Our field service technicians hit their weekly Scorecard measurable for total completed work orders, but customer complaints are spiking because technicians cherry-pick simple maintenance calls and abandon complex repairs. How do we stop staff from gaming volume numbers?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When staff game an operational metric, the problem is never the employee. The failure sits in how the leadership team defined the measurable.

If you measure raw work order volume without qualifying conditions, your technicians will naturally prioritize thirty-minute filter swaps and kick difficult diagnostic jobs down the road. They are simply doing what your Scorecard rewards.

To fix this, redefine the measurable into a finished-and-compliant output or use a paired standard.

First, change the measurable from total completed work orders to first-time completion rate on scheduled calls, or work orders completed within standard estimated labor hours without a recall inside thirty days.

Second, remove scheduling discretion from the technicians. A dispatcher or service coordinator must own the route assignment, while the technician owns the standard completion rate of whatever is assigned.

Third, inspect whether the target is set so high that technicians feel forced to cut corners to avoid turning red in the Level 10 Meeting.

When a metric creates perverse incentives, bring it to the table during your next quarterly session. Use IDS to re-engineer the measurable so that gaming the number is harder than doing the actual work properly. The goal of the Data Component in EOS is truth, not artificial green rows.