SLA tracking and escalation

This guide is for users who need to monitor response times and escalate grievances that risk missing their deadlines.

What you'll do

Track Service Level Agreement (SLA) deadlines for grievance tickets, identify at-risk tickets, and take action to ensure timely resolution.

Before you start

• You need GRM Officer or GRM Supervisor access

• Understand your organization's SLA policies for different complaint types

• Know your escalation procedures and who to contact

Understanding SLAs

What is an SLA?

A Service Level Agreement (SLA) is the maximum time allowed to resolve a ticket. It's calculated based on:

• Severity of the complaint

• Category of the complaint

• Sensitivity level

• Business days vs calendar days (depending on configuration)

SLA time targets

Typical SLA targets by severity:

Severity	SLA target	Example
Critical	24 hours	GBV report, safety hazard, severe corruption
High	3 business days	Payment failures affecting many people, urgent appeals
Medium	7 business days	Individual payment issues, eligibility appeals
Low	14 business days	Information requests, minor service quality issues

Important

Your organization may have different SLA targets. Check your GRM policies or ask your supervisor for specific targets.

SLA status indicators

The system uses color codes to show SLA status:

Color	Status	Meaning	Time remaining
🟢 Green	On Track	Resolution time is comfortable	> 25% of SLA remaining
🟡 Amber	At Risk	Deadline approaching, needs attention	10-25% of SLA remaining
🔴 Red	Breached	Past deadline, urgent action needed	Overdue

Monitoring your SLAs

1. View your SLA dashboard

Click GRM → My Dashboard

The dashboard shows tickets organized by SLA status with visual indicators.

2. Check SLA deadline

Open any ticket to see SLA details:

Field	What it shows
SLA Deadline	Target date and time for resolution
SLA Status	On Track / At Risk / Breached
Time Remaining	Days/hours left (e.g., "2 days 5 hours remaining")
Days Open	How long ticket has been open

The deadline is shown in the top banner of the ticket form.

3. Filter tickets by SLA status

To focus on urgent tickets:

1. Go to GRM → Tickets

2. Click Filters in the left sidebar

3. Select filter options:

   • SLA Status: At Risk or Breached

   • Assigned To: Me

   • Stage: In Review (tickets requiring action)

4. Click Apply Filter

4. Sort by deadline

To work on most urgent tickets first:

1. In the tickets list, click the SLA Deadline column header

2. Tickets sort from earliest to latest deadline

3. Red (breached) tickets appear at the top

Taking action on at-risk tickets

5. Prioritize your workload

For officers: Review your dashboard daily

Priority order:

1. Red (Breached) - Work on these immediately

2. Amber (At Risk) - Schedule time today or tomorrow

3. Green (On Track) - Normal workflow

Time management tip: Block out time each morning for breached tickets before starting other work.

6. Fast-track investigation

For at-risk tickets, streamline your investigation:

Quick checks:

• Review description and category

• Check most relevant record (payment, enrollment, etc.)

• Contact complainant immediately if information is missing

• Make decision based on available evidence

Document efficiently:

• Use bullet points in notes

• Focus on key facts only

• Skip lengthy explanations until ticket is resolved

7. Request deadline extension (If Needed)

If you legitimately need more time:

1. Click Request Extension button

2. Select reason:

   • Waiting for information from complainant

   • Requires coordination with external agency

   • Complex investigation requiring more time

   • Technical system issues preventing resolution

3. Justify the request (explain why you need more time)

4. Propose new deadline

5. Click Submit

Your supervisor receives the request and can approve or deny.

Note

Extension requests should be exceptional. Overuse of extensions may indicate workload issues or training needs.

Escalation procedures

8. When to escalate

Escalate a ticket when:

Situation	Action
Can't meet deadline	Need supervisor to prioritize or reassign
Lack authority	Decision requires higher approval level
Policy unclear	Need guidance on how to handle the case
Complex investigation	Need specialist expertise or resources
Complainant dispute	Conflict you can't resolve at your level
Serious issues	Corruption, abuse, safety concerns

9. Escalate to supervisor

To escalate within GRM:

1. Open the ticket

2. Click Escalate button in toolbar

3. Select Escalate to: Choose supervisor or specific person

4. Provide clear reason:

   • What you've done so far

   • What's blocking you

   • What you need from them

   • Deadline context (e.g., "Due in 6 hours")

5. Click Escalate

Ticket moves to "Escalated" stage. Supervisor receives urgent notification.

10. Escalate to specialized team

Some issues need specialist handling:

Team	Handles
Protection Team	GBV, child abuse, exploitation
Finance Team	Payment system errors, bulk payment issues
Eligibility Team	Complex targeting disputes, appeals
IT Support	Portal access, system errors

To route to specialist team:

1. Open ticket

2. Change Team field to specialist team

3. Add note in Chatter explaining why you're routing it

4. Click Save

Automatic escalations

11. Understanding auto-escalation rules

Your system may have automatic escalation rules configured:

Common auto-escalation triggers:

• SLA breached by more than 24 hours

• Critical severity tickets not reviewed within 2 hours

• Highly sensitive tickets (GBV, child abuse) - immediate escalation

• Third complaint from same beneficiary within 6 months

• Staff misconduct complaints

When auto-escalation happens:

• System changes ticket stage to "Escalated"

• Supervisor or designated person is automatically notified

• SLA deadline may be extended per policy

• Escalation is logged in ticket chatter

12. Responding to auto-escalated tickets

If you receive an auto-escalated ticket:

1. Check the escalation reason in Chatter

2. Review what the original officer did (if applicable)

3. Take immediate action:

   • Make the decision if you have authority

   • Re-assign to correct person/team

   • Investigate urgently

4. Respond within your supervisor SLA (usually 24 hours)

Supervisor SLA monitoring

13. Team SLA dashboard (supervisors)

For supervisors: Click GRM → Team dashboard

Monitor team-wide SLA performance:

Metric	What it shows	Target
SLA compliance rate	% of tickets resolved within SLA	> 90%
Average resolution time	Mean time to resolve tickets	Varies by severity
Breached tickets	Count of overdue tickets	Minimize
At risk tickets	Count of tickets approaching deadline	Monitor daily
Tickets per officer	Workload distribution	Balanced across team

14. Identify performance issues

Warning signs to watch for:

Issue	Indicator	Action
Officer overloaded	One officer has many at-risk tickets	Reassign some tickets
Category bottleneck	One category has high breach rate	Review if special skills needed
Repeat extensions	Same officer requests many extensions	Training or workload review
Low compliance rate	Team SLA compliance below 85%	Process review, resources check

15. Reassign to balance workload

To address overload:

1. Go to Team Dashboard

2. Check Tickets per Officer chart

3. Select tickets from overloaded officer (use checkboxes)

4. Click Action → Reassign

5. Choose officer with lighter workload and appropriate skills

6. Click Reassign

Officers receive notifications of new assignments.

16. Approve extension requests

When an officer requests deadline extension:

1. Go to GRM → Extension requests

2. Click on request to review

3. Check:

   • Is reason valid?

   • Have they made reasonable progress?

   • Is new deadline realistic?

4. Options:

   • Approve - Extends deadline as requested

   • Approve with Changes - Set different deadline

   • Deny - Explain what officer should do instead

SLA reporting

17. Generate SLA reports

To track SLA performance over time:

1. Go to GRM → Reports → SLA Performance

2. Select time period (e.g., Last Month, Last Quarter)

3. Optional filters:

   • Team

   • Category

   • Severity

4. Click Generate Report

Report shows:

• Compliance rate trend

• Average resolution time by category

• Top reasons for breaches

• Officer-level performance

18. Export SLA data

To export for analysis:

1. In any ticket list or dashboard, click Export button

2. Choose format:

   • Excel - For data analysis

   • CSV - For importing to other tools

   • PDF - For sharing/printing

3. Select fields to include (SLA Deadline, Days Open, Resolution Time, etc.)

4. Click Export

Best practices

Daily routine for officers

Morning (15 minutes):

1. Check dashboard for breached tickets (red) - prioritize these

2. Review at-risk tickets (amber) - plan to work on today

3. Respond to any complainant messages from overnight

Throughout day:

1. Work on oldest tickets first within each SLA status

2. Log progress notes as you go (don't wait until end of day)

3. Flag issues early - don't wait until deadline to escalate

Before leaving (10 minutes):

1. Update ticket statuses

2. Set follow-up activities for next day

3. Check if any tickets moved from green to amber

Weekly routine for supervisors

Monday:

• Review weekend accumulation (if any)

• Check team workload distribution

• Approve pending extension requests

Mid-week:

• Review SLA compliance metrics

• Follow up on escalated tickets

• Coach officers struggling with deadlines

Friday:

• Review week's performance

• Plan for next week's workload

• Address any recurring issues

SLA improvement tips

For Officers:

• Front-load the investigation: Gather all information early, don't procrastinate

• Set internal mini-deadlines: Aim to finish 2 days before SLA deadline

• Ask for help early: Don't wait until the last minute to escalate

• Use templates: Speed up communication with standard messages

• Batch similar tasks: Handle all payment issues together, all eligibility issues together

For Supervisors:

• Review SLA rules regularly: Are they realistic? Do they need adjustment?

• Identify training needs: If same issue causes delays repeatedly, train team

• Remove bottlenecks: If approvals slow things down, streamline approval process

• Recognize good performance: Thank officers who consistently meet SLAs

• Analyze breach patterns: Learn from misses to prevent future ones

Are you stuck?

SLA deadline seems wrong or unfair? SLA is calculated automatically based on category and severity. If it's consistently too short or too long for certain types, talk to your supervisor about adjusting the SLA rules. Individual tickets can be extended if there's good reason.

Can't meet SLA because waiting for external agency response? Document your attempts to contact them in Chatter (dates, methods, who you contacted). Request extension with this documentation. Consider escalating to supervisor who may have higher-level contacts.

SLA keeps getting extended and ticket is very old? This may indicate the case is too complex for GRM and should be converted to Case Management. Case Management is designed for long-term, ongoing issues. Discuss with your supervisor.

Officer's SLA performance is poor - what to do? Have a conversation to understand why:

• Too many tickets? → Reassign some

• Lack of skills? → Provide training

• Not prioritizing correctly? → Coach on time management

• System issues? → Escalate to IT Don't assume poor performance = bad worker. Often there's a fixable root cause.

System shows ticket as breached but you resolved it on time? Check if there's a time zone issue. Contact your system administrator. Also check if the system is counting business days vs calendar days correctly.

Complainant keeps adding new issues and deadline pressure builds? If they raise a different issue, create a new ticket. Keep the original ticket focused on the original complaint only. This keeps investigation clear and prevents scope creep.

Critical ticket assigned to someone on leave? Supervisors can see all tickets. If you're covering for someone, check their dashboard and reassign any critical/urgent tickets to available officers. Don't let tickets breach because someone is out.

Getting auto-escalation notifications for tickets that don't need escalation? The auto-escalation rules may need adjustment. Document which tickets are being incorrectly escalated and discuss with your supervisor or system administrator. Rules are configurable.