Ironic

Indicators in various forms direct us at most points in our lives. Clocks and watches incessantly tick to indicate morning, noon and night, thus it separates daytime and night time. Traffic lights are flamboyant to organize road tripping so as pedestrians and numerous road signs and symbols to avoid street accidents. You hear the bells ring signaling the churchgoers, tying the knots between fated lovers, or urging the students to take their snacks. More so, performance, skills, eloquence, quality and so many things under the sun are determined by key points – we call it grades, scores, QAs, surveys , votes, and many others. Those are the figures that help shape the society’s standards; these are the indicators that help separate the poor from the mediocre or the mediocre from the overachievers. Figure-indicators help us deliberate, ponder and decide who to retain, recognize and distinguish. Needles to say, it helps us promote objectivity and fairness.

In a classroom scenario, teachers and professors base their students’ performance on the results of their exams. Examinations in the form of quizzes and periodical exams are given and in the end, it serves as the deciding factor as to who will be in the honor list. Again, this scheme upholds objectivity and fairness in the academe.

Social Weather Stations or SWS, one of public opinion polling bodies in the country is said to play an active role in the Philippine Democracy through the conduct of surveys, particularly the opinion polls, pre-election polls, exit polls, social weather surveys, quality of life indicators, and others. Arguably, conclusions in all situations are based on figures, on vote turn outs thru random sampling. Through careful planning and sound methodology, they are able to present an unbiased result, not skewed to anybody else or any subject favorable only to a number of people. Yet again, this is to sustain objectivity and fairness.

During an election, people cast their votes and whoever among the political candidates garners the most number of votes declares the winner. No question about it. Figures say it all. Electoral fraud or scam is another story.

In Call Center settings, call center agents (be it Customer Service Representative or Technical Support Representative) are evaluated and ranked based on their Key Performance Indicator (KPI) thus in every period, there will always be someone to commend for being the ‘top Agent’ of the month and so on. KPI as what it explicitly states – KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATOR is the main if not the sole basis of one’s productivity, quality, and rank. Generally, KPI comprises of the number of calls taken daily, call facing time (CFT), voice and logging (QA) with troubleshooting steps done and accuracy of solution, manager’s assessment (which is also subdivided into schedule adherence, behavior/attitude, and homework), sales and logging percentage. By basically looking at it, we could say that KPI serves as the defining factor whether or not a call center agent is doing his job or not; or whether or not he needs to be promoted or retained in a certain post – hence it’s called KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATOR. But something happens recently that would inevitably make you vulnerable and insecure while aiming for a higher post. You can’t help wanting to turn back the hands of time to the moment you should have not desired for something anticipating and challenging. Unexpectedly though, you can’t help wishing to revert to where you were before. It was like sailing into the ocean, trying to sail farther only to find out you had to get back ashore because you had no strength to face the storm. Or to desire joining the battlefield only to be instructed to get home because you were not trained enough to win the battle. Both scenarios make sense in achieving victory but if that happens simply because somebody ‘thinks’ (based on their so called ‘sound judgment’ and ‘careful thoughts’) that you’re not ‘fully armored’ to win the battle, that’s another side of the story; especially if you have proven your worth, and at some point has exceeded the existing goal not to mention the ‘figures’ you have worked hard for to stay. It’s not like bragging, it’s just an attempt to show the irony of having good ‘figures’ but have been declined of something. It’s like winning the lottery for having the 6-digit figures but was not given the prize.

The Society has been attempting to eliminate subjectivity all along, hence we have electoral poll, so as the figures of vote turn outs would be the lone basis of who should take the presidency. Imagine a country without the proper electoral proceedings, wouldn’t it definitely be a chaotic country with inhabitants arguing (and perhaps killing) as to who they think should lead the country. We do have personal perspective about all things so you can’t just claim that one person does good, better or poor based on your own or even a group’s perception. That’s the definitive reason of KPI’s existence, so we can draw the thin line separating the objectivity from subjectivity. No living being is entirely objective, our judgment is inevitably inclined to prejudice, and thus we need something to rely on to at least be fair enough in a particular situation, in delivering our ruling or on deciding on something. There should always be a reference point, a performance indicator that we need to consider so as to mar our credibility as a decision maker.

A QUANTITATIVE indicator is always more reliable than the qualitative, which is why court proceedings are time consuming. There is no figure to rely on; they have to rely on the witnesses’ testimonies which at times tarnish their findings. KPI is quantitative, it’s a figure, it’s exact, direct to the point, and again, it’s the performance indicator from your attendance, QA or call quality down to your behavior and work attitude. It defines you as an employee. So if there’s something that needs to be decided on, KPI should at AT LEAST be taken into consideration. If you’re a TSR and troubleshooting they say should be given the top priority, then, can we not consider the recordings that were evaluated by the CAD (Coaching and Development) Team or the QA specialists for that purpose. Is it not the reason why they are hired and being paid for? Is a 100% accuracy of solution in the entire month not enough to say that a particular TSR at least knows what he’s doing? Is a more than 90% QA score not enough to confirm that his call at least has quality? IRONIC! I’m not saying that KPI and QA figures should be the only basis of confirmation to a certain position, retention or promotion but at least, it should be given due consideration. Live its purpose. Learn to uphold objectivity and fairness.