MeasureProductivity

The average handle time key performance indicator or KPI is a component of a call or customer contact that BPO (Business Process Outsource) companies or call centers use to manage customers. The employees, or in this case the call agents or customer service representatives, receive calls from customers with issues about their products or services. The call agent who answers a customer call has a set time to resolve the issue or the customer’s reason for calling.

The set time is the average handle time. Meaning, the call agent is obliged to resolve a customer’s issue over the phone within the average handle time. The average handle time is set through a series of observations from previous calls of the same issue. The call center measures how a certain issue can be resolved within an average time every day. This information is gathered daily, and at the end of the month, necessary changes are going to be done using the information about the duration of time each call is handled.

For every line of business in a company, the average handle time differs. Lines of businesses or LOBs are the different departments of a company. Examples of the different lines of businesses in a company are Sales, Customer Service, Technical Support, and Account Management or Retention Department.

If we take a look at customer service and technical support, it is plain to see that for those who belong in the technical support department, they are expected to have a longer average handle time because technical calls take longer than the normal customer service call. Technical calls involve troubleshooting, testings, and technical walkthroughs. As for an ordinary customer service call, simple inquiries about the product or questions about the bill take a lot sooner to finish.

Things would also be different with the account management or retention department. Account management or retention is the last department a customer will speak to until he or she hangs up the phone. This department receives the calls from customers who are asking to speak with a supervisor or a manager, and about ninety percent of the calls that go through account management are irate calls or calls with angry customers. By just taking note of the kind of call, an account management representative gets compared to an ordinary customer service representative, and we can see the very big difference.

Moving on, in the normal call center setting, customer service usually gets the lowest average handle time, the technical support department gets a longer average handle time. While retention or account management is free or exempted from fixed average handle time because most calls are involving angry customers, and as a standard operating procedure, angry customer are always allowed to vent out over the phone. Having said that, in the retention or account management department, average handle time does not exist.

For all the other lines of businesses or departments, the average handle time KPI is based on observations and types of calls the call agents receive.

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Metrics, also called key performance indicators (KPIs), are designed for use as business metrics, implementation metrics, or as time metrics. These are tools widely used for assessing and evaluating the impact or effect of any project or activity to an employee’s productivity. These metrics may be given different labels depending on how they are used and what they are meant to measure.

Metrics are generally considered to be most powerful and effective when they are used to measure desired business results. Management of organizations that are metrics-driven usually applies metrics in every functional unit — from product development to marketing to sales and customer service. Recently, many business organizations have already seen the wisdom behind using metrics to assess employee performance and productivity.

As many textbooks and management experts contend, the workforce of a company is its most valuable asset. This is because the success or failure of a company hinges on the amount of effort that employees exert as they perform the tasks expected of them. So, when employees are performing below standards, the company is not able to efficiently utilize its resources. This translates to waste, and as we all know, waste decreases profitability.

For this reason, many HR practitioners see the need to inculcate upon their employees good time management skills. When employees are able to effectively manage their time, they not only accomplish everything they need to do, but they will also cultivate a positive outlook of their jobs. What is even better is that good time management is also a solution to the problem of stress and burnout. In fact, time management and stress management are often addressed together because of their interrelatedness.

Obviously, time management is a skill that positively affects employee productivity. Good employee performance is often viewed as a manifestation of an employee’s effectiveness in managing his or her time at work. To measure this aspect of performance, many companies make use of time-driven metrics. Naturally, these metrics would greatly depend on the nature and focus of the company’s operation. In call centers, for example, some of their most critical metrics are average handle time, average hold time, arrival rate, and after call time. On the other hand, relevant metrics of time for sales and distribution firms include sales generated per hour, or sales contracts closed in a week.

Nevertheless, an important skill that employees should learn, regardless of the type and nature of the organization they belong to, is the skill of budgeting time. To do this, they should first define basic categories of time utilization according to the tasks they have to perform. Once these are defined, they can now decide how much of their time they will allocate for each task. By using this method, they will concentrate much of their efforts and resources on things that really matter. While time management is not a skill that employees would be able to learn and practice overnight, the regular use of time management tools will help accelerate this. Lastly, the integration of time metrics in employee performance evaluation will also reinforce the importance of acquiring this specific skill.

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