We all know that a company is only as good as its employees. Therefore, hiring and retaining top employees is a mission-critical part of any call center’s operations strategy. It is impossible to monitor each and every client touch-point so staff needs to be developed as trusted “brand warriors” delivering a consistent, distinguishing message at all opportunities.
Acquire Talent. People are your product. Your company should have a commitment to secure talented individuals with a high ability to perform in an organization that expects operational excellence. To hire the best people we must have a standardized selection process to distinguish top performers from mediocre employees. This is best achieved by establishing a multi-tier process that moves quality candidates through the hiring process in a timely manner, ensuring that exceptional people are recognized and given a reason to stay.
Establish a Culture where Excellence is the Norm. Talented performers expect excellence throughout the organization. We must empower our employees to add value at all levels. With this approach, accountability at all levels is a natural byproduct. Build a “pride factor” into your deliverables to create an environment where the entire population is committed to ensuring that everyone is contributing to a strong work product. In essence, client satisfaction must be as important to our call center agents as to all managers and directors of the company.
Be Flexible. Every day call centers struggle with the challenges of meeting client needs and juggling individual schedules and requests. Talented and experienced employees return performance and loyalty to employers who are flexible and considerate of work/life balance. Organizations that deploy rigid, inflexible scheduling exclude excellent pools of employees that offer significant people advantages. Your company should commit to schedule flexibility for call center agents. The result: higher employee retention as we work with employees around their school, family and outside interests.
Recognize. While optimal work performance is expected, without question, everyone enjoys recognition. In addition to monthly and annual awards for outstanding performance, do not miss opportunities to acknowledge effort in other meaningful ways. Financial incentives are only one way to recognize employees. Encourage executives and managers to walk the call center floor and personally congratulate and thank agents who are doing exceptional work. For example, your company could personally thank every call center employee by mailing a handwritten birthday card from the CEO, acknowledging the importance of their contribution and letting them know how much you enjoy having them as part of your team. We will exercise creativity in recognizing employees, and understand that the biggest impact does not always come from a financial reward.
Understand Impact and Target Incentives Accordingly. Incentives are a great way to add some extra energy around initiatives that need added attention. When determining an incentive program it is important that you understand what the improved behavior gets you in terms of returning dollars to the business. Everyone understands the importance of attendance within the call center industry. Your company should clearly define the worth of perfect attendance and structure an incentive program accordingly. One example: “Neglect your Rent,” a program paying an employee’s monthly rent or mortgage (up to $1,200 for full-time employees and $600 for part-time) for eligible employees with perfect attendance. Agents with perfect attendance are entered into a raffle in which one agent is randomly selected to receive free rent. This program drives excitement and also incites agents to go the extra step to arrive on time and keep their attendance record clean.
Share Information. Companies that are the best at what they do don’t hoard information; they share it. By letting your employees know what is going on at the company they become better employees and develop into a stronger part of our network. Your company should also have a intranet site that agents can check to stay informed about all the latest company and industry news.
Train for Career Progression. Opportunity for advancement has an unmatched impact on keeping employees motivated. By staffing your call center operation with talented and professional employees we can create a built-in cherry-picking system for other departments. In this way employees that started as call center agents can move on to higher positions within the organization. Hiring from within the company also has a significant impact on overall recruiting costs.
Mentor and Build Teams. All agents, especially new agents, need a mentor to guide them through their career. We should foster a mentorship atmosphere to develop tomorrow’s leaders and maintain a culture of excellence. Use a variety of methods to ensure all your employees are a valuable, contributing part of your team – and you will uncover problems that may have not been noticed otherwise.
Be Current. Only by using the latest technology can a call center offer its customers the best service and retain its best employees. We will create agent focus groups to identify technology issues and brainstorm about future enhancements. By interacting and performing as a team to identify and tackle technology issues, we improve your overall product and help retain quality talent.
Take Time for Fun. In the call center industry, attitude on the phone is vital to quality. Only by creating a comfortable, welcoming atmosphere can we ensure a positive attitude from our agents, and enjoy reduced turnover as well. By inviting top-performing agents to company functions such as dinners, and by rewarding them with perks such as event tickets, we will be able to keep “Call Center Burn-out” to a minimum.
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