Annual Ping-Pong competition in our office has become tougher over the years. We’ve a lot of really good players and the competition is tough right from the first round onwards. This year, we had over fifty players competing for the championship. I’m sure, next year the competition would be even more tougher.

In 2007, I failed in the second round matches of both singles’ and doubles’ category. The failure taught my partner – Agni, and I, few things. No matter how many classic attacking shots we’ve, if our basics are not right, we’ll fail somewhere. That’s exactly where the process of Performance Evaluation at Bobcares comes into the play.

Performance Evaluation is a powerful tool to help people become more effective, efficient, and productive. The main purpose is to help techs grow, so they perform at a higher level. But, they must be done right or they will do more harm than good.

A comprehensive Performance Evaluation of the Techs, helps in making sure that a Tech’s basic foundation is strong. A Tech who has great debugging skills, will fail someday, if his communication skill is not good. However, if not conveyed right from the beginning, the tech will cover his weakness by communicating less. ( Just like how I covered by inability to give back-hand returns in ping-pong )

The story does not end with just Technical and Communication skills. Tech should be fast and accurate. The number of tickets/issues that can be nailed within an hour will tell you how fast a tech is. And then comes tech’s personality traits like handling stress and interpersonal skills. All these qualities makes a great Tech.

Even if the tech is weak in one of these areas, he might survive. However, it would only be for a short time period. And if at all, he/she tries to stay afloat for a longer period, when he/she sinks, it would be really quick. During the Performance Evaluation at Bobcares, a tech is told specifically on the areas he/she should concentrate on improving. PE also reveals what his/her strengths are and how it can be used to gain winning shots.

This year, Agni and I won in the Doubles’s category. However, in singles’, I failed after a closely fought match which went to the final set. Post match performance evaluation showed that I still lack in a couple of areas – Stamina and Innovation. Those areas are important for the techs too. A smart tech will have the perseverance to solve any issue and would always be sharpening his skills for getting better results.

The 2008 championships are over. I look forward to 2009 Ping-Pong championship.

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Sojish Krishnan, Sr. Engineer at Bobcares.com is an Executive Team Member. Sojish has worked in Bobcares for over five years and is a passionate advocate of superior Customer support. He graduated Bachelors in Computer Science in 2001. He is also a speaker in conferences related to the Web Hosting industry. Sojish loves to play table tennis, and also possess a never-ending desire towards biking.

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