morale cannot be done with smoke and mirrors, it must be a genuine commitment from management and it must be performed on a consistent basis.

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