Become an Attitude Adjuster

There are no shortage of good reasons why managers or coaches should care about the morale of the workers they are responsible for. Despite the difficulties that work against high morale in a contact center environment, there are solutions. ere are some important measures to boost the morale of your team.

by Peggy Carlaw

In contact centers where morale is high, employees approach their work with energy, enthusiasm, and willingness to succeed. They want to come to work, or at least are enthusiastic about work once they get there. On the other hand, when morale is low in a contact center, employees can become bored, discouraged, and lethargic.

It's not impossible to have high productivity and decent bottom-line results in an environment where morale is low, but it is unlikely. As a coach (or a manager who routinely coaches employees), you should care about how your employees feel, if for no other reason than because it's the right thing to do. But even if you're not a convert to that way of thinking and that style of management, here are some other good reasons for you to care about your employees' morale.

High morale leads to...

High morale in a contact center environment can lead to:

• Increased job satisfaction
• Lower turnover rates
• Higher productivity
• Reduced absenteeism
• Higher ownership of customer concerns
• Less job-related stress
• Increased identification with the company's mission
• Increased customer loyalty

It's good for you, it's good for them-and it's good for the bottom line. In a survey conducted by David H. Master, the author of Practice What You Preach (Free Press, 2001), it was found that happy divisions outperformed unhappy ones by as much as 42 percent.

It's easy to make the assumption that the key to higher morale is simply to give the agents what they want. But that isn't always the case. What they want-or think they want-may be minimal work, lots of play, and plenty of pay. But we've found in a number of centers that what really makes employees thrive is a dynamic, positive environment in which agents are continually learning and their performance is continually improving.

So how do you make this happen? Good question!

It's important for you as the manager or coach to create and foster a climate of enthusiasm, open communication, and active participation. It's in this kind of environment that agents will be productive and committed to your goals. You'll find that a little goes a long way: if employees see you-and the organization as a whole-making an effort to meet their needs and treat them well, they'll be inclined to give you their best efforts.

On the other hand, if you create a climate of mistrust and uncertainty, your agents will tend to do just enough to get by. And they'll probably only do that until it becomes more appealing to get by at some other company.

Of course, in almost every organization there are some "get by" people who will always be "get by" people no matter what you do to encourage, inspire, motivate, and transform them. If you're serious about improving the morale of your team, the time may come when you need to give stern warnings to those agents whose attitudes are weighing down the morale of the group. Then, if they continue to create problems, it may be best to terminate them.

Difficulties...and solutions

There are a number of important measures you can take to boost the morale of your team. Let's look at some difficulties that are inherent in a contact center environment and some things you can do to address them.

Repetitious tasks:

• Give agents regular breaks
• Let agents rotate on and off multiple projects

Pressure to get through calls quickly:

• Coach agents to skillfully shorten call length
• Slow down the predictive dialer
• Give agents occasional stretch breaks

Demanding or dissatisfied customers:

• Train agents to skillfully handle challenging customers
• Rotate agents to other jobs where they can talk to some nicer folks

Feeling of being tied to workstaton:

• Have one or more reps rotate on the floor to cover people who need a break
• Let agents stand up while working
• In addition to regular breaks, give each agent additional time when they can be logged off without explaining why

Little or no job security:

Give agents more security by putting them on a career path

Help agents plan ahead (for example, if you know a project is going to be ending in a month, let them know)

Feeling of not being appreciated:

• Tell your agents-sincerely, powerfully, and continuously-that their efforts are highly valued by you and the organization
• Give agents frequent coaching with lots of praise
• Bring in senior managers for lunch once a quarter for a company update and Q&A session
• Walk around the work floor on a regular basis, talking to the agents and asking how the job is going, what the customers are saying, what you can do to make their job easier, etc.

Peggy Carlaw is an author, customer service consultant, and principal with Impact Learning Systems, a customer service training company. Peggy regularly blogs at the ILS Customer Service Blog and actively supports socially responsible movements including the World Harmony Run.

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