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I'm helping a buddy of mine get his resume together in MT format, and we ran into an interesting question.
He's an IT help desk specialist who spends most of his day on the phone answering questions (some of which are pretty basic).
I'm trying to figure out what kind of accomplishments he has. Most of his accomplishments he had listed were along the lines of "helped CEO figure out how to read his email" or "told people to turn on printer" (OK, I'm exaggerating a little for comedic effect...)
Does anyone have any ideas on this one?
Accomplishments in Tech Support roles
Increasingly IT service desks are tracking stats for their operators down to the individual operator level. Usually things like:
* Average call duration
* %age issues resolved in first call
* Customer satisfaction (usually by calling back a random selection of users to ask them how happy they were with how the call was handled)
* %age calls escalated(#)
* %age calls incorrectly classified
Are his employer doing the same thing and are the results published or can he at least see his own metrics and where that places him in relation to the other operators. An accomplishment might read "Consistently in top five service desk operators for average call duration", "Highest for %age issues resolved in first call", "lowest calls escalated for past 12 months" or "Average customer satisfaction score of 'Excellent' for past 12 months".
Stephen
# 'Escalated' here means put through the management structure (the user asks to speak to a supervisor) not passing the call to a specialist/expert. The latter is covered by "%age issues resolved in first call", i.e. how many calls were not passed to a specialist, and "%age calls incorrectly classified", i.e was it sent to the wrong specialist.
Accomplishments in Tech Support roles
[quote="stephenbooth_uk"]Are his employer doing the same thing and are the results published or can he at least see his own metrics and where that places him in relation to the other operators. [/quote]
That's part of his problem. His employers pretty much don't rate him at all. His year end evaluation went something like "You did pretty good this year. We gave you a 3% raise for next year. Now get back to work".
Accomplishments in Tech Support roles
Has he been involved in any projects?
Can he collect any information himself? Quite often helpdesk support systems will collect stats on things like time from call open to call close. Management may not extract the information but it may be available.
Stephen
Accomplishments in Tech Support roles
Some additional key metrics he should be able to put together on his own. These are in addition to Stephen's suggestions
Average monthly call volume
Number of clients serviced
Average time to resolve
Knowledge sharing activities (user guides, documentation, participation in forums, quick reference guides, etc...)
Did your friend do anything to reduce time to work on, analyze or resolve issues? For example, did he create any documentation that helped solve issues faster? What was the improvement?
MadAmos
Accomplishments in Tech Support roles
Not really. It's a pretty menial IT job. He's qualified for a lot more, which is why he's looking.
There's no projects, no ticket tracking software, no documentation. Pretty much he sits there with a headset for 8 hours a day.
Accomplishments in Tech Support roles
Tom
I think it is great that you are helping out your buddy. Have him log his own calls for a week or two to create a sample of his own metrics. He should know if they are representative of what he does on an ongoing basis.
He may have to do some guesstimates - and I am in no way suggesting that he fabricate anything - as to call volumes, calls resolved, tickets closed, average time per call, service improvements vs when he first started etc. Standard call centre stuff.
He can also mention that he received merit-based salary increases for 3 straight years.
He should also note whatever PD or Self Development he has taken advantage of.
Accomplishments in Tech Support roles
[quote="TomW"][quote="stephenbooth_uk"]Are his employer doing the same thing and are the results published or can he at least see his own metrics and where that places him in relation to the other operators. [/quote]
That's part of his problem. His employers pretty much don't rate him at all. His year end evaluation went something like "You did pretty good this year. We gave you a 3% raise for next year. Now get back to work".[/quote]
Tom,
I love the metrics that Stephen gave. I'd also encourage your friend to talk to a manager in one of his company's customer service centers to find out what kind of metrics they run.
It then falls to him to set his own objectives if none are set for him. I suggest the following waterfall of decision making before going to that absurd extreme:
1. Set objectives in addition to boss objectives
2. Ask boss what his objectives are and plow into those
3. Try to work with boss to determine what the boss's objectives are - then plow into those
4. Try to guess boss objectives from what reports boss consumes from you - then work to improve those measures
5. Set your own objectives and try to at least show accomplishment and improvement, and get boss to approve or adjust them.
-Rob
Accomplishments in Tech Support roles
[quote="RobRedmond"] I suggest the following waterfall of decision making before going to that absurd extreme:
1. Set objectives in addition to boss objectives
2. Ask boss what his objectives are and plow into those
3. Try to work with boss to determine what the boss's objectives are - then plow into those
4. Try to guess boss objectives from what reports boss consumes from you - then work to improve those measures
5. Set your own objectives and try to at least show accomplishment and improvement, and get boss to approve or adjust them.
-Rob[/quote]
I love this list. I wish I would have had this 3 years ago. I would have a lot more metrics on my resume now if I had.
For anyone worried about being in an organization that doesn't measure things, or at least not the things you do, this seems like a great jumping off point.