Raising Employee Morale
By Kelly Sherrill
What initiatives are in place in your support organization to raise employee morale? In these
difficult economic times, management must take positive steps to consistently address employee
morale. Lets take a look at several different initiatives that can help improve employee morale,
increase productivity, lower support cost, and improve customer satisfaction.
Lets break down the various types of incentive programs into the following categories.
Perks and Small Gifts
I am sure that all Help Desk managers are familiar with the small perks such as providing
donut/bagel days, springing for pizza lunches, giving free car washes and hiring a masseuse to
provide stress-relieving massages. I suggest that you focus on the personalities of the Help Desk
staff and reward them with perks that matches their outside interest. For example, if you have an
individual who likes to read then a gift certificate from a local bookstore would be more
appropriate. If you have an individual who enjoys using tools to fix or make improvements to their
home then a gift certificate from one of the local building supply stores would be a hit. For
someone who likes to hunt or fish a gift certificate from a sporting goods store would be an
excellent suggestion. The key here is to match the small gift or reward with the individual so they
realize that you personalized the gift and made an extra effort to say thanks.
Performance Incentives
Significant good performance should be rewarded with recognition and/or monetary incentives.
Recognition should always be visible to the professional’s fellow employees (except for monetary
rewards). Recognition can be published and shared with fellow employees on a Wall of Fame, Help
Desk web site, Help Desk break room bulletin board or other similar locations. Monetary incentives
can be granted to professionals who meet or exceed their personal and/or team performance goals,
receive significant nonsolicited positive customer feedback and when the Help Desk team exceeds
their SLA commitments.
Establishing monetary incentives is a tremendous opportunity to challenge the Help Desk
professionals and create excitement in the organization. Monetary incentives may be difficult to
implement in these difficult economic times. But the fact of the matter is management may be
able to allocate a small percentage of their support budget to motivate the support staff to reach
specific performance goals. The most effective monetary incentives are structured to provide a
minimum, target and maximum level of achievement and are measured during a twelve-month
period. This type monetary incentive is usually calculated on the support staff’s base salary and
can be very effective at improving performance and employee morale. Allowing the professionals
to realize the maximum reward if they are able to exceed the target goal is a tremendous
motivator and if they happen to fall short of the target goal they at least have the opportunity to
receive a minimum reward. The bottom line is that they are in control and are accountable for the
final results.
Recommend creating three or four performance goals that directly focus on improving the bottom
line of the company and/or overall performance of the support organization. Establish a minimum,
target and maximum percentage for each specific goal. Each minimum goal must have a baseline
number that must be reached or no monetary reward is available for that particular goal. These
percentages can be as aggressive as your budget will stand, but the rewards to the organization
and the support staff far outweigh the monetary cost.
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Retention Programs
Retention programs should be established within the Help Desk that focus on career advancement
opportunities within the Help Desk and the company. Create a career-planning document for each
position within the Help Desk, identifying different career paths and the requirements of moving
from one position to another with timeframe and skill requirements. Providing Help Desk
professionals with clear career advancement opportunities motivates them to excel and increases
their morale.
Each Help Desk professional should be required to complete a career planning document that
outlines their career path choices, the technical requirements for reaching their selection, and
timeline for achieving their career path selection. Help Desk management must review this
document with the professional every six months to check on their status and offer guidance.
Management should take an active role in each professional’s career development by suggesting or
recommending training or certification courses that will help the professional to improve their
qualifications and increase their changes of reaching their career goal.
Keeping your Help Desk staff motivated, challenged and focused on career development is a
tremendous challenge. Help Desk managers and supervisors have struggled with finding different
ways to keep their staff focused on career development.
One possible solution is to identify several IT support groups within the Information Technology
Department that professionals from the Help Desk would consider as career advancement
opportunities. Discuss with the management of these support groups the possibility of a Help Desk
professional being loaned to their support group for a week or even a month. They would be
assigned to shadow a Level 2 support technician who would mentor them on their daily job
responsibilities.
This would be an opportunity for a Help Desk professional to experience the role of a Level 2
support technician and determine if this would be a possible career path opportunity. This would
also provide insight into the problem resolution skills of Level 2 support and may give the Help
Desk professional additional problem resolutions skills to improve their First Contract Resolution
(FCR) rate. This also gives them a break from the daily routine of providing problem resolution
over the phone. They may actually get to meet some of their customers in person as they work
with the various Level 2 support technicians.
These type opportunities are as varied as the number of IT support groups working within your
Information Technology Department. This will not only build a better working relationship between
the IT support groups and Help Desk but also allow Level 2 support to see the caliber of
professionals working in the Help Desk.
Structure Training Curriculum
Training is also effective in retention and morale of the Help Desk professionals and acts as an
incentive in today’s fast moving technical industry. Without training, the professionals will tend to
move from organization to organization to gain more knowledge to make themselves more
valuable in the market. In an environment where training is not available, the attrition rate
increases, morale decreases and it is more challenging to be consistent with knowledge and
strategic support skills. The Help Desk professionals should have a structured training program
that covers all aspects of their job and ensures that each professional has received the same level
of training. A structured training program should include training on the all the applications
associated with the Help Desk desktop, Standard Operating Procedures, Hardware/Peripheral
Devices, Proprietary Applications, High Impact Training and Taking Live Calls. Without a structured
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quality training program management is sending the message that training is not important and
this leads to low employee morale because it takes them longer to become successful.
Conversely, organizations can go too far with training curriculums that allow professionals to
become overqualified. When this happens, attrition tends to increase and morale tends to
decrease. This is one important reason why it is important to measure statistics like attrition,
number of professional certifications, the applicability of those certifications to the Help Desk’s
business, FCR and customer satisfaction. Keeping these statistics in balance becomes a continuous
process.
Employee Empowerment
In these difficult economic times, we are seeing downsizing and a general theme of "doing more
with less" within the Help Desk. If your professionals are unsure about their personal and
professional future, this may show up in their interactions with customers. Quality metrics and
customer service levels could drop and staff morale could suffer. Both of these potential effects
require an increased commitment by Help Desk management to continually communicate, both
with professionals and with upper management. The point is that even though you may not be
able to guarantee their employment, your commitment to the staff is to communicate with them on
a regular basis and allow them to be a part of the solution instead of contributing to the problem.
Hold meetings with the Help Desk staff to keep them abreast of critical information and involve
them by asking for suggestions on how they could help to reduce cost, improve service levels, and
add additional value to bottom line of the business. You may be surprised with their ability to
provide quality suggestions and identify cost saving recommendations.
Now is the time to stress customer care skills and train and empower your staff to be accountable
for the customer experience. Take care of your people; your team needs to hear management
being positive. Don't stop investing in the organization, but base your investment on an enterprise
perspective. Do a rigorous self-examination of your support organization and take advantage of
the skills your staff possesses. Utilize specific support professionals in various roles that allow
them to demonstrate their abilities to peers and management outside the support organization.
Suggested roles and responsibilities could include the following: Customer Care Advocate,
Knowledge Engineer, Training Coordinator, Quality Control Coordinator, Help Desk Statistical
Analysis, Business Continuity Coordinator, or Documentation Coordinator.
Matching individuals with the specific requirements of the job is challenging, but extremely
rewarding when an individual steps into a role that was made for them. Recognition of their
talents and skills says more to them than you will ever imagine. Employee morale can be greatly
improved by allowing them to demonstrate their talents and skills in the right situation and
exceeding your expectations. Managers are only as good as the staff they manage and it is your
job to make sure you place the employee in a position to succeed so they have the opportunity to
demonstrate their skills and move on to the next level.
Certification
Making the commitment to certify the Help Desk staff and management is an investment in the
future of the Help Desk and indicates to the support staff that they are recognized as professionals.
This commitment is a tremendous motivator and has long-term positive affects on improving and
sustaining employee morale. When a company decides to certify their staff through a reputable,
quality program, then that company is creating pride, consistency, a different perspective, a
common knowledge platform and inciting enthusiasm within the Help Desk. This enthusiasm within
the Help Desk will lead to a rededication and refocus of their career because the certification sets
them apart from others in the support organization. Certification is a personal achievement and in
today’s competitive environment employees are motivated to pursue both technical and customer
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support certifications. Certification allows the Help Desk staff to have a central focus and common
goal toward providing quality support to their customers.
I hope the above suggestions provided you with several different options that you can choose to
help raise employee morale and improve the level of support being provided by your Help Desk.
Improving employee morale cannot be done with smoke and mirrors, it must be a genuine
commitment from management and it must be performed on a consistent basis.
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