Field Technician Performance Evaluation
The value of a Mobile Workforce Solution
Background
An employee performance evaluation or
appraisal is a review of the employees’ overall contribution to the
organization. It is an evaluation of the employee skills, achievements, and
growth – or the lack thereof. Performance evaluations are used to provide feedback
on performance over a specific period of time. Besides the feedback are
performance reviews also used to justify adjusted remuneration as well as
possible corrective actions. Corrective actions could include re-deployment,
additional training and in some extreme cases even service termination.
The idea of employee performance review is
sound from a managerial perspective. The system performance review however is
not without problems. The problems that rise from this intervention happens
because of human involvement in the process.
This article will look at some documented
problems associated with the process of employee performance review for
technical staff in service orientated organizations. The article will follow
with suggestions on how these documented obstacles could be addressed.
Problem statement
An article published
in Talent Management & HR, January 2011, by the highly acclaimed Dr. John
Sullivan serves as basis for this article. The article is named “The top 50
problems with performance appraisals” (see the internet link the
bibliography) and lists the identified problems under six different problem
types. The first problem type – “Most serious performance appraisal problems”
list the following five detailed problems:
1.
Do
not access actual performance – the
appraisal focusses on the person, including personal traits while actual output
is being ignored.
2.
Infrequent
feedback - quality assessment
/ control in the business is conducted in real time. Most employee evaluations
are conducted annually.
3.
Non-data-based
assessment – the reliant on
memory of those completing the assessment is problematic. Some criteria are
“fuzzy” and subjective.
4.
Lack
of effectiveness metrics –
Process owners hardly ever measure their processes’ contribution to attaining
organization goals. Too much emphasis is placed feedback on weaknesses,
determination of training needs and to identify poor performers.
5.
Lack
of accountability –
supervisors are not held accountable for providing accurate feedback.
There are many more
problems related to performance review in the article of Dr. Sullivan, but they
are focus of this article.
Mobile Workforce Software as
assisting resource for employee performance appraisals.
Organizations adopting
a mobile workforce solution do so to streamline operations and help field
technicians to provide a better service at client sites. An adopted mobile
workforce solution manifests itself on two levels, namely:
First – a mobile workforce solution abandons the
need for paper-based business systems; and
Second – new enhanced connectivity emerges.
Connectivity based on a cloud-based solution between management, office staff,
field technicians and customers with the aid of smart devices.
While there are many
benefits associated with implementing a mobile workforce solution, there are
some hidden, but valuable benefits that management are not aware of or take
advantage of.
One hidden and
unobserved benefit is value of the solution is the data that is available to
assist in employee performance reviews. The data is recorded as part of
specified business processes and not specifically to measure technician
performance. Mobile workforce solutions tend to automate business processes as
far as practically possible. The data that obtained in this particular manner
is unbiased and a true reflection of the employee situation.
The data can also
point at procedural inconsistencies and used to correct business processes that
do not contribute to the bottom-line of the organization.
Some of the system
functionalities that can be utilized as part of the technician performance
review include the following:
·
Time
Tracking – time tracking can
be set up to measure billable and non-billable time. Time tracking is crucial
in organizations where labour rates are recovered based on the amount of work
performed. Reports are available over specified periods of time and anomalies,
either within the employee or within the business process can be addressed.
Punctuality, or lack thereof can be established with extreme accuracy.
Much repeat business is depending on technician punctuality.
Time tracking can also be utilized to determine how many repeat trips
where recorded. Repeat work can be analysed to establish patterns and determine
if the applicable skill set is sufficient.
·
Location
– the location ability of a
mobile workforce solution will indicate how much a technician has deviated from
the prescribed route and goal destination. The data can be utilized in
discussing technician performance and also for cost establishment.
·
Customer
satisfaction ratings – part of
the business process can be a signed-off customer rating. This is done
electronically. The customer ratings can indicate trends and reasoning. This
will provide excellent feedback to the technician and the final rating should
be reflective of the customer satisfaction.
·
Inventory
– Field technicians are issued
with inventory to perform their respective work orders. The number and nature
of Purchase Requests can be indicative of how company inventory is being
utilized. This data forms part of the management of risk within the
organization as replenishment is costly.
·
Planning
and Scheduling – this refers
to the number of work orders performed by the technician under review. The
number of first-time-right work orders without repeat trips is indicative of
productivity and rewards should be reflective thereof.
Conclusion
The functionalities
listed in the previous paragraph indicate that mobile workforce solutions has
the ability address some of the identified most serious problems of technician
performance review. It is clear that a mobile workforce solution has the
ability to:
·
Provide
feedback in part on actual performance
·
Can
conduct feedback in relatively close to real time
·
Utilize
data-based feedback wherever possible without relying on supervisor memory
·
The data
is based of business process metrics; and
·
Supervisors can be held accountable to provide
more accurate feedback.
Mobile Workforce
Solutions is not the silver bullet to eradicate all problems associated with
technician performance reviews. It is however an unbelievably valuable tool and
resource to provide more accurate feedback to field technicians which will lend
itself to a more satisfied customer base.
Pieter Coetzer
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