How would you manage a team member who struggles to meet response time targets for online tech support?

The first step in addressing slow response times is to identify the underlying causes. Engage in a one-on-one conversation with your team member to understand any obstacles they're facing. It could be anything from a lack of understanding of the products to personal issues affecting their work. By pinpointing the specific issues, you can tailor your support and training to their needs. Remember, the goal is to enable them to overcome these challenges, not to reprimand them for their shortcomings.

You have to be focused on the bottom line. Which means why is the employee not doing utilization right. Why is the employee not implementing new efforts with the boss. The main goal is the bottom line for any employee. If you do your job right the first time. You will progress within the company.

Understand and realigning of goals are necessary when addressing an underperformance. From person experience, I have found that under performers are not under performing by choice majority of the time. In some cases, their understanding of the goal is a little askew. It happens a lot in bigger companies where there are more than one manager with different understanding of the goals themselves. Listening to the under performer and understanding where the discourse began will, more often than not, begin the process of realigning the focus. Bigger picture goals are only achieved with smaller focused and concentrated goals that all performer must achieve first. If Communication is the key, then Understanding is the doorway.

I am the type of person who always evaluates process before evaluating the people. If one person is struggling it may be an opportunity to evolve things to improve for the whole team and very likely make things easier for additional people as the team continues to grow.

Setting goals needs to be a team sport. Working with your team member to set goals that are both achievable and understandable. There needs to be a way to implement and track the goals set depending on the work style of the particular person.It could be a spreadsheet or notepad they keep in the background or a legal pad and pen if it helps. I've helped an employee using old fashioned sticky notes to remind them of tasks when their eyes go to a certain part of the screen.

Sometimes leaders will view goals / targets as understandable to them without consideration on the team's understanding. Not only understanding but ability to follow through. Getting feedback from the team on how things are going, especially if it's a new process that's showing signs of struggle, is a great way to let your team know you care and that their opinion is valuable.

Too often I've seen companies using outdated training that doesn't align with current tools / process. I am the type of person who tends to struggle a bit if what I'm being shown doesn't align with how I'm trying to do things because the tools have changed. It's an extremely frustrating thing for someone to have to deal with. Struggling to deal with the outdated information will also interfere with the ability to retain the relevant information.

Keep track of your team member's progress by monitoring their response times and the quality of their interactions with customers. Use this data to provide constructive feedback and recognize improvements. Regular check-ins will show your ongoing commitment to their development and remind them that they are not alone in striving to meet their targets. Celebrate small victories to maintain motivation and demonstrate that their efforts are valued.

It's key to monitor progress in a way that affirms with the team that it is used as a way to make sure they are being given the training and tools they need to do the job effectively. It is sometimes a challenge to get people to be comfortable being "measured" in any way. Some people come from micro-managers who only cared about numbers. And if their numbers weren't ideal then there were consequences. Foster a sense of teamwork, growth and collaboration. Consider opportunities for the team to discuss what has worked well for them. There's likely opportunities to share shortcuts, etc that can bring the team up together.

I had a position as a project manager where we had a team of junior engineers working with 1 - 2 rockstar engineers that everyone knew were rockstars. The junior engineers would sometimes come off as nervous about their work and ask the senior engineers, "what would you do?". I asked the team to flip things around and when they have a question for the senior engineers, to bring a potential solution for how they think the problem could be solved. Often the junior engineers had great ideas that ended up being implemented. It was a boost to their confidence, it ended up freeing up the senior engineer more and more and the team grew together.

The correct answer, " is all above " with each action. You need to monitor the individual or talk with on issues there having troubles in or unless you spot the issue first. Then you need to encourage team work, to adjust that workload so you can provide training with the correct goals to build up the individual, monitor there progress, then release the individual back in the game of business better then they were ever before. Its all about taking individuals weakness and making them into a stronger team then ever before. By working together.