Drew Lawson wrote:
In article
"Mike Marlow" writes:
Drew Lawson wrote:
In article
"Mike Marlow" writes:

Incorrect Drew. The original assertion was that a Home Depot
employee reported that if a customer did not complete a survey, the
employee was subject to disciplinary action. That is completely
different from anything you've suggested.

How is "customer did not complete a survey" completely different
from "what the customer decides to do"?

I'm not certain what you think I've suggested. I've only said that
evaluating employees based on success at pushing the survey is no
different from evaluating the employee for success at suggesting
meal add-ons.

Correct - but that is evaluation of a task assigned which is within
the control of the employee. A reasonable expectation. What had
been reported here is that Home Depot was threatening to write up
employees if customers did not complete some survey. That is an
entirely different thing.

How would you evaluate "success at pushing the survey," which you
agreed with above, if not based on whether the customer participates
in the survey?

Direct observation. That is the only reasonable way to measure this. To
rely upon the response rate of the customer is at best, very inaccurate.


Pushing
a survey is one thing but it is something entirely different to hold
an employee responsible for a survey that a customer completes in
the privacy of their own home, after visiting a Home Depot, on-line.
Or even in the store for that matter.

If a company rewards employees for achieving levels of customer
surveys, that is one thing. It is something completely different if
they punish employees when customers do not complete the survey.

They are different ends of the same stick. You reward the employee
by assigning hours, while the non-rewarded employee has few or none.
You reward the employee with a pay increase, while the non-rewarded
employee keeps a pay rate that falls behind inflation.


You are missing the point. Neither of those is a direct punative action.
Those are both quite different from writing an employee up. They may result
in the same thing in terms of pay raise, but the write up has the added
weight of counting towards termination actions, for cause.

Anyway, I entered this because you were claiming that using survey
metrics in employee evaluations was impossible. I believe all that
can be said on that claim has been said.

I believe I said something more like nearly impossible, or the likes. I
didn't think I was as absolute as you are stating - but I haven't gone back
to look at my own words so I'm not even sure myself. In reality, they are
impossible to use in any meaningful way since the employee has no control
over the outcome. Even if he/she pushes the survey, there is no control
over the customer's decision. Furthermore, there is no way to understand
why the customer failed to complete a survey - it could have been over some
issues the customer has with the store, despite their wishes to otherwise
help out an employee. Saying that it is impossible to use in any meaningful
way is not the same as saying it can't be done - of course it can be done,
the store simply decides to do it. It's still impossible to measure what
that response rate indicates, simply by the rate itself.

--

-Mike-