Planning For Productivity

As an HR intern last summer, part of my job was to cover for the front desk and run the company's switchboard every Friday. It was probably one of the most challenging responsibilities due to the fact that the front desk clerk act as the gatekeeper or filter for the entire company. I'm not only accountable for outside visitors coming into the company as well the needs of the stakeholders within the company. Here's a list of duties the switchboard/front desk clerk are responsible for:

1) Greet and announce all visitors, answer the telephone and record the names of all who enter.
2) Receive and sign for all incoming packages and notify the department for pickup.
3) Greet delivery person and contact the person responsible for outgoing packages.
4) Log all incoming/outgoing delivery activities.
5) Switchboard duties include directing incoming calls to the correct department.
6) Take room reservations for staff meetings and post notifications on reserved rooms.

They are very simple tasks if you consider them individually but it can definitely become overwhelming if you imagine them happening simultaneously nonstop and there's only one of me. My first shift working at the front desk was frustrating. I tried my best to finish everything in a timely manner but the work just keeps piling up. Especially between 9am to 11am, when the phone won't stop ringing (usually I have five or six people on hold) including calls from staff to check room availability and to make reservations, at least five people standing waiting to be serviced (people here for interview, delivery person for pickup or drop off, people here to visit a friend that works at the company etc.). By then I was pretty much panicking. I don't know who I should service first so I decided to help the person who arrived first-First In First Out rule. It didn't really work out because the other people waiting on line started to get impatient and told me they have a very busy schedule and they can no longer wait. For instance, one of the UPS guy demanded I sign for his delivery first because he have other deliveries to make and he's already running late even though there are two people in front of him. In the midst of all of this, I completely forgot the people who were put on hold on the switchboard. Then sure and behold, people started calling my supervisor's extension telling her how that no one's picking up at the front desk. So my supervisor came out of her office to check on me and noticed that there's a mob of angry people around my desk. With her help I was able to clear the line and service the people on hold. After the crowd left, she told me that I need to figure out a system that will help me manage my time more efficiently and help me increase my productivity. I asked her to tell me what the system is but she told me it doesn't work that way because everyone have their own system that works especially for them. The only she advised me to do is to plan my system based on two goals: efficiency and effectiveness. Basically I should ask myself the question "how can I be more productive?”

When I come home that day, I came up with a plan. At that point I already know what my goal is but I still need to come up with objectives to reach my goals. So in order to become more effective and efficient at my work, my only alternative is to prioritize all the demands being placed on me. It's not realistically possible to service everyone all at once but it's possible to figure out the average service times for each task and which tasks are more important than others that need immediate attention. As a result, I came up with a diagram with four boxes. Each box represents a different category of tasks. The categories are most important & most time-consuming, less important & most time-consuming, most important & less time-consuming and less important & less time-consuming. I should always do the tasks grouped in the most important & less time-consuming category first because if it takes less time to finish them then I will have more time left to work with tasks that require more time but are just as important as well. For instance, the switchboard would be in included in the most important & less time consuming category because it takes less than two minutes to transfer a call. After I divided all the tasks into their appropriate category, I made a note to myself to work with them in the following order:

1) Most important & less time-consuming tasks
2) Most important & most time-consuming tasks
3) Less important & less time-consuming tasks
4) Less important & most time-consuming tasks

The second week working at the front desk, I tested out my system and it worked out great! I was able to save so much time and as a result get more things done. I can measure how my plan turned out just by checking how many people are in queue on the phone or on the line in the office. After I implemented my plan there are only one or two people waiting to be serviced during the usual rush hour (9-11am) and practically none the other times. I'm definitely being more productive!