Why don't people know WHY their job exists?

Because KPIs teach them to value the wrong thing !!!

More and more, I have come to believe that there's one fundamental reason for almost all bad service: People do not know why their job exists.

How is that possible? Well, it's surprisingly easy. People apply for jobs based on some specific "requirements" that get them in the door. Requirements are not job descriptions. Requirements do not reflect mission, vision, and values.

More importantly, requirements to GET a job are frequently unrelated to providing great service. That's normal. For example, you might need a vendor certification (e.g., Cisco firewalls) in order to get hired on at a new company. But the skills you need every day are general troubleshooting, client communications, and attention to detail. Your cert gets you an interview. It's not related to your job.

BUT the problem is much bigger than that. 

How do companies measure performance? Answer: Horribly!

As a rule, companies FAIL to tell employees why their job exists. They are given tasks, not reasons. And while good client communication is important, what gets measured? Time on tickets. Time to close. Response time. Upselling services. 

In other words, employees have KPIs (so-call "Key" Performance Indicators) thrown in their face every day. Ticket close times are posted on dashboards. Sometimes, close rates are posted on the wall. Sometimes, everyone's performance is compared to everyone else on a big spreadsheet.

Employees are told every week, every day, and every hour that they're being measured on the big red or green number on their dashboard. They're not being measured on actual service. They're not measured on contributing to a positive culture. They're not being measured on whether they're team players. 

In fact, when they have to compete with their friends, who wants to do anything for the so-called team? It's far more likely that they see employees as one team and the company as the other. They are alienated from pride in their own work.

... And then there's an annual performance review. 

Once a year, someone judges them on morale and communications and being a team player. But every day they've been judged on arbitrary targets that have a very questionable connection to actual service delivery.

People can be forgiven for not knowing why their job exists. They're too focused on KPIs that someone needs to measure because someone else told them they should. In reality, no one can really explain why those KPIs exist, except as a way to compare companies. On measures that are unrelated to actual service delivery.

It's worth spending some time with your employees. Ask the very simple question: Why do you think your job exists? Why is this question important? Because it gets to the root of what the company actually needs from the employee. And it helps the employee understand where their job fits in the bigger picture.

For more perspective on KPIs, what to measure, and what not to measure, check out this recorded webinar: https://mspwebinar.com/measuring-success/. Free. No sales. Really.

:-)