The Call Design team just got back from the SWPP annual conference, and as usual, it was one for the books! Our beloved hometown of Nashville once again played host to an event that left us both exhausted and excited. So, grab your Call Design branded popcorn and let’s dive into a quick recap:
Justin Robbins: Keynote Extraordinaire and Pizza Party Myth Buster!
Justin Robbins, the man with the golden insights, delivered another fantastic keynote helping us get unstuck, and owning our unwillingness to lead ourselves plays a big factor! He also shared his knowledge in a few breakout sessions, and guess what? Apparently, pizza parties aren’t always the answer to employee engagement! Who knew!? Justin’s ability to make us rethink our approaches left us hungry for more (and not just for pizza).
Tiffney Spicer and the DEI Panel: Owning Our Unconscious Bias
Our dear friend Tiffney Spicer took part in an amazing panel discussion on the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the world of WFM. They fearlessly tackled tough topics head-on and challenged all of us to confront our unconscious biases. We’re grateful for WFM leaders who push us to think differently and create a more inclusive environment. Kudos to Tiffney and the panel for sparking these vital conversations!
Dan Smitley’s Session: Self-Care in the WFM Jungle
Our very own Dan Smitley led a breakout session and shed light on the often-neglected topic of self-care in WFM. Let’s face it, WFM professionals wear many hats and juggle multiple responsibilities. It’s no wonder burnout lurks around the corner! Dan shared the importance of saying no, caring about our own burnout, and even shared some tips on investing in ourselves.
Connecting, Laughing, and Sharing the Passion
The SWPP conference is always a blast! We cherished the opportunity to reunite with old friends, make new connections, and soak up the contagious energy of the WFM community. We share your passion for WFM and believe that it can go beyond simply maximizing staff and productivity. When done right, WFM can empower businesses, create exceptional customer experiences, and ensure the well-being of frontline agents. You don’t have to pick just one of those outcomes, you really can have all three!
At Call Design, we’re on a mission to help transform WFM teams into strategic partners who are improving lives, delivering outstanding customer experiences, and driving solid results for businesses. We firmly believe that employees have the right to be Happy, Engaged, Fulfilled, and Aligned (HEFA) at work. If you agree, or want to learn more, please reach out to us and let us know. WFM might be a hard career at times, but with a community like SWPP and partners like Call Design it can be transformational, and even fun sometimes!
Durante décadas, la línea entre la vida personal y la vida laboral se ha omitido. Esto solo se ha acelerado ya que la ecuación de dispositivos de Internet + móviles ha provocado que muchos de nosotros nos mantengamos conectados más allá de nuestras “horas de trabajo”. Es un hábito común revisar su correo electrónico en su teléfono tan pronto como se despierta, y justo antes de acostarse porque no puede perder un ritmo. O tal vez tenga que “prepararse para el lunes” trabajando unas horas los fines de semana porque el trabajo no le permite desconectarse. Una cosa es aprovechar el trabajo desde casa para brindarle la flexibilidad de trabajar horas inusuales que beneficien su vida. Otra muy diferente es sentir que no puedes desconectar y que ahora el trabajo está interfiriendo en tu vida personal.
La cultura de “Burnout” (o síndrome del quemado) no es exclusiva de los empleados que trabajan en la oficina o en desde casa. Sin embargo, lo que sí que es único para aquellos que trabajan desde casa es el hecho de que esas líneas borrosas se vuelven aún más difíciles de ver cuando realizas todas tus reuniones, todos los proyectos y toda la lluvia de ideas desde tu propio hogar. Cuando los empleados trabajan desde casa, creo que es fundamental que los líderes recuerden que trabajar desde allí es diferente. Usted, como líder y como empresa, está provocando un impacto en sus hogares y sus familias de una manera que usted no hace cuando trabajan en una oficina. En pocas palabras, trabajar desde casa es más que solo trabajar, es personal.
Cuando trabaja en una oficina, tiene un trayecto que le permite descomprimir y procesar un poco el día. Para aquellos de nosotros que somos introvertidos, nos da la oportunidad de recargar y prepararnos para saltar a la vida familiar. Sin embargo, cuando trabaja desde casa, su viaje se convierte en los 20 metros entre la puerta de su oficina y la cocina. No tiene tiempo de inactividad para descomprimir, y esto es especialmente cierto cuando nuestras familias están al otro lado de la puerta de la oficina y necesitan ayuda con X cosas antes de que nuestra última reunión se termine.
No solo obtiene el beneficio de descomprimir en el viaje aquel que viaja, sino que también lo obtiene su familia. En cambio, cuando trabaja desde casa, su familia sufre las consecuencias crudas de cada reunión. Ha habido muchas veces que mi esposa acaba de sentarse allí pacientemente mientras yo dejaba caer todas mis frustraciones de la última reunión en su regazo. Puede que haya hecho eso hasta cierto punto cuando trabajaba en la oficina, pero no tanto como cuando sé que está ahí justo al otro lado de mi oficina.
Est tipo de situaciones sin filtro alguno implica que las familias se ven involucradas aún más en el entorno laboral del empleado. Cuando el empleado sale de las reuniones hablando sobre cómo “les encanta trabajar con tal y cual porque hacen grandes preguntas y mantienen la reunión alineada con la agenda”, puede que no sea emocionante para su familia, pero es mejor creer que la organización es percibida como una influencia positiva no solo por el empleado sino por la familia en su conjunto. Por supuesto, cuando salen quejándose de que “una vez más se olvidó de esto y de lo otro”, es más probable que su familia vea a la organización de manera negativa y aliente al empleado a irse otro lugar más saludable.
Por último, creo que es importante que los líderes recuerden que el hogar es un espacio sagrado, y el trabajo, ya sea bienvenido o no, ha invadido ese espacio. Cuando nuestros empleados directos encienden sus cámaras y vemos sus hogares, vemos otra parte de quienes son. Llegamos a conocerlos mejor y, en cierta medida, se han vuelto vulnerables por eso. Es posible que se sientan avergonzados de que no tengan un espacio dedicado y, en cambio, estás en su cocina viendo los platos sucios en el fregadero. Es posible que no hayan mencionado antes que todos los lunes por la noche juegan a juegos de mesa, pero ahora puedes ver los +50 juegos en los estantes detrás de ellos. Y si bien es posible que te encante ver a sus hijos y perros todos los días, sienten que los valoras menos porque constantemente están interrumpiendo. Trabajar desde casa transforma un “¿Por qué no nos reunimos en la sala de conferencias para hablar” en un “por qué no vengo a la mesa de su comedor y podemos charlar sobre esto mientras sus hijos preguntan” qué hay para cenar “”.
Trabajar desde casa es increíble y ha ayudado a muchos de nosotros a crear un equilibrio trabajo/vida más personalizado. Sin embargo, como líderes, debemos recordar que la naturaleza de nuestra relación con nuestros empleados directos, sus familias y sus hogares cambian cuando trabajan desde casa. Debemos recordar que trabajar desde casa es más que solo trabajo, es personal.
As a WFM analyst, you play a crucial role in managing and optimizing the performance of your contact center. You’re responsible for forecasting, scheduling, and real-time monitoring, among dozens of other tasks that fall into your lap. But have you ever stopped to ask yourself whether you’re reaching your full potential in this role? Are you taking advantage of opportunities for growth and development?
It’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day tasks of WFM and lose sight of the bigger picture. But investing in your own development is essential for achieving long-term success in your career. Not only will it help you perform better in your current role, but it will also position you for future opportunities within the organization.
So, how can you ensure that you’re reaching your full potential as a WFM analyst? Here are a few tips:
1. Set goals for yourself
It’s important to have clear goals for what you want to achieve in your role as a WFM analyst. This could include improving your forecasting accuracy, mastering new software tools, or taking on additional responsibilities. By setting goals, you’ll have a roadmap for your development and a clear sense of progress.
2. Seek out training and development opportunities
There are many training and development opportunities available for WFM analysts, both within your organization and outside of it. Look for workshops, webinars, and courses that can help you improve your skills and stay up-to-date with the latest trends and best practices in WFM. Don’t be afraid to ask your manager or HR department for support in finding and funding these opportunities.
3. Build relationships with other WFM professionals
Networking with other WFM professionals can be a great way to learn from others and expand your knowledge and skills. Attend industry events and conferences, participate in online forums and groups, and connect with other WFM analysts on LinkedIn. Building these relationships can also help you stay on top of new job opportunities within the industry.
4. Take on new challenges
If you feel like you’ve hit a plateau in your current role, look for opportunities to take on new challenges and responsibilities. This could include volunteering for cross-functional projects, leading a new initiative within your team, or taking on a temporary assignment in another department. By stretching yourself and taking on new challenges, you’ll continue to grow and develop as a WFM analyst.
At Call Design, we believe that employees have the right to be happy, engaged, fulfilled, and aligned at work. Part of achieving this is through professional development. As a WFM analyst, you play a critical role in the success of your contact center, and investing in your own development is essential for achieving long-term success. If you’re interested in learning more about how Call Design can support your development in WFM, please reach out!
In a world where remote work is becoming increasingly common and the customer service industry is evolving at an unprecedented pace, it’s more important than ever for businesses to prioritize the employee experience. That’s exactly what we discussed at the recent Southeastern Contact Center (SECC) Regional Meeting in Knoxville, TN, which Call Design was proud to participate in.
The event was held on April 5th, and we were thrilled to be hosted by Ed Financial. The hosts and organizers did an outstanding job from start to finish. The pre-event messaging and communication were excellent, and the breakfast and welcome on the day of the event were lovely. It was clear that the coordinators had put a lot of thought and effort into the event, and we were excited to dive into the discussions.
After introductions, our very own Shawn McCormick spoke to the economic uncertainty we are all facing in the wake of the pandemic, politics, and economic considerations. He addressed the potential hesitation to focus on priorities that may have taken a back seat in recent months. We’re all slowly but surely understanding the significant impact of these factors, and that communication, collaboration, and agreement across leadership teams are more important than ever. This is where employee care and engagement come into play.
The topic of employee engagement is becoming increasingly important, and for good reason. Happy, engaged, fulfilled, and aligned employees are almost certain to set companies up for happy, engaged, fulfilled, and satisfied customers. This was the main point of discussion at the SECC meeting. We spent several hours discussing the importance of proactive investment of time and focus around both the employee/agent experience and the customer experience. The message was clear – companies that are nurturing and creating a culture that embraces these values will thrive, no matter what type of uncertainty comes their way.
Yesterday’s contact center wasn’t built for today’s world. As technology continues to evolve, so must our approach to employee care and engagement. Proactive investment and proactive care are truly the only option. We all left the SECC meeting feeling like technology has a heartbeat and that we will be better prepared having shared ways to manage new processes, new goals, new environments, and more. The messages of what is driving contact center success present day were very clear.
As we reflect on the SECC meeting and the discussions we had, it’s clear that employee experience must be a top priority for businesses in every industry. Here are just a few reasons why:
1. Employee engagement leads to better customer service.
When employees are engaged and motivated, they’re more likely to go above and beyond for customers. They’re invested in the success of the company and want to see it thrive. This, in turn, leads to happier customers who are more likely to remain loyal to the brand.
2. Employee engagement leads to higher retention rates.
When employees feel valued and engaged, they’re more likely to stick around for the long haul. This can save businesses a lot of money in the long run, as the cost of replacing an employee can be significant
3. Employee engagement leads to a better company culture.
When employees are happy, engaged, and fulfilled, the entire company culture benefits. This can lead to a more positive work environment, better communication, and more effective collaboration across teams.
As businesses continue to navigate the challenges of a post-pandemic world, employee engagement will only become more important. It’s not just a nice-to-have – it’s essential for success. At Call Design, we’re committed to helping businesses prioritize the employee experience and create a culture that supports employee well-being and engagement. We believe that by investing in your employees and empowering them to be their best selves, you can create a workplace that not only attracts top talent but retains it as well. By prioritizing the employee experience, companies can cultivate a sense of loyalty and dedication among their staff, leading to increased productivity, improved customer satisfaction, and ultimately, a stronger bottom line.
If you’d like to learn more about why you should prioritize employee engagement in your organization, we invite you to submit the form at this link:
By submitting this form, you’ll receive a copy of Shawn’s white paper The CX/EX Connection: Investing in Your Employees which was the research foundation for his presentation at SECC. We’re confident that this resource will provide you with valuable insights and actionable strategies to help you create a workplace where employees feel valued, supported, and engaged. So let’s work together to make sure that every employee feels happy, engaged, fulfilled, and aligned at work – because that’s the key to success in today’s ever-evolving business landscape.
As the world becomes more connected, remote work is becoming increasingly popular, especially in our post-pandemic environments. And in the world of contact centers, workforce management teams should be the biggest champions of remote agents!
Why? Well, here are five quick reasons:
Split-shifts
VOT and VTO
Micro-shifts
No longer worrying about seat allocation
Increased schedule adherence
One – Split-Shifts
When agents work remotely your scheduling team suddenly has a lot more options. When people aren’t having to commute to the office, schedules that didn’t make sense before now have great value. Working from 6am-8am and then again from 12pm-6pm might be horrible for people coming and going into the office. However, for someone working from home this now gives them the chance to work some, then get the kids off to school, head to the grocery store when it’s fairly empty, grab some lunch, and then head back to work. It’s likely not for all of your agents, but for some people, this is a huge win.
Two – VOT and VTO
Then there’s voluntary overtime and voluntary time off. How many real-time teams are constantly chasing people to either add a few hours to their shift or drop hours off to help service levels and budget constraints? When agents work from home you can increase your chances of someone willing to work an extra 1 or 2 after their shift if they know they don’t have to commute home. Or agents might be willing to leave after only working 2 hours if they didn’t just waste 45 minutes driving to work. You give your RTA team a fighting chance with VOT and VTO when your agents work from home.
Three – Micro-Shifts
Micro-shifts can be a game changer for many organizations. Working remotely now opens up the possibility of having someone work just 1-3 hours at a time. When you can create work segments that small you can start having agents self-select their schedule and use micro-shifts as building blocks. Now if you create those segments just when you have staffing shortages you suddenly have a way of giving your agents autonomy and control over their schedules while also flatting out your staffing variations and meeting a more consistent service level. Win-win!
Four – Seat Allocation
The fourth benefit may be easy for non-contact center folk to overlook, but WFM and operation teams that work in overstaffed centers know the pain of seat management. When scheduling and managing remote agents you no longer have to worry about so-and-so sitting next to each other and talking the whole time, throwing off your shrinkage. Or so-and-so both loving sitting next to the window, but only having one seat available. As a WFM team, you can simply avoid the relational and logistical issues that come with physical contact center seats and simply focus on meeting the demands of the business and customers.
Five – Schedule Adherence
Our final benefit is close and dear to many WFM hearts, schedule adherence. When agents aren’t getting stuck in traffic their schedule adherence will increase. Now add in schedules with varying start times and lengths, like we already discussed, and pair that with a shift-bid, where agents select their schedules, *chefs kiss*. It may not be magical but it’s as close as we get in the WFM world!
For many WFM teams working from home may seem like a non-issue. Whether the agents work in locations A, B, or at home it’s still just numbers and schedules. Forecasts will be what they are and service level goals will remain the same. However, I believe that perspective is short-sighted and hopefully you now see the benefits to the WFM team when their agents work from home. So let’s get off the sidelines, WFM teams, and start championing remote work efforts. Your agents and their schedule adherence will thank you!
At Call Design we believe employees have the right to be happy, engaged, fulfilled, and aligned at work. Remote agents are a way start to make that happen, but managing, scheduling, and engaging remote workers can be challenging. If you agree that remote agents can benefit your organization, but aren’t sure how to make that happen then reach out! We’d love to help you strategize and implement a great remote program for your contact center.
Let me start by saying I’m no diversity expert, neurodivergent or otherwise. I own the fact that most of my experience comes from a position of the majority in America. White, male, heterosexual, cisgender, Christian, middle class, etc, etc. But I try to keep an open mind, eye, and ear to those different around me. I understand that they view problems differently than I do and can help me create a more holistic solution to issues (check out a recent Call Design blog about the importance of difference). I also realize that I can grow by trying to understand the perspectives of those different from me, which is exactly what happened when I recently hired a forecasting analyst with autism. Through my relationship with her, she has opened my eyes to the incredible value of AI and especially generative AI (ChatGPT, Google’s Bard, Bing Chat) for those that are neurodivergent and how it can help them function with more comfort, safety, and confidence in the workplace.
1 – One of the biggest impacts is communication. Platforms like ChatGPT can provide amazing translation services between people that think and function differently.
1a. Conversations, whether verbal or written, can be challenging for people that think differently than you do. The way that people off the spectrum connect dots is different than those on the spectrum. Generative AI allows people the opportunity to take emails or requests and translate them in a way that can make sense. “What is this person asking me to do” *paste copied email*. This option can empower them to not only execute their work quicker but reduces the anxiety that comes with asking someone to clarify for the second, fourth, or eighth time.
1b. Sometimes communication is easier with math. It’s straightforward and logical, and it avoids all of the nuances of communication. “This number has gone up because it’s bigger than what it was last month.” Even for people without communication challenges, such as myself, explaining how a calculation works can be confusing, even for the person that wrote it. “I know it works but give me a few minutes to try and explain it.” Generative AI can take a calculation and explain it in a common language for other people to understand. It can also expand upon data analysis and provide a storytelling approach to better relay and explain the importance of the data.
1c. We all know that generative AI can write emails and blogs (maybe it even helped with this blog!?!), but did you know that it can also remember your tone of voice? Often people with autism might miss or forget small nuances that soften requests in emails. So their emails may come across as blunt, harsh, or at worst, confrontational. Using AI to create their emails is an easy win, but it can feel inauthentic to use language and a tone of voice so different from their own. This is where teaching AI how to write for them comes in handy. It allows them a way to communicate with facts, statements, and logic that is comfortable for them but softened in a way that makes it easier for the end user to consume and interact with.
2 – AI is already impacting daily life for neurodivergent people in amazing ways.
2a. Neurodivergent doesn’t just mean autistic people, it also includes people with ADHD. ADHD makes it difficult for many people to remember tasks or stay on schedule. My wife (who has ADHD) is notorious for running late, hyper-focusing on something and then not finishing it, and getting lost in the story she’s telling someone. AI is already helping these individuals by allowing them to simply say “remember X appointment” or “remind me of so-and-so’s birthday”. The ability to simply say it out loud is huge. Because the calendar app might just be a few clicks away, but there are dozens of distractions on their phones waiting to trip them up from putting their next appointment into their schedule.
2b. AI can provide some basic companionship without the fear of judgment. Social interactions can be exceptionally triggering for some and the ability to have a conversation with a bot can allow them an element of companionship with minimal anxiety. This isn’t to say that I believe bots can replace humans but they can remove a small element of loneliness in a way that minimizes fear and stress. AI can also help them improve their communication skills by allowing them to practice interpreting someone’s communication and responding with an appropriate and logical next statement. That back and forth can be taxing but like with building muscle, with repeated practice it can get easier.
3 – AI will continue to evolve and provide additional help that may not be here yet.
3a. Learning and remembering information is often a challenge for neurodivergent people. When you think differently, you’re likely going to learn differently as well. AI can help with this by providing personalized learning to both their learning style and ability. Personalized learning increases the chance for retention and use of information, regardless of personal limitations or challenges. However, for people with autism, this type of learning could greatly increase their ability to contribute to a professional environment and grow their career.
3b. I can also see where AI will eventually provide an on-screen explanation of when someone is getting frustrated, using sarcasm, or other communication cues that can be difficult for people with autism to pick up on. This real-time translation will empower people to pivot their conversation for greater effectiveness with their audience. AI will also be able to read the body language of people on video and help someone know when the audience is actively engaged or losing interest because they are fidgeting a lot or looking away from their monitor. These efforts will benefit everyone but will have a particularly positive impact on those that naturally are challenged with social cues and reading body language.
We still have a lot to learn about generative AI and we are only starting to see the beginnings of how it’s going to change our world. However, I am incredibly excited about how it’s already making a positive impact, especially for those that are neurodivergent. I know we may take a few steps back as we walk down the AI road, but I’m hopeful that platforms like Bard and chatGPT will only increase our ability to include people of differing backgrounds and perspectives and make them feel like they belong.
At Call Design we believe employees have the right to be Happy, Engaged, Fulfilled, and Aligned at work and that has to include intentional use of technology to bring in diverse voices. Reach out to us today if you’re interested in learning how you can build a similar culture for your contact center!
For decades the line between home-life and work-life has been blurring. This has only been accelerating as the equation of internet + mobile devices has caused many of us to stay connected well past our “working hours”. It’s a common habit to check your email on your phone as soon as you wake up, and right before you go to bed because you can’t miss a beat. Or maybe you have to “get ready for Monday” by working a few hours on the weekends because work doesn’t let you disconnect. It’s one thing to leverage working from home to provide you the flexibility to work odd hours that benefit your life. It’s a completely different thing to feel like you can’t disconnect and now work is impeding upon your home-life.
Burnout culture isn’t unique to either in-office or at-home employees. However, what is unique for those that work from home is the fact that those blurred lines become even harder to see when you are taking all your meetings, all project work, and all brainstorming from your home. When employees work from home I think it’s critical for leaders to remember that working from home is different. You, as the leader and as a company, are impacting their homes and their families in ways that you don’t when they work in an office. Simply put, working from home is more than just work, it’s personal.
When you work in an office you have a commute that allows you to decompress and process the day a bit. For those of us that are introverts, it gives us an opportunity to recharge and get ready for jumping into family life. However, when you work from home your commute becomes the 20 feet between your office door and the kitchen. You have no downtime to decompress, and this has been especially true when our families are on the other side of the office door and need help with X things before our last meeting is even done.
Not only do you get the benefit of decompressing on the commute home, but so does your family. Instead, when you work from home your family gets the raw consequences of every meeting. There have been plenty of times that my wife has just sat there patiently as I dropped all of my frustrations from the last meeting right into her lap. I may have done that to some extent if I worked in the office, but not as much as I do knowing she’s just on the other side of my office.
Getting it unfiltered like that also means the families become even more invested in the employee’s work environment. When the employee comes out of meetings talking about how they “love working with so-and-so because they ask great questions and keep the meeting on agenda”, it may not be exciting to their family, but you better believe the organization will be perceived as a positive influence on not just the employee but the family as a whole. Of course, when they come out complaining that “so-and-so once again forgot about blah blah blah” their family is more likely to see the organization in a negative light and encourage the employee to leave for something healthier.
Lastly, I think it’s important for leaders to remember that the home is a sacred space, and work, whether welcomed or not, has invaded that space. When our direct reports turn on their cameras and we see their homes we see another part of who they are. We get to know them better, and to some extent, they have become vulnerable because of it. They may be embarrassed that they don’t have a dedicated space and instead you are in their kitchen seeing every dirty dish in the sink. They may not have mentioned before they play board games every Monday night, but now you can see all +50 games on the shelves behind them. And while you may love getting to see their kids and dogs every day, they feel like you think less of them because they are constantly being interrupted. Working from home turns “why don’t we meet in the conference room to discuss” into “why don’t I come to your dining room table and we can chat about this while your kids ask ‘what’s for dinner’”.
Working from home is amazing and has helped many of us create a more personalized work/life balance. However, as leaders, we must remember that the nature of our relationship with our direct reports, their families, and their homes changes when they work from home. We must remember that working from home is more than just work, it’s personal.
With all the layoffs in the news, your team may be assuming the worst. In a challenging environment, those assumptions are additional stress that your team doesn’t need.
It was only 90 days ago that we found out Twitter was laying off roughly half of its workforce, and the layoff stories haven’t stopped since then. Meta, Salesforce, Amazon, Microsoft of course make headlines, and we all know of smaller scale (but still painful) layoffs within the contact center industry– we’ve got the posts on our LinkedIn timelines to prove it. A friend of mine directed me to Layoffstracker.com but a quick online search reveals many more layoff tracking sites, all showing the grim timeline. And even though I try to avoid doomscrolling in general, it sometimes seems like that’s the only kind of scrolling there is.
Every day my news feed brings another clickbait anecdote about how employees laid off from Google feel particularly poorly treated, either because of the way their termination was handled, or because they feel like they company saw them as “disposable”, or because of the perceived randomness of who got picked for a pink slip. The stories range from a new mother who received her layoff email hours after giving birth, to married couples who went from two incomes to none, to employees with 20 years of service getting a mass email instead of a call. I don’t mean to single out Google, but I do think their status as a household word has made them a particular focus in the media. Meanwhile, the employees who still have jobs are confused and upset, some suffering from survivor’s guilt.
On top of all that, some companies are announcing plans to pull remaining employees back into the office whether they like it or not. So many of us have come to value the flexibility that a work from home situation has afforded us. And while some employees say they’re fine with a hybrid home/office scenario, there’s something about the stories of large companies mandating that move that rubs a lot of employees the wrong way. A study by Monster shows that two-thirds of workers would quit if forced to return to the office! Hearing stories about large, well-known companies announcing the end or partial reduction of Work from Home is just another factor that is likely weighing on the minds of your team.
That level of stress isn’t just the employees’ problem though; the whole organization has a stake. Research confirms something that we see in colleagues and also feel in ourselves on a personal level: stress has an impact on productivity. Stressed employees are more likely to be absent, and more likely to exhibit presenteeism (which means that they sign in for work, but are less productive because of physical illness or mental stressors). You don’t need a study to tell you that stressed employees find it more difficult to focus on creating schedules, interacting positively with their co-workers, or delivering the kind of “delight” level experience that customers demand today.
Employee wellbeing has been a trending topic that is growing out of the overall interest in Employee Experience (EX). Most of us are on board with the idea that EX is important, not just because we care about our colleagues as fellow human beings. Our companies have a real material stake in EX because it impacts Customer Experience (CX), and ultimately the bottom line. So our companies have to have a real interest in employee mental wellbeing.
Maybe your company isn’t planning layoffs and you’re happy allowing employees to work from home. But is that something your teams know? Is it something they have a gut feeling to be true? The current economic climate, the layoff news, the ratio of tough calls to easy ones– it all makes now a great time to check in with your team.
Make time to meet with your team, treat that time as sacred.
One thing we’ve always said about the contact center is that you can always expect the unexpected. We’re already facing a staffing crisis, doing our best with the employees we’ve got. And then there are the unpredicted contact volume spikes, the unplanned absences, the many customer service fires that break out during the day. In spite of all this, meetings have to be treated as critical priorities. Making time to talk to your team as a group and as individuals sends a clear message that they matter. Feeling like easily-replaceable cogs in an uncaring machine is a common complaint in the tech company layoffs, and we don’t want that contagious feeling spreading to our teams.
Communicate what you can.
So your company may not even be considering layoffs or cutting off Work from Home. Even if that’s true, you can’t make promises that it would never happen, especially in this economic climate. Focus on what you can communicate with honesty. If upper management has given out any messages on this topic, share what you can. Thinking back to my time as a frontline agent, I might have taken messages from upper management with a grain of salt, but I still appreciated some transparency from my team leaders, even if they couldn’t make promises.
Ask them how they feel.
Most of us have one-on-ones that are scheduled as frequently as we can manage given the massive workload we have to deal with. Talking to our team members about goals, stats, and key performance indicators is certainly important, that’s a given. But can you make time in those meetings to mention the layoff elephant in the room, and ask just how your team member is feeling? This kind of communication can build a sense of trust, openness to collaboration, and a sense of being valued. Don’t underestimate the power of making a team member feel seen.
Listen actively.
It’s not a given that any of us can easily focus in a meeting, especially in a multitasking world. But making the time with a team member count is crucial. Actively listen to you what your team member is saying, don’t spend that time formulating a response. Make them feel safe to be as honest as they can, and be attentive to non-verbal cues that might tell a story of their own. This is especially important when bringing up a topic like the layoff trend. Active listening can go a long way to building trust and a feeling of partnership between you and your team.
Follow up.
Team members are a rich source of insight into the employee experience. If your team is telling you about layoff fears or any other stressor making it difficult to deliver great customer experience, listen and follow up. If there are causes of stress that your company can do something about, make sure that message is communicated to the right people. Then make sure to let your team know that they have been heard and their concerns have been made known to the decision makers.
Consider a Voice of the Employee (VoE) tool.
With more concern shown to Employee Engagement, we’ve seen many VoE solutions hit the market. Some of them measure employee sentiment by doing regular automated “How are you feeling” surveys that can run far more often than any of us could possibly schedule face to face meetings. These scores and survey results can become another valuable data point that gives insight into Employee Experience that is trackable in our performance dashboards. And it gives the team members another channel to tell us how they feel.
Nature hates a void, and that goes double for an informational void. Something will fill the empty space left by that lack of information, and because of human nature, it’s usually our worst assumptions. Don’t let the rumor mill interfere with the hard work you’ve invested into building your contact center operation. Now is a great time to check in with your team to let them know you feel some of same stresses they do, you’re listening, and you’ll be as transparent as you can be in these challenging times.
Throughout my career I’ve had the opportunity to lead and network with some amazing individuals and from time to time they have asked what it takes to move from Manager to Director. I think it’s one of the hardest transitions.
I’ve seen plenty of individual contributors get promoted to managers, not because they are solid leaders but because they are great contributors. They know what buttons to push, what processes to work through, and how to execute the role. Because of this, they see their value add to the organization in doing and executing vs. delegating or casting vision and this makes the transition into a director-level role incredibly challenging.
At a director level, or above, you need to be more comfortable delegating than doing. More comfortable making decisions than giving proposals, or possibly casting vision vs. following a direction. That isn’t to say those other skills aren’t still valuable and an important role in any job. However, the priority of these skills pivots and suddenly decision making > giving proposals, for example.
Here are a few tips that I’ve given to people looking to make the jump from Manager to Director.
One: Serve Your Team
The most important thing you need to know about leadership is that your primary job is to serve your team. Period. Bottom line. Notice that I didn’t say “directing is that your primary job…” or “managing” or even “holding people accountable…”. This can be applied at all levels, even as a manager, but the point is that you are there to serve.
What does that look like? It means keeping them informed of the larger trends in the organization they might not be aware of. Helping them see how their efforts are connected to the larger picture and the wins of the organization. Protecting them from outside forces that are toxic or counter-cultural to what you’re trying to achieve. Serving your team means that you realize they don’t work for you but you work for them and that means their success is more important than your own.
Two: Ask Questions and Listen
One of the greatest mistakes that new directors can make is thinking that they now need to have all the answers. People are coming to them to make decisions, and as I already highlighted decision making > giving proposals. Decision making is important but the best way to make decisions is to not just assume you have the right perfect answer out of the gate.
As a leader and director, you need to make sure you’re asking questions and lots of them. You likely aren’t in the weeds like you used to be and you also have a limited purview, we all do. So you need to take two steps 1) ask questions and 2) actually listen. Don’t listen to confirm your original answer. Don’t listen to poke holes and show weaknesses in the answers given. Listen to understand and see the issue from another person’s perspective. You likely know your perspective backward and forwards, but you need to do the heavy lifting of trying to see from another person’s perspective. That only happens when we get comfortable asking questions and then actually listening.
Three: Pull Your Head Up
As an individual contributor, and as a manager, you likely added value by looking down. Looking at your particular job and executing it well. Looking in on your team and meeting the needs of your direct reports. As a director though, you need to pull your head up and look around. This isn’t to say you stop paying attention to your team (see above about serving and listening!), but as a director you need to stop only looking at your team and consider the larger lay of the land.
You need to lift your head up and see how your team is interacting with other teams and how they are perceived amongst those teams. You need to lift your head up and see where you and your team sit in your field. Are you on the cutting edge or way behind, or do you even have access to what others are doing in your field? You need to lift your head up and try to understand where your team, organization, and field are going. What’s up next and how are you and your team going to get there? As a director you need to get comfortable casting vision and to do that you need to be looking towards a horizon, not at the details of the ground in front of you.
Moving from a manager to a director is hard. It’s a large pivot, that requires new skills, especially if leadership wasn’t a focus in your manager role. However, if you realize that what made you successful as a manager won’t make you successful as a director, then you are taking the first steps to jump to director!
As we get back to work for the start of 2023, we do so not only with familiar 2022 challenges still hanging around, but with the added prospect of economic downturn looming ahead. While a possible recession could have us asking if we can afford the very best contact center performance, we should be asking if we can afford not to make the contact center a top priority. Let’s look at the dawn of 2023 as an opportunity to face uncertainty and volatility with some resolutions to make the contact center thrive.
Resolution 1 – Fight the Recession with Great Customer Experience
The last few months have seen multiplying predictions of a slowing economy coming in 2023; but rather than waiting to react, it’s a chance to be proactive when it comes to Customer Experience. The competition for customer loyalty has been fierce enough even before we had the specter of a downturn. As consumers tighten their budgets, customer retention will be determined to an ever larger extent by the highest level of Customer Experience (CX).
Customers now demand to be met on the channel of their choice with an excellent, personalized experience. Great experiences build lasting customer relationships, while substandard experiences are now more likely than ever to not only end a relationship, they’re also more likely to be shared on social media. While personalization and omnichannel integration used to be nice-to-have items on many contact centers’ wish lists, 2023 customers will see them as must-haves.
Customers have become accustomed to algorithms anticipating their desired content and will hardly put up with unnecessarily long interactions where they aren’t recognized or have to repeat themselves over and over. They expect that their complex customer journeys are seamless from your website and across multiple contact channels.
The good news is that for contact centers, these journeys present not only a larger range of ways to reach your customers, but also a chance to track omnichannel interactions and gain insights into who your customers are and what they want. Mining this valuable data gives you the ability to create initiatives for even more personalized customer experiences.
A crucial part of that personalization is not just an omnichannel technical solution, but also successful, smart interactions on every channel– especially when an agent is required. The foundation of great Customer Experience is equally great Employee Experience, ensuring that agents are happy and fulfilled at work. Which brings us to our next resolution:
Resolution 2 – Invest in your Employees
Fully empowered employees at every level are the best pro-active way to ensure a positive customer experience
In 2022 we couldn’t get away from stories about the Great Resignation and Quiet Quitting; they really got the conversation going about Employee Experience. Will 2023 be the year that contact center employees are universally recognized as the critical assets they can be? Even with all the capabilities of a powerful omnichannel technological solution at your disposal, today’s customers aren’t satisfied by a live interaction with an agent who is disengaged, doesn’t have answers at their disposal, or conducts the entire interaction from a generic script. Fully empowered employees at every level are the best pro-active way to ensure a positive customer experience: happy agents create better experiences for customers, informed supervisors manage their teams to success, insightful WFM analysts generate the accurate forecasts and optimal schedules that enable the center to run efficiently.
However, they all must be recognized as value creators, critical to your ability to deliver great CX. Once this recognition becomes part of your culture from front line to C-suite, your organization can understand that your employees are the best place to invest– especially in times of economic turmoil. This means giving your employees the tools that enable them to perform at the highest level and meet your customers where they want to be met. Plus, customers want to be met with contextual information needed to create personalized experiences, and with the answers needed for real resolution.
And we’re not talking about agents only. The need for the right toolset includes all of your employees including agents, team leads, executives, and the WFM team. Agents can benefit from AI-assisted Knowledge Management that gives them the guidance they need when they need it. Team leads need Gamification/Performance Management that helps them coach effectively and reward top performers. And the WFM Team can take advantage of Workforce Management solutions that automate manual tasks, freeing the team to think strategically and focus on transformative processes like truly flexible scheduling.
Similar to the omnichannel routing solutions, technology can be a great thing, but to get the best Employee Experience, you must also invest in the human side of the equation. Without the right training to make the technology come to life, we can’t achieve the level of true transformational change needed for the coming year. And just as personalization is expected by customers, employees want an experience that fits their needs, such as customized expert training that can be delivered online on on-site where needed, digital training that is available online anytime employees need it, or AI-assisted training delivery systems that automatically send the module that an agent needs at the time that’s best for the agent and also protects service level.
But when it comes to transformation that makes a real difference and gets attention at the highest levels of your organization, you’ve got to aim for the right target:
Resolution 3 – Move from Optimization to Transformation
For CX and EX in the coming year, not only is there room for optimism—it’s a must. As the economic environment changes, we must have the resolve to change in substantive ways to meet the challenges that 2023 will bring. According to a BCG survey from November 2022, a majority of organizations plan to increase their investments in digital transformation in spite of the fact that they complain that they don’t receive help in prioritizing the steps of transformation. The first step has to be committing to transformation that creates a new level of EX and CX, not just reinforcing existing processes.
Investing in the best Workforce Management tools may give our WFM team the ability to game out new scheduling strategies, but without the will to actually implement the best of those scheduling strategies, there’s no transformative flexibility to improve employee engagement with better work/life balance. Having the best performance scorecards, fully connected to Quality Management and other important systems is a powerful achievement in itself, but without the commitment to act on those insights with coaching and meaningful recognition for top performers, there is no moving the needle on Customer Experience in a way that goes beyond business as usual.
Digital-based training is always there when needed, but if training isn’t aligned with the WFM team so that it’s delivered automatically at the best-possible time, there’s no transformative increase in employee experience coupled with the protection of customer experience. And beyond the inbound front office, just think of opportunities for efficiency and performance gains that might be achieved by extending the transformation strategies and WEM tools into the outbound and back office areas. Simply put, don’t just add technology without the right mindset for change. With the right cultural commitment to innovation, everyone can feel connected to the transformation effort, being fully aware of the key role they play in making the organization a great place to work and a trusted partner for its customers.
These are just three possible resolutions for new year. We’re already a week into 2023, and maybe not all of our resolutions are getting off to a great start, but one area where we can’t afford to fail is finding new levels of success in the contact center. There’s nothing inherently magical about the start of the new year, it simply gives us a convenient point to try something new. But we can make it special by committing to being proactive in preparing for whatever 2023 might have in store for us.
If you’re looking for ways to make your contact center even better this year, Call Design can help. We’ve got the tools and consulting skills to make your resolutions a reality, whether you’re looking to move from spreadsheets to an automatable Forecasting/Scheduling solution, searching for a CX platform that enables better customer experiences, or meaningful ways to improve agent engagement for better employee experience.
