Recruiting and retaining talented staff - Presented at Frost & Sulllivans Contact 2011

ATA ATA -- "Australia’s peak body for the Contact Centre Industry“"Australia’s peak body for the Contact Centre Industry“ATA ATA -- "Australia’s peak body for the Contact Centre Industry“"Australia’s peak body for the Contact Centre Industry“

Understanding the secret recipeUnderstanding the secret recipe

Recruiting and Retaining Recruiting and Retaining

Talented StaffTalented Staff

ATA ATA -- "Australia’s peak body for the Contact Centre Industry“"Australia’s peak body for the Contact Centre Industry“

Presented by:Presented by:

Steve Mitchinson, Immediate Past Chairperson, ATASteve Mitchinson, Immediate Past Chairperson, ATA

Associate DirectorAssociate Director, , Limebridge AustraliaLimebridge Australia


The Key Questions

1. Why would a smart, energetic, ambitious

person want to work for your company?

2. Why would a smart, energetic, ambitious

person want to leave your company?


Gaining and Retaining Talented Staff

The universal imperative to get more for less, means

we must discover new ways of engaging with HR

and use HR analytics to create value from our

workforce

ATA ATA -- "Australia’s peak body for the Contact Centre Industry“"Australia’s peak body for the Contact Centre Industry“

The # 1 Challenge

Gaining & Retaining talent is the #1 Challenge -

Globally

If you and your head of HR haven’t recently

discussed ideas for using data to generate a talent

strategy that’s more closely linked to business results,

it’s time to start. Mckinsey Quarterly March 2011


Obstacles to effective talent managementFrom Making Talent a Strategic Priority, McKinsey Quarterly


It’s unusual for business or HR leaders to spot pain points on their own.

A strong partnership is essential in order to identify and prioritise issues that affect the relationships between people challenges and business results

HR and the business

– the importancee of the partnership


Is there a disconnection with HR

What we believe:

• HR lacks the capabilities to develop talent strategies aligned to my business objectives

• HR is an administrative business unit – not a strategic partner

• HR is not held accountable for the success/failure of talent management initiatives

• HR Lacks the authority/respect to influence the way people are managed

• HR does not provide enough support for line managers

58%

60%

64%

47%

58%


HR – How can they help

• Informing & Implementing Organisational

Strategy

• Bring to the planning cycle sound knowledge of

contemporary HR practices and innovative

solutions

• Being in touch with marketplace

• Being in touch with staff needs and expectations

15/04/2011 www.teamredsolutions.com.au


HR – How can they help

• Creating engagement & trust by demonstrating HR’s value to staff e.g. Employee benefits

• Delivering strategies that ensure remuneration is down the list of priorities

• Make the business their office - visible and pro-active

There is no longer a place for a caretaker or custodial HR role

HR must suggest opportunities to the business - not wait to be asked



How can we recruit better

Where do we look

Who could we partner with

How do we onboard new staff

First impressions are critical



Summation

HR should not be administrators – they should be actively

advising CEO’s and others on how to leverage the human

capital they have to build a culture of excellence - one

that delivers sustainable competitive advantage

CEO’s should be endorsing and promoting those outcomes

as the goals of HR

As managers we must engage with HR more effectively



Retaining Talented StaffRetaining Talented Staff


What does it mean to be

“engaged”

A heightened emotional and intellectual connection an employee has for his/her job, organisation, manager or co-workers that, in turn, influences him/her to apply additional discretionary effort to his/her work.

In a nutshell…Engaged people like Engaged people like coming coming to work,to work,

and are inspired to and are inspired to do do their besttheir best!


Drivers of Employee Engagement

Trust & IntegrityPersonal

relationship with my Manager

Relationships withCo-workers /

Team members

Employee Development

Career / GrowthOpportunities

The Type of work Pride in the BrandDirect links between

Individual & CompanyPerformance

There are many things we can do to create an engaged workforce…



The Culture


Culture : Why it is important

There is volume of research showing a strong

correlation between:

1. Absenteeism and staff engagement.

1. Staff engagement and profitability.

So just how do you build and maintain a positive

workplace culture and deliver improved employee

effectiveness?

What are others doing?


Culture : Why it is important

• It is suggested less than 30% of employees are engaged in their jobs.

• Engaged employees are 87 percent less likely to leave the organisation.

• 84% of staff believe they can positively impact the organization's quality if given the opportunity

• 72 percent want to optimize service delivery.

• Over a research period share prices of organisations with engaged employees raised an average of 16 percent. The industry average was a mere 6 percent!


The cultural dilemma

Want to:

Strive for Excellence

Be creative

Co-operative

Build relationships

Want staff to:

Take ownership

Maintain standards

Provide feedback

Co-operate with others

Opposed to new ideas

Compete with others

Avoid blame

Don’t rock boat

Structure at odds with

Incentives

Communication norms at

odds with constructive

norms

Apprehensive

Approval seeking

Critical & blaming

Competing with each

other

Low motivation

Low role clarity

Low co-ordination

Low adaptation

Non constructive

behaviours

Service does not meet

expectations

Inconsistent responses

Likely to leave if given a

choice

Culture

Leadership

Culture

Organisational Practices

Leadership Style

Internal

Customer (thinks)

IntentionsIntentions RealityReality OutcomesOutcomes


What do employees think they can

affect.....if you engage them


Wisdom of Spencer -Employees leave their managers, not their employers

How can we strengthen the capacity to deal with

• Is Leadership and Management accountable

• How can we strengthen the capacity to deal with

change

• Is leadership acting as the eyes and ears of the

enterprise on staff issues

• Do we provide briefings and work with our

leadership teams for communication of consistent

and timely messages


•What is it worth to reduce absences and turnover in our Enterprise

•How do we avoid the “on the job retirees” - people don't show up for

work even when they do

•How do we make my Enterprise the place where people want to be?

•How do we interpret, and manage absenteeism, sick leave and

separations?

•How do we control absenteeism through positive incentives?

•How do we develop an actionable strategy (what to do) and a tactical

(how to do it) work plan to reduce absenteeism employee turnover

•How do we track results and make corrections when deviations

between expected and actual results occur?

Questions we might want to ask....



Corporate & Social

Responsibility


Corporate & Social Responsibility

Employees now cite corporate responsibility issues as one of their key criteria when choosing an employer - an organisation’s ability to retain employees may depend on its ability to align business practices with employees’ values

• 84 per cent of employees want to work in an environmentally-

friendly office.

• 90 per cent of women and 78 per cent of men believe their employer

should have the environment at the top of mind.

• Over 80% 0f 18 - 49 year-olds want to work in a ‘green’ office


DisengagementDisengagement PurposefulnessPurposefulness

ProcrastinationProcrastination DistractionDistraction

FF

OO

CC

UU

SS

ENERGYENERGY

High

Low

Low High

Employee Engagement Challenge


Possible Approaches

Managerial interventions

Communication interventions

Organisational interventions


Managerial interventions

Keeping promises & following through - Walk the Talk

Open and honest

Telling it like it is – balance +ve & -ve

Visibly rewarding the right people - for the right reasons


Communication Interventions

Building one on one relationships and trust

Demonstrating how individuals contribute to

organisational goals (strategic communications)

Employee Surveys

Consistent, regular face to face communication

Timely and honest responses to what is heard from

employees – “Captain Rumour”


Organisational Interventions

Improve empowerment – flatten hierarchies

Increase autonomy and decision-making authority

Use cross-functional teams & focus groups

Structured development and effective career mapping


The benefits of engagement

Opportunity to develop our future leaders

Increased staff satisfaction

Lower staff acquisition, training and

attrition costs

Improved customer satisfaction

Increased customer profitability and

repeat purchasing.

Opportunity to develop our future leaders

Improved productivity

Increased profits

ATA ATA -- "Australia’s peak body for the Contact Centre Industry“"Australia’s peak body for the Contact Centre Industry“ATA ATA -- "Australia’s peak body for the Contact Centre Industry“"Australia’s peak body for the Contact Centre Industry“c) Push me to drink and listen to death metal music.

1) On my way to work in the call centre, I usually…

a) Feel very excited and empowered about helping customers.

b) Pop a Xanax and then I’m fine.

c) Throw-up a little in my mouth.

2) If the call centre were to catch fire, I would…

a) Risk my life trying to extinguish the flames.

b) Run like a frightened cheetah.

c) Hide the gasoline can and the matches.

3) I feel valued and respected at work.

a) Strongly agree

b) Agree

c) Neutral

d) I earn $8.50/hr and work in a cubicle the size of a bathroom stall – what do YOU think?

4) The key performance objectives in place in the call centre…

a) Are fair, feasible and focused on the customer experience.

b) Push productivity somewhat at the expense of the customer experience.

c) Push me to drink and listen to death metal music.

The Ultimate Agent Engagement Survey

– Part 1 By Greg Levin - www.greglevin.com

http://www.greglevin.com/


5) Training and development in the call centre…

a) Is comprehensive and eclectic, and prepares me for continuous success.

b) Is lacking somewhat, but what are you gonna do?

c) Ended right after my job interview.

6) Rewards/recognition in the call centre…

a) Is frequent, meaningful and inspires me to perform at my best.

b) Is high in sugar and saturated fats.

c) Would be lovely.

7) Compensation and benefits in the call centre…

a) Is highly competitive and alluring.

b) Is standard and acceptable.

c) Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!

8) Please tell us what we can do to make the call centre a better place to

work.

(Kindly limit your response to 10 characters or less.)

Ultimate Agent Engagement Survey –

Part 2 – By Greg Levin - www.greglevin.com

http://www.greglevin.com/

ATA ATA -- "Australia’s peak body for the Contact Centre Industry“"Australia’s peak body for the Contact Centre Industry“ATA ATA -- "Australia’s peak body for the Contact Centre Industry“"Australia’s peak body for the Contact Centre Industry“ATA ATA -- "Australia’s peak body for the Contact Centre Industry“"Australia’s peak body for the Contact Centre Industry“

Thank youThank you

For more information please contactFor more information please contact::

[email protected]@limebridge.com.au

mailto:[email protected]

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Recruiting and retaining talented staff - Presented at Frost & Sulllivans Contact 2011