Investment in people is the most powerful asset and the best decision one can make. This powerful asset is able to deliver amazing solutions and projects abundant in success.
Mike Mills, Senior Vice President, Global BPO Sales, Contract Center Division at CGS agrees, and in the latest report of CGS, BPO called “Look Ahead” reveals the three topics that readers are the most interested in. Management, people and performance, can you believe it?
I think we can all believe it since the recent technology developments are not enough besides their impact on the outsourcing industry. This report also revealed what outsourcing clients are looking for. They are looking for low agent turnover, increased agent tenure, and information about the client’s business, irremovable and eternal training plus performance measurement programs.
Many are wondering how to attract talents and later hold on to. Well, think about what you offer for a moment. Look into the salary, the rewards afterward, the career advancement, the perks, the environment… Are they equally as good as your competition? Are they in fact good? Relevant candidates are hard to find. To be more precise 73 percent of the employers face this problem annually.
Rule number one: Invest
Your business will bring success if youdecide to invest in your agents. Think about what you are going to offer thembefore interviewing them. Keep up with the latest trends and inform yourself.Later, inform your potential applicants during the recruiting process.
Unfortunately, good candidates are hard to find and before offering the world to them you should do a little research. Take a lot at their experience and the skills they have. Technical and soft skills are the parts you should focus on the most. Test their language abilities later and check their employment background. Ask about previous challenges and require an explanation about one or two issues they perfectly solve.
That is enough about recruiting; let’s go back to rule number one. Nowadays, the work should be really fun and interactive. A lot of employees want to connect to the company and you should allow them. Mills also suggests transparency and open communication during the hiring process while talking about training your agents.
Rule number two: Positive Work Environment
Find and hire managers who are able to create a positive culture. Stability, transparency, consistency, quality, and continuity should come out of every manager who is worried and wants to make the company’s reputation flawless.
Clear goals, awards and pay for performance system is a must, adds Mills. You, as the owner, bring increased productivity thus big revenue thanks to them. Also let’s not ignore the fact that a healthy competition is born out of this decision as well, an additional success for each employee thus for the company.
Insert mentorship programs, one- on- onemeetings, volunteering chances and innovative work assignments. Ignoreassignments that are boring or repetitive.
Rule number three: Turnaround time remainsnumber one priority
Customer satisfaction is the most important thing after all. Mills says that KPI’s are playing a crucial role here. He also reveals that management is the one that should create a balance between the people, the process and the tools. If the balance is there, then the success will be there as well. Despite what type of interaction is involved, a positive role while resolving an issue must be given at any cost.
Your contact center will give the wanted results only if these three metrics are included. The first is the average speed to answer or ASA. Achieving the first KPI requires strong workforce management, proper forecast, and mitigating absenteeism. Second, comes the average handle time or AHT. Proper training, leadership and good management are crucial here. Third fist call resolution or FCR. The last but not least KPI is for sure critical especially because it achieves and maintains high levels of customer satisfaction. This metric also requires proper training and coaching.