Meeting Expectations

The City of Garland (Texas) Water Utilities Department uses computerized evaluation systems to improve system operators’ performance

The City of Garland Water Utilities Department knows it is important for its water system operators to complete all their activities on time and within the acceptable parameters set by department managers.

When operators do not perform their tasks appropriately, the consequences can be costly to the utility and its customers. In Garland, a Texas city of 230,000, the challenge has been to create an evaluation system that realistically embodies all the activities that operators perform.

The utility surveyed various Texas and out-of-state water utilities to learn about their objective performance evaluation systems. All reported that they did not use such systems to evaluate their operators. In response, the utility has developed its own performance evaluation systems, which have been effective in improving operator performance and enhancing customer service.

Complex problem

In a small community, an operator’s role may be simply to observe and provide limited control over the water system. In larger cities, on the other hand, duties might include monitoring the system on a SCADA system, monitoring security cameras, working in a centralized contact center handling work orders and dispatching, and more.

Evaluating performance becomes even more complicated when operators see low-activity-periods in which, to the casual observer, it appears they are not productive. For example, a manager who does not maintain close contact with the work area may not appreciate the value of seemingly passive duties like observation and monitoring.

To replace subjective evaluation processes, Garland wanted to evaluate operators using objective criteria that would accurately reflect their performance. In 2007, the utility created such an evaluation system covering about one-half of the system operators’ communications responsibilities.

Operator duties

In Garland, water system operators perform several essential duties for a system that functions every day around the clock:

• Using the SCADA system to maintain optimum water pres-sure to the entire city at all times and monitor inflow, outflow, and tank and tower levels.

• Monitoring department secu-rity cameras at key citywide locations and reporting issues to management.

• Managing data and information collection.

• Supporting operations and dispatching management.

• Receiving phone calls, faxes and electronic transmissions from customers, city departments and other sources and routing day and standby crews to respond to service interruptions.

• Providing after-hours and weekend support for the municipality by serving as non-emergency 311 operators, dispatching calls for matters such as traffic light issues, loose animals, street repairs, customer service billing inquiries, and nuisance-related code compliance concerns.

Evaluating performance

Since December 2007, the water utility has used a contact center performance evaluation system known as Customer 3Sixty that provides functional evaluation of one-half of operators’ duties and responsibilities. Evaluation criteria are based on breaking down each telephone call into four components:

Call Opening: How the call is answered.

Call Body: The process of gathering information and entering it into the work management database.

Call Summation: Verifying information with customer to make sure the received information is correct.

Call Closing: How the call is terminated.

In 2007, the utility installed new telephone technology that included the Telstrat voice recording system, Call Parrot. A training period began in October 2007 covering the mechanics of the customer service call criteria.

Each operator met with supervision daily to play back recorded calls, listen to their interactions, and view their keystroke entry, which was also available on playback. Thus operators on an on-going basis could grade their own performance and at the same time get feedback and instruction from supervisors on how well they met expectations for successful customer service conduct.

In November 2007, utility management began scoring each operator’s performance from a random sampling of monthly telephone calls.

Evaluation scoring

Customer 3Sixty customer service evaluation scoring is based on a 100-point system. Each operator receives one evaluation per month in which management and the operator discuss positives as well as areas that need improvement.

Feedback indicates that the system is changing and improving operators’ performance and improving service to callers. Operators are embracing the system, and analysis indicates that they are elevating service to external customers and citizens as well as to city departments and utility field staff.

Individual operator scores for 20 months of review met or exceeded an average of 95. To date, all system operators have maintained at least a 90 percent performance rating in meeting key performance indicator goals.

After Customer 3Sixty proved successful for contact center activities, the utility looked to apply objective evaluation criteria to operators’ other responsibilities. That led to the introduction of the System Operator Scheduler (SOS).

How SOS works

SOS is a .Net 2.0 framework front-end application designed as part of the utility’s work management system. It provides acknowledgements on a wide variety of daily shift activities that operators are asked to perform.

At various times during a shift, the operator is visually notified that it is time to complete a task. Once alerted, the operator performs the task and returns to the SOS screen to acknowledge its completion. A system time stamp is then activated and is automatically entered within the “Completed” field.

The system uses color-coding to indicate whether tasks are performed within an acceptable interval. Green reflects completion “on schedule,” and red indicates “off schedule.” As one might suspect, there are various good reasons why operators cannot complete tasks in a given period. In these situations, operators can use a “Notes” field to indicate what caused the delay. Each note is time-stamped, further helping managers understand what kept the operator from staying “on schedule.”

Multiple functions

The functions of SOS extend beyond evaluation to include activities like documenting visitors requesting entry to the Data Control Center. An automated check-in process helps the utility manage visitor entry.

Additional functionality includes electronically notifying non-water departments in case of scheduled and emergency water interruptions, street closures and inflow and infiltration smoke testing. When those events occur, the operator simply accesses an icon on the SOS main screen and selects an appropriate category, then enters an address and submits the information.

In all cases, an e-mail notice is forwarded to the appropriate entities, including but not limited to city departments like customer service, fire, police and engineering. When the event ends, a few keystrokes create a follow-up e-mail notification to all the affected departments.

Measuring success

For performance evaluation, at the end of each review period a water utility manager selects a report that totals all tasks performed on and off schedule, and a calculation is performed to determine the percentage of on and off schedule tasks. The utility has established a key performance indicator of “90% To Schedule” for evaluating system operations performance.

SOS has been thoroughly tested by utility managers and system operators, and minor modifications were made to improve administration of the system. To date, all system operators meet key performance indicator goals. F

David Jacobs is a project manager in the City of Garland, Texas, Water Utilities Department. He can be reached by e-mail at djacobs@ci.garland.tx.us.



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