Quote:
Originally Posted by raisingthestakes
Hi folks,
I am looking into measuring the performance of the HR department (operational aspect). The department is performing well, but with the challenging times we have just been through and the road ahead, it seems more than ever that HR will need to have operational excellence. Given this need to improve beyond "good service", I am looking at measuring the performance of our HR officers (on a day-to-day basis) in order to improve customer service. |
It's fantastic that you (and your organisation) are thinking about this.
Unfortunately with any measurement, you need data - the trick is really in collecting just enough , without placing additional strain on your staff in actually collecting it (hoping that makes sense).
Quote:
Originally Posted by raisingthestakes
Would it be best to research KPI's of other organisations customer service departments? In essence, the operational HR team are a customer service team.
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That's probably not a bad idea - but you may need the tools they use to collect the data. For instance, your outward facing customer service and IT helpdesk probably have a job ticketing system which logs when calls came in, when they were looked and resolved.
Perhaps you can look at "piggy backing" onto your corporate CRM system (much to the horror I'm sure of your staff
)
Certainly discuss with the stakeholders of the departments you service, and talk to them about their expecations on response times. At the extreme, you can set up an "internal contract" or SLA (Service Level Agreement) - these are more common for IT services, but the concept applies to any service providing area.
The other thing you may wish to look into is the ISO9001 quality management standard - although it won't necessarily give you anything concrete, it may give you some ideas regarding setting expectations and ability to fulfill those expectaitons.
You might also look at how your cost recovery is set up.
Do you "charge" other departments a "fixed rate" (eg coming straight form a "General Admin" bucket of money) or is it "activity based" (other departments are charge based on services you provided).
For my own team, I found activity based costing an "auto-motivator", as at the end of each month, I would publish how much "business" we did (i.e. recovered from other departments).
While it might sound counterproductive, and needs to be controlled, I found:
1. My staff became very receptive to internal customer requirements, and opportunities to "raise business" for my group (i.e. became proactive)
2. we stopped getting spurious requests from "tyre kickers" - because they had to justify to their managers the $x recovery their cost centre got hit with from my group for consultaiton time.
3. you can Manage your department as it's own "Non-Profit Business" (many places actually might set it up as a "Business Unit"). Remember - you're not out to make a profit - you're out there to be as close to break even as possible. It forces you to find out the "true cost" of running your department - not just people but all the infrastructure.
Back to the KPI - the recovery amount (over or under) becomes one of your KPI's.
Under recovery may mean:
1. low efficiency / low utilisation (overstaffing in a broad sense, but could also mean an incorrect spread of skill sets)
2. Unrealistic recovery rates struck with depertments you are servicg (i.e. your internal transfer cost per hour is too low). On this point, you have a benchmark - ask yourselves this: If this internal department were able to (all politics etc aside) outsource the
HR function I provide to them, how much more/less would it cost them? Would they get more/less/different services from an outsourced provider than from me?
Over recovery may mean:
1. Understaffing, stressed staff
2. Internal recovery rates set too high. Lower it - and make your internal customers even happier!
Cheers,
The Y-man
