MeasureProductivity

The performance of a company’s helpdesk is one of the factors that will determine employee and customer satisfaction. This is why it is important to continuously measure and increase helpdesk productivity by regularly monitoring helpdesk service levels.

It is imperative for many companies to measure and increase helpdesk productivity to be able to achieve more efficient business processes and obtain highly satisfied customers.

Help desk is commonly defined as an assistance and information tool or resource that is concerned with troubleshooting problems with computers and other products. Help desk support is often provided by corporations to their customers through several modes including a website, email address, or a toll-free number. These help desks are designed to assist external customers. Some help desks, on the other hand, are designed to assist the company’s internal customers who are its employees. Traditionally, helpdesks function as call centers since in the past, telephone support was the primary medium used until the emergence of the Internet. A lot of people found online help desks more convenient since in this set-up, they would no longer have to deal with being put on hold or navigating through automated phone menu.

Usually, help desk requests are managed through special help desk software that comes with an incident tracking system that assigns user requests unique tracking numbers. This software help companies identify common computer problem so that something will be done to minimize or eliminate them.

A typical help desk scenario usually starts with a user informing the help desk about his problem. He is then issued a ticket that contains a brief description or summary of his problem. He is then forwarded to a first-level support agent and id his issue is resolved at this stage, his ticket is then closed and documented with the solution provided by help desk technicians. Otherwise, the issue would have to be escalated to second level help desk officers. Usually, first-level help desk is trained to provide assistance and answers to common issues or questions. Concerns in this level are usually answerable and resolvable with basic knowledge on certain products or services. Personnel who provide second-level help desk support are trained to handle calls on more complex issues or concerns. Queue managers or supervisors are tasked to manage the tickets that are handled by the help desk as well as conduct helpdesk auditing. Common objectives of such include determining if sufficient controls have been set in place. These controls make sure that all service requests are documented and that only authorized personnel access to them. Another objective is to ensure that guidelines have been set in escalating issues according to priority levels. Moreover, helpdesk auditing also ensures that all customer requests are monitored and have been resolved within a given period.

Companies have different ways and methods to measure and increase helpdesk productivity. Generally, management calculates all reported problems every month. The number of problems resolved by individual helpdesk staff is also determined. The number of reported problems vis a vis resolved problems are also computed and carefully analyzed. From these data, certain measures are implemented to ensure the better performance of help desk personnel. Moreover, by analyzing the common problems reported, something could be done to make a company’s system easier for both its external and internal customers.

People, especially those whose jobs are writing-based, need to find a way to measure and increase writing productivity because this is the only way for them to continuously come up with top-quality written materials.

To people who primarily earn their living through writing, finding a way to measure and increase writing productivity is very essential.

Writers have different ways of making themselves more productive. Some methods may work on some writers but the same methods could backfire for other writers. Nevertheless, it is a general consensus that in order to increase one’s writing productivity, there is a need to give up or slow down in other activities. Identifying these activities can be done by closely analyzing one’s behavior and lifestyle patterns. Once these activities are eliminated in one’s writing hours, an increased writing productivity would be manifested. Even efficient multi-taskers admit that with lesser activities, higher work quality can be expected.

Usually, writing productivity is measured through the number of finished articles within a given period of time. The same could also be measured through the prompt submission of these literature materials. Decreased incidents of revision and rejection of submitted works is also proof that the material composed was of good quality. Ideally, writing should not be a problem especially if the writer or author is familiar and comfortable with what he is writing. The same should also be the case if the same individual always has the time and the place where he could think and ponder about the subject of his writing. One’s environment is very essential in improving one’s writing productivity. After all, you could hardly come up with a decent writing space if you find yourself in a situation where there is a kid shouting at the top of his lungs or a radio blaring loud rock music inside your room.

For several writers, having a conducive ambience for writing will help them keep their creative writing juices flowing. This may be done by keeping one’s workplace neat and tidy or by putting on pleasant background music. This could also be done by setting aside at least an hour each day as creativity time. Arrange for this uninterrupted time with your family members and make them understand that this time is allotted for your writing. This way, you will be guaranteed a stress-free time devoted entirely to thinking and completing your compositions. Understandably, within this time, distance yourself from your mobile phones. Make sure that you will have no distractions while you go about with your writing assignments. Changing one’s screen mode may also help improve one’s writing. This means that you would have to change the display settings of your screen so that you will not see the classical white background and black text screen setting. You can instead change it to any setting that you will find relaxing and less eye-straining.

Essentially, there is no black and white method to measure and increase writing productivity. This could be attributed to the fact that writers have different nature, temperament and preferences. The tips previously mentioned may or may not work on someone. What is necessary is that a writer should be able to identify whatever lifestyle pattern that he finds most comfortable and effective. Lastly, it is always imperative to find time to rest. After all, there is no measure as to what a well-rested mind could do.