In this interview, the expert from Performia advises HR managers to shift their focus from abstract duties to concrete, measurable production for every role. The core recommendation is to define clear, value‑driven outcomes for each position, ensuring employees understand the specific results they must deliver. Using the receptionist role as a detailed example, the speaker explains how to articulate the job’s true purpose—connecting clients to the right people—and how to measure performance through metrics such as correct call routing and client satisfaction. The discussion highlights how poor front‑line performance can frustrate clients, demotivate teams, and ultimately hurt sales, while a high‑performing receptionist can dramatically improve client perception and revenue. The conversation concludes with a practical tip for HR managers: develop explicit performance expectations and measurement systems for all roles, especially those that directly affect customer experience.
Do you have some tips for people in HR, HR managers of companies? Do you have some tips for them?
Yeah, I think the most basic tip that we normally give from Performia is to focus on production. Focus on what people actually produce, how they create value. It's not just a thought, it's not just an idea, it is something tangible, some result that is actually measurable. And if we focus on making every individual in an organization understand what is the value I should create from my position, and you might think that, yeah, but everybody knows that. That's not my reality. If that was the reality, we shouldn't have those huge problems with productivity that we see in some operations. No matter what the position is. Like when we look at salespeople, that's normally pretty clear what they should produce. A salesperson who don't sell, and yeah, we all know that that's kind of a liability or that's a problem at least. But a receptionist that doesn't really do the reception work properly, we might not see so clearly what exactly is missing.
Yep.
And that is something I would recommend every HR manager to put a lot of attention to. Like, in this job, what is it that we need and want from this person? And one way you can think about it is that imagine a person who does this particular job really, really well. And then imagine you put on that job a person who does it really badly. What's going to be the difference? You know, let's say we talk about the receptionist. You know, a receptionist who do a bad job, what's going to happen?
Frustrated clients, frustrated team.
Yeah, you're going to have team members who wonder why was this client not happy after they called us. Or why couldn't he reach me? I mean, he said he called me yesterday, but he didn't reach me. Why didn't you organize so that he could reach me? I mean, these kind of situations, when you have an excellent person in the reception, that person will know that my job, my value is to connect people. You know, you remember Nokia? Connecting people.
Yeah.
That's the job of a receptionist, you know, to connect. It's not to talk to people, it's not to answer the phone, you know. We can answer the phone all day and still lose clients. You can make a point system, you know, how many correct callers got connected to the right people and how many incorrect callers got stopped, you know, still in a friendly manner. And I have seen companies, you know, just by changing the receptionist, they went from being in an emergency condition where everything was slightly going down to, you know, having statistics go steeply up just in a matter of weeks from the new receptionist coming in. Because let's just look at it. Have you ever talked to a receptionist that you felt treated you so well So that you actually look forward to calling that company next time.
Absolutely, definitely.
And have you ever experienced, you know, you talk to a receptionist who treated you with such disinterest or disrespect, so you've felt that, you know, I'm gonna try to find another company from whom I can buy this product? Definitely. Yeah, so there you have it. It's like, and that's how the receptionist by understanding the value can actually change the course of action for actually the whole company sometimes.
Yeah, the sales can really be impacted, can't it? Because yeah, it's like, you know what, I want to take my business elsewhere. You don't seem that interested in me.
Absolutely. So this seemingly not very important job of just being a receptionist, that's a misconception. This might be one of the most important people in your organization.
The tips on the reception were great because a lot of companies I speak with, they really struggle with coming up with what is the, you know, what is the expected result that a receptionist needs to produce, what's their product, and how do I measure them. And so you gave some really good tips there, which I think everybody's gonna really love and benefit from.
