One-Up Agent Morale: How to Create a Great Contact Centre Culture

Use these five simple rules to develop an enthusing workspace culture.

We really can’t say it enough: a happy employee is a productive employee.

According to a 2012 Net Impact report, 88 percent of employees believe that having a positive atmosphere in the workplace is crucial. And with global concerns for employee happiness on the rise, employers should be more concerned than ever about creating a positive culture in the workplace to hold onto their workers, who can jump ship for more appealing offers at any time. In fact, the Conference Board of Canada reports that national voluntary employee turnover rates are on the rise, increasing from 6.1 percent to 7.3 percent from 2010 to 2013.

Just as keeping a returning customer is more profitable than converting a new one, keeping your current employees is cheaper than hiring new ones.

Creating a great culture in the contact centre can go a long way toward minimizing employee turnover rates while maximizing employee productivity. Follow these five simple rules for cultivating an unmatched workplace culture for better, happier agents.

1. Communicate a Strong Mission

If contact centre managers aren’t passionate about their company’s mission, agents can hardly be expected to pick up where they left off.

While some agents may understand the inherent need for excellent customer service, for others, their job may simply be just that — a means to an end. By being enthusiastic about your mission from day one of each agent’s employment, you can enthuse your staff and provide a deeper sense of purpose to contact centre work.

Remember that energy is contagious.

2. Practice Excellent Communication Skills

One major source of workplace discontent is employees who feel as if their needs aren’t heard or responded to in a timely and professional manner.

If agents feel like they can’t reasonably express their concerns or preferences to upper management, they can hold back valuable opinions about areas for improvement, as well as build up resentment. In addition to simply responding to agent preferences and areas of discontent, managers can catch potential problems early on by prompting the discussion themselves, inquiring about agent satisfaction on a regular basis to keep up-to-date on employee morale.

3. Empower Agents

Agent empowerment can positively impact employee performance, as well as improve overall attitudes in the workplace. Empowering your agents can mean anything from increasing their autonomy so that they have the power to make on-the-spot decisions that may improve customer satisfaction, to maintaining up-to-date technology that prepares agents for service on a variety of channels.

Don’t forget to incentivize agents with rewards programs and good old-fashioned employee recognition.

4. Identify Red Flags

Although contact centre managers should work to keep employee turnover at minimal rates, it’s also their job to maintain a positive company culture by eliminating individuals who may negatively affect the contact centre.

Identifying red flags that might indicate a danger to the positive culture you’re trying to create can help you solve potential problems before they start. Employees with poor work attitudes, consistently average or below average performance, or who don’t seem to understand or believe in your company’s mission should be let go if they can’t become better contributors.

5. Keep Performance Reviews as Objective as Possible

If employees lose confidence in a company’s ability to objectively measure their performance, they often experience significant drops in morale.

To be as objective as possible in performance reviews, be sure that your agents’ job descriptors are clear and measurable. When evaluating an increase or decrease in performance, reference hard data from calls you’ve observed or customer satisfaction reviews. Be sure to set realistic standards for agents, and while managers may have better rapport with some employees than others, take special care to ensure that agents are evaluated on equal grounds.

Communicating effectively and empowering agents are critical steps in developing a great culture in the workspace. Remember to value and recognize your agents, and prioritize the culture you create in the contact centre. Any threats to that culture in the form of negative attitudes or inconsistent values should either be encouraged to rise to the role or eliminated, and of course, objectivity is a must.

For more information on how to develop a great contact centre culture to maximize agent performance, download our free white paper.