Metric of the Month

Every month MetricNet highlights one Key Performance Indicator for the Service Desk, Call Center, or Desktop Support.  We define the KPI, provide recent benchmarking data for the metric, and discuss key correlations and cause/effect relationships for the metric.  The purpose is to familiarize you with the Key Performance Indicators that really matter to your support organization, and to provide actionable insight on how to leverage these KPI’s to improve your performance.

This Month’s Metric: Agent Job Satisfaction

Customer Satisfaction is top-of-mind for virtually every service organization.  And for good reason: it is the single most important measure of quality for a service desk or desktop support group.  But what about Agent Satisfaction?  How important is that, and why don’t more service desks track this metric?  It turns out that it’s plenty important, and every support organization should track and trend this metric on an ongoing basis. 

Agent Satisfaction is the percentage of agents on the service desk that are either satisfied or very satisfied with their job.  It is typically measured annually or semi-annually using an Agent Satisfaction Survey.  Unfortunately, fewer than 30% of all service desks track Agent Satisfaction.  When I ask clients why they don’t track this metric, the answer is usually the same: it’s too difficult to measure, or the metric just doesn’t matter.  On both counts, they are wrong.  Here’s why…

Why It’s Important

Agent Job Satisfaction is a bellwether metric that impacts many other metrics in the service desk.  It is positively correlated with Customer satisfaction, and negatively correlated with Agent Absenteeism and Turnover, meaning that absenteeism and turnover go down as Agent Satisfaction goes up.  Figures 1, 2, and 3 below show these correlations using data from MetricNet’s 2011 service desk benchmarking database.

Figure 1: Agent Job Satisfaction vs. Customer Satisfaction

Figure 2: Agent Job Satisfaction vs. Annual Agent Turnover

Figure 3: Agent Job Satisfaction vs. Daily Agent Absenteeism

So, why do we care about these correlations?   Two reasons.  First, they are not just spurious correlations; they are cause-and-effect relationships.  Agent Satisfaction (along with FCR) drives customer satisfaction; it drives agent turnover; and it drives agent absenteeism.  More importantly, if we can control Agent Satisfaction (which we can), then we can drive positive improvements in customer satisfaction, turnover, and absenteeism. 

The second reason is that high Agent Satisfaction has positive economic benefits.  Inasmuch as improvements in Agent Satisfaction can reduce agent turnover, it can also reduce the costs associated with turnover.  Last year in North America the direct cost of replacing an agent, including the cost of screening, recruiting, interviewing, and training an agent was more than $10,000.  And this does not even take into account the value of the knowledge and expertise that is lost when an agent leaves the service desk.  Turnover is indeed costly!

Key Drivers of Agent Job Satisfaction

I mentioned above that Agent Satisfaction can be controlled.  But how?  Many service desks struggle with low morale among their agents, and appear unable, despite their best efforts, to maintain a high level of morale in their service desks.  Can we do something proactive to manage and improve agent job satisfaction?  The answer is yes, and the solution is surprisingly simple. 

It turns out that Agent Satisfaction is driven by training hours, coaching hours, and the existence of a formal career path.  Once again we can turn to our benchmarking data to make this point.  Figures 4 and 5 below show how training and career pathing impact Agent Job Satisfaction.

Figure 4: Annual Training Hours vs. Agent Job Satisfaction

Figure 5: Career Pathing and Agent Job Satisfaction

Benchmark Ranges for Agent Job Satisfaction

 MetricNet’s benchmarking database shows that the average Agent Job Satisfaction for service desks worldwide is about 77%.  That is, 77% of service desk agents are either satisfied or very satisfied with their jobs.  This number varies from a low of 44%, to a high of 97%. 

As mentioned above, Agent Job Satisfaction is usually measured through annual or semi-annual satisfaction surveys.  These surveys typically contain five or fewer questions, and can be automated using simple online tools such as Survey Monkey.  MetricNet recommends a five point scale, where a score of 5 represents Very Satisfied, and a score of 1 represents Very Dissatisfied.  Given the impact of training, coaching, and career pathing on Agent Satisfaction, the survey should include a question about each of these.  For example “How would you rank the quality of training you receive on the service desk?” The final, and most important question of the survey, should always be some variation of “How would you rate your overall job satisfaction on the service desk?” 

Next Month's Metric of the Month: Desktop Cost per Ticket

Please join us for next month’s Metric of the Month: Desktop Cost per Ticket, the most important measure of efficiency in desktop support.

As always, please feel free to contact MetricNet if you have any questions or comments about the Metric of the Month.  Also, don't forget to register for MetricNet's upcoming webcast on Call Center Best Practices.