![\"Office](\"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/pra-78764413.jpg\")
\nTop executive challenges<\/b><\/p>\n
Of course, stress is nothing new, but agents today are far more vocal in raising concerns about it.\u00a0 This poses some tough challenges for contact centre supervisors as well as for senior managers responsible for customer experience. Top of the list for managers are:<\/p>\n
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- Recruitment and retention \u2013 how do you keep your existing staff happy while attracting new talent<\/a> with the right skills to best serve your customers?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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- Employee onboarding – once hired, the pressure is on to motivate workers\u2014whether remote or in office\u2013while arming them with the competitive knowledge they need to thrive in their jobs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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- Performance coaching \u2013 \u2018out of sight\u2019 should definitely not mean \u2018out of mind\u2019.\u00a0 With the rise of hybrid working, regular performance coaching and mentoring are now more important than ever before.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
7 essential elements of an effective wellbeing strategy<\/b><\/p>\n
So what can supervisors and senior managers do to build a happy and productive team?\u00a0 Here are a few ideas to getting started:<\/p>\n
1. Make agents feel valued<\/b>\u00a0\u2013 when agents feel valued, their work is infinitely more meaningful and less stressful.\u00a0 Agent pay actually ranks third when it comes to the top reasons for leaving after \u2018being unhappy in job\u2019 (36%) and \u2018limited growth opportunities\u2019 (26%).[i]<\/span><\/a>\u00a0Personalised training that encourages individual strengths while addressing areas for improvement and clear career paths are the way to make agents feel more valued.<\/p>\n
2. Keep pushing flexibility further \u2013 <\/b>after higher pay, which is at the top of agents\u2019 wish list, they next want flexibility (at 34%)[ii]<\/span><\/a>\u00a0Give agents the autonomy to control their own working day through agent-driven scheduling processes and real-time flexibility to accommodate the unexpected.\u00a0 Take away the burden of managing schedule changes, shift swaps or overtime and time-off requests by introducing the latest mobile self-service chatbots for agents.\u00a0 It\u2019s like giving them a powerful time management tool in the palm of their hand.<\/p>\n
3. Invest in agent-empowering technologies \u2013<\/b>\u00a0based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning.\u00a0 Our own research tells us that agents welcome innovative AI tech as a means to free them from tedious tasks (40%) and focus on more fulfilling and higher-value service that only experienced human agents can provide (30%).[iii]<\/span><\/a>\u00a0Personalised dashboards are an added bonus for remote-working teams, enabling agents to track their own\u00a0performance, stay focused, and remain motivated.<\/p>\n
4. Strengthen <\/b>emotional connectedness<\/b> \u2013 asking agents how they feel and what they are doing to de-stress might sound obvious but with so many other distractions away from the traditional office environment, very few supervisors actually do it.\u00a0 Encourage supervisors to build regular one-to-one sessions into their schedule to increase your agents\u2019 sense of belonging–then maximise analytics to close the wellbeing loop.\u00a0 The latest VoE (voice of the employee) analytics capture and analyse how frontline staff are feeling in order to identify agents who are struggling, while desktop analytics uncover clunky IT systems that are slowing them down.<\/p>\n
5. Aim for easier \u2013 <\/b>as agents deal with more complex customer issues, navigating their way around new technology is essential. And it starts with good training.\u00a0 Do your agents know what technology they have to make their lives easier and do they know how to use it?\u00a0 Take a closer look at your systems.\u00a0 Aim to give agents a consolidated view of customer information all on one screen, then embed VoC (voice of the customer) analytics to support more meaningful, empathetic interactions.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
6. Focus on performance coaching<\/b>\u00a0\u2013 make mentoring and personal development a priority and take a personalised approach by providing plenty of upskilling opportunities to boost agent confidence and enhance their sense of wellbeing.<\/p>\n
Invest in automated performance coaching solutions and make them an intrinsic part of your staff engagement programme, helping to identify skills gaps, individual areas of struggle, successes and opportunities for personal development.<\/p>\n
7. Be a connected enterprise <\/b>\u2013 by developing joined-up technology, processes, information and thinking to help staff excel in their roles.\u00a0 Create a connected culture to collectively impact positive customer outcomes that drive opportunities for organisational growth.<\/p>\n
Grab your copy of Calabrio\u2019s brand new digital guide\u00a0\u201cWorkforce Wellbeing Recovery Kit:\u00a0Practical Strategies & Resources to Turn Workforce Wellbeing into Your Competitive Advantage.\u201d\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0It’s a practical guide that reinforces the take-aways of this current series of articles while providing additional tips to future-proof your wellbeing strategy.<\/p>\n
About the Author<\/strong><\/p>\n
Ross Daniels is Chief Marketing Officer at\u00a0<\/b>Calabrio<\/b><\/a><\/b><\/p>\n
![\"Ross](\"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/ross-daniels-calabrio.jpg\")
Calabrio is the customer experience intelligence company that empowers organisations to enrich human interactions. The scalability of our cloud platform allows for quick deployment of remote work models\u2014and it gives our customers precise control over both operating costs and customer satisfaction levels. Our AI-driven analytics tools make it easy for contact centres to uncover customer sentiment and share compelling insights with other parts of the organisation. Customers choose Calabrio because we understand their needs and provide a best-in-class experience, from implementation to ongoing support. Find more at calabrio.com\/<\/a>\u00a0and follow\u00a0@Calabrio<\/a>\u00a0on Twitter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Personal and organisational growth go hand in hand.\u00a0 Ross Daniels at Calabrio shares his top tips for an effective wellbeing programme to build a happy and productive team..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":541,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[181,186,172],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32934"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/541"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32934"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32934\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32942,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32934\/revisions\/32942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
- Performance coaching \u2013 \u2018out of sight\u2019 should definitely not mean \u2018out of mind\u2019.\u00a0 With the rise of hybrid working, regular performance coaching and mentoring are now more important than ever before.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Employee onboarding – once hired, the pressure is on to motivate workers\u2014whether remote or in office\u2013while arming them with the competitive knowledge they need to thrive in their jobs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n