Wastage of food

I just came back from the cafetaria after having lunch. While I was returning my plate, I saw an individual who was returning his plate too. The difference between my plate and his plate was that my plate had the spoon that I had used to eat and the glass I had used to drink water while having food, while his plate had so much of food that he was wasting. I couldn't resist, but ask him as to why he was wasting so much food, that's someone's meal for a day. He couldn't answer me... I hope that got some sense into his head.

My 2 cents:
Serve yourself only as to how much you need, don't waste food. There are millions of people in this world who go through a lot for that 1 meal a day. Respect what you have.

Exploiting the world - Call to action

The world is exploiting the natural resources to the maximum. The rate at which this seems to be happening, I am not sure how long the resources will last to meet the needs of our future generations. I believe with everything that is happening now, it is time to action.

My contribution to this world:
I have started using public transport in order to save on fuel consumption when I travel along as well as avoiding pollution.

Though I do have vested interest, since I use the transport system, I also get to exercise in order to reduce a few pounds here and there. I am also less stressed these days because I don't have to deal with the traffic that has increased in leaps and bounds.

Working from home!!!!?????

Working from home is a commonly used term in the corporate world as of today. It was not even thought of a decade ago. The fundamental discipline of coming into the office, to a work environment is totally lost in this new era. While it is understandable to see such requests on rare occasions and with extreme reasoning and prior approvals, the system seems to be exploited and the end result, the tendency is not to work while at home.

People need to be careful and reasonable in terms of abusing the privilege that the genuine ones also gets perceived to be using Work from home as a venue not to take leave and not work for that day.

Metrics - Cheating the system

While metrics is an important aspect in every business, it is important to understand how it affects our business.


For instance, in the Support world, we would know about Satmetrix and Walker surveys....
When the agent or Engineer knows that the call / incident / case didn't go well, I have come across instances where the email address is fudged so the customer does not get the invite to rate the experience. This is one example of back door entry.

Another example:
When every agent / engineer is measured on productivity that relates to cases closed or resolved, the system could be easily manipulated by an agent/engineer creating duplicate tickets and closing them out (or) cherry-picking easy tickets, etc... This is another back door entry.

It is important to understand that every individual understands how their role impacts the overall organization. Unless they understand this and partner with the organization to create a win-win situation, you may end up seeing customer satisfaction scores soar up the roof, and that does not translate to increase / maintenance of existing revenue/customers.

Metrics - It's important

Metrics play an important aspect in every business. In the Support world, it is imperative that we measure performance in terms of specific numbers. If people don't understand the importance of driving numbers, then that's ok. You can explain as to how numbers convert into revenue and the well being of an organization. If you have someone who understands it, but refuses to work with them, that's an issue. Yes - Taking care of your employee is critical to every business, but if that employee does not want to work with numbers and mentions that we keep driving in terms of numbers, then you have to take a look at the employee and decide if you want to keep him or leave him.

In Tech Support world, there is only 1 metric - Customer Satisfaction.

What about the rest?

Well, the rest of the parameters / sub-metrics, influence the Customer Satisfaction scores. In the Support world, typical parameters to be look at are:
Initial Response time
Average Response time
Average Hold time (If it is voice based)
Longest Hold time (If it is voice based)
Productivity of an agent / Engineer (# of cases handled / resolved / closed/etc.)
Backlog (# of cases/tickets/incidents)
Backlog age (in days)
Average Resolution time,
etc....

These parameters play an important role in rolling up to the overall Customer experience/ Customer Satisfaction.

There is 1 other outside factor that I truly believe matters - Employee Engagement.
Happy Employees can easily be converted to Happy Customers as long as they are engaged in the business and they understand how critical their role is to the organization.

Silence at times could ruin the team morale

I have seen different styles in terms of resolving conflicts. The open forum where conflict between different groups / individuals are resolved openly by staying objective, some by talking to the individuals separately and asking them to mellow down, just ignoring it so time settles the conflict among groups / individuals.

The last kind is extremely dangerous in an organization. Reason being, the depth of the conflict could impact the team members at the grass root level and if that would be the case, they will fight or live with it as long as they can. The moment their frustration level increases, they will just leave.

Truth hurts...but it happens for a reason

I was recently engaged in a discussion where the SVP of an organization was trying to fix the attrition problem. This was for a BPO company in Chennai, and interestingly, I mentioned that the market attrition trends range between 12 to 14%. While I was referring to the Product Company, Service organization attrition trends, he mis-understood me for referring to the BPO segment. It was interesting when I was told that I was wrong and that the attrition levels were between 55 to 65%. While I was shocked at this number, I thought I was good because I always would like to ensure less than 20% attrition at most. It was interesting that the person who interviewed thought I am better suited for a Product company as opposed to a BPO.

Well, I was initially taken back with that kind of a response. But then, guess what? Everything happens for the own good... who knows? they may turn out to be a edicational institution supplying map power to the market. :-)

Optimism prevails....I am happy that I didn't look at joining an organization who wanted to maintain attrition levels up at 55 -65% as opposed to below 20%.

Interviewing - Feedback necessary

Around 2000 to 2005, interviewing was an art. Interviewers in organizations used to look for talent in terms of reviewing their resume, understanding accomplishments, career ambitions, etc and then provide opportunities for top / upper core talent.

Now, between 2010 and 2011, the interviewers have taken a different stands... The interviews as you go up is even more sarcastic and de motivating.... Why would someone ask questions as to what do you think about office politics? Does that even matter? Candidates who don't think about politics start thinking in that direction. Interviewers have started to look for 1 reason to reject candidates however good or experience the candidate may come with.

This could be perceived differently from different angles. The survival of the fittest. Or, the best of the best... who knows? But then, the candidates who are not selected go through a turmoil to understand what went wrong.

I strongly suggest that interviewers give feedback and result then and there... That gives the opportunity to the candidate to fill in the gaps and also to explain if the answers were mis-understood.