Yesterday we talked about "Time To Proficiency" (TTP). This is a measure of how long it takes an average user to become proficient in the use of a sales tool (such as an Applicant Tracking or Recruitment Management System) without training. The purpose of this measurement is to gauge the implemented systems ease of use. This is important since sales people (including recruiters / talenteers) will not be fired for failure to use the sales system of choice. Sales people are rewarded for closing deals (candidates), not for entering data.
Today we talk about another measurement that is rarely, if ever analyzed or used, but which lies at the heart of the success of any system implementation: User Enthusiasm (UE).
First, UE is a critical measurement because of the very nature of software. Software breaks. Software is complicated. Software never seems to be up and running and error-free when you need it. And as software gets more complex than design and testing processes become advanced, things will just get worse.
That's why you want to measure UE. People who develop strong attachments to things tend to overlook their flaws. Take my wife for example. Or, even more germane to the case at hand, look at users of Macintosh computers. People love 'em. So when Apple doesn't come up with any significant improvement in its operating system for over 6 years, the devotees still line up to buy the latest hardware. It’s more than a brand thing. It is a "User Enthusiasm" thing.
So what is UE? User enthusiasm is a quantitative measure of a qualitative event: how much does a user really like their system? How devoted are they to it? How committed are they to riding out the rough times?
The easiest way to measure this is not through asking the question “Hey pal, do you just love this system to death or what?” (which is what most people do, and which is usually a waste of time), but by applying the techniques of behavioral interviewing and social science to the exploration of a person’s “like” for a system. You can tell how much a person likes their sales (recruitment) system by how much they sell it (recommend it to others).
Yes, it’s true. Human beings who like something try to get other people to like it too. They want to form their own club of like-minded individuals. And they do this by setting out to sell it to other users. Zealots beget zealots.
Conversely, if they are really ticked-off by the implemented system, they go out of their way to make sure that other people don't use it. They try to form the "Club of the Don't" as in "Join me in hating this damn piece of junk system and DON”T use it." It’s just like the other club, except the enthusiasm is generated by sheer contempt and rage at whoever has foisted this piece of detritus on their busy work lives.
So if you want to measure UE then measure how many times any user actively seeks to either promote or undermine the system. People who don't do either should be assigned a negative value (since apathy is usually a negative state of mind). Here is a proposed rating scale. Assign the points for every instance the user can call to mind (or not, in the case of apathy):
If a user can vividly recall an instance where they have told another potential user that they absolutely must use this particular system, then give them 2 points.
If a user can recall an instance where they have suggested using the system to another potential user, or spoken positively about it (for whatever reason) to anyone else (spouse, mailperson, family dog), then give them 1 point.
If they don't have strong feelings either way and therefore have not spoken to anyone, give them -1 points.
If they mentioned to someone (again, the whole family dog thing) that they don't like it, give them -2 points.
And if they have gone out of their way to make sure that no one with a pulse ever gets near the radioactive pile of waste that they believe the system to be, then give them -3 points.
As all you statisticians can see, this heavily biases the rating scale to negativity. Which is as it should be, since a positive user experience unusually doesn't yield as much upside for the purchasing company as a negative rating yields downside. An apathetic user won't put up with poor system performance, even if they don't complain to anybody about it. They will just start devoting their energies to working around it, thus undermining the system’s effectiveness.
Between TTP and UE, you can start to develop a good framework for evaluating whether a system is successful at your company.
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