If You’re Happy & You Know It: Positivity in the Contact Centre

How to bring the best out of your contact centre agents by cultivating a motivating workspace.

It’s a well-known fact that happy workers are better workers. According to statistics listed by the Canada Human Resources Center, unhappy employees cost North American businesses over $350 billion dollars each year in lost productivity. But creating a positive work environment in the contact centre is easier said than done.

Contact centres have a reputation for being tense environments and agents who feel cloistered, frustrated or underappreciated at work will underperform, almost without fail. Help bring out the best in your contact centre agents using these tips for cultivating a motivating workspace.

Create a Climate that Fosters Intrinsic Motivation

Motivation is key when it comes to high performance of any sort. However, many don’t consider the different types of motivation and how they can affect performance in the long-term. The majority of academic and professional environments focus on extrinsic motivators, that is, a reward that is contingent upon acceptable performance. The reward can be in the form of a good mark on an exam, a letter of recommendation, or in the case of many employees, a salary.

While extrinsic motivation can be a great boost in the short term, intrinsically motivated people generally value the quality of their work more and feel happier when working. Intrinsic motivation is when a person works because they find a sense of purpose in what they are doing. Here are a couple of ways to encourage intrinsic motivation in the contact centre:

• Engage new agents in thorough training from the start. Assign a few projects or tasks that allow the new employee to overachieve, creating a sense of confidence in their abilities.
• Ensure that technology and systems are up-to-date so that agents are enabled to perform their best rather than hindered by the environment.
• Foster a “growth mindset.” This means encouraging agents to attribute their success to hard work rather than luck, chance or innate ability. Managers can do this by setting an example of seeking out new challenges and learning from mistakes.

Make Employees Comfortable

It should go without saying, but agents that are lacking basic physical and mental comforts will underperform in the contact centre. While this may seem like a given, many workspaces don’t accommodate small changes that could make a big difference to an employee. The following are just a few pointers for keeping agents comfortable:

• Maintain clean facilities. Toilet facilities should be cleaned daily and water coolers should never be allowed to go empty.
• Cater an in-house lunch. If agents spend the majority of their lunch break travelling from work to wherever they have lunch, they won’t feel rested when they return. Consider hiring a catering company for in-house lunch at least one day a week.
• Allow flexible hours. According to happiness research, commuting is most harmful daily activity for happiness. If employees commute through rush hour traffic, they’ll arrive at work already in a bad mood. Give agents the option to arrive an hour or two late – or early – to avoid traffic, given they’ll stay in the contact centre later to make up the time.
• Facilitate regular calisthenics. Not only is sitting for long periods of time bad for health, but the positive emotional effects of even short bouts of exercise are well-documented. Encourage agents to move around at regular intervals with group calisthenics or a quick walk around the block.

Foster a Fun Environment

Employees are more likely to be intrinsically motivated when there is an element of fun and creativity in their work. Fostering a fun environment in the contact centre will help agents feel enthusiastic about their work and develop a greater sense of personal responsibility. Some ways to create a fun workspace can include:

• Make games out of work whenever possible. Consider breaking agents into teams and facilitating light-hearted competitions based on achieving first-contact resolution or receiving the most positive customer feedback.
• Celebrate individual and group successes. Contact centre managers should be sure to let agents know that their efforts are noticed and appreciated. Sometimes, it’s okay to forget about ‘pulling rank’ and take the whole team out for a drink after a great week.
• Encourage employees to connect. By fostering a sense of connection between agents, managers can also encourage agents to connect with customers on an interpersonal level. The result is better customer service as well as happier agents.

Creating a positive environment in the contact centre can reflect in company culture far beyond the workspace itself. Intrinsically motivated agents will be more reliable as employees and better performers, while keeping agents comfortable and excited about work helps ensure that they are willing and able to provide outstanding customer service. Remember that a happy agent is a productive agent. Never underestimate the power of a positive environment.