A happy team thanks to Workforce Engagement Management

The level of engagement among contact centre employees often leaves a lot to be desired. The turnover is high, resulting in considerable costs. Costs for the recruitment and training of new people are the most obvious, but what about the impact on business results? Not as straightforward to measure perhaps, but at least as important.

What can you do to increase employee engagement? It certainly isn’t (only) a question of more salary. What is much more important, among other things, is that you make work more appealing for your employees.

Workforce Engagement Management software provides you with the tools to make your team shine. To make your contact centre a place where employees enjoy their work. And to let your customers experience the positive impact of this.

In a nutshell

Workforce Engagement Management (WEM) is a relatively new concept that was introduced about five years ago. While Workforce Optimisation (WFO) mainly focuses on making business operations as efficient as possible, over time the realisation has arisen that the customer experience is greatly influenced by the well-being of the employee. This is called Emotional Contagion. We wrote a blog post about it a while ago.

Therefore, Workforce Engagement Management focuses on customer contact employees and aims to maximise their level of commitment regarding the work, the customer, the team and the organisation. To achieve this, it focuses on a diverse set of elements, each of which affects employee well-being, including:

• Onboarding and training
• Evaluation and coaching
• Workforce Management (forecasting, scheduling and intra-day management)
• Employee support tools
• Recognition
• Employee feedback

Generation X Y Z

Contact centres increasingly employ young people, and as a result of that the expectations and needs that you must respond to in order to make your contact centre an attractive place to work are changing. Younger employees are simply always on and use technology almost 24/7 to stay connected with everything and everyone in their daily lives. Providing tools that match this is no longer a nice to have, but an expectation that contact centre managers will have to meet to avoid falling victim to that other characteristic of the younger generation, namely the tendency to switch jobs regularly.

So focus on what increases the level of engagement within the team. Listen to your employees and actively respond to their wishes and needs. Stay in touch with them, and certainly not only when things aren't going well. Make sure employees are aware of the purpose and mission of the organisation, and what specifically is expected of them. When you have a clear internal communication strategy in place, employees feel better informed and motivated to achieve the company's goals.

Tools that make your team happy

In addition, invest in tools that make the job more appealing. Make use of technologies that support your team, such as a central knowledge base that makes information easily accessible. Avoid constantly having to switch between different screens by ensuring seamless integration with all back-end systems.

In addition, there are more and more tools available that employees can (also) use outside working hours if they like, such as interactive gamification tools for training purposes or to increase productivity. The combination of games and competitive elements increases engagement and improves collaboration between colleagues. An additional advantage is that it gives employees insight into their own progress and performance and thus responds to their natural pursuit of self-improvement.

Also, offer your team flexibility and a say in their work schedules. A WFM smartphone app gives them more autonomy with regard to their schedule and allows them to communicate changes and requests (also) outside working hours. In addition, it is a lot more efficient for Planners!

Voice of the Employee

Just like customer feedback, employee feedback is indispensable for optimising work processes and creating a better workplace. But asking for feedback is only step 1 and does not in itself lead to a greater sense of engagement among employees. The question is what you do with the results. Few things are more frustrating to an employee than an employer asking for feedback and then doing nothing with the results 

To increase the sense of commitment, it is essential that you use your team’s feedback to look for ways that contribute to job satisfaction. After all, no one knows the job better than those who do it every day, so use this valuable information to your advantage! And if any changes are made as a result of their feedback, let your team know that they are the result of their suggestions. This helps to create a workplace where employees feel that they are being heard.

Do you wonder how you can offer your team the best workplace, and which combination of Workforce Engagement Management elements will deliver the best results within your contact centre? Let us know! We’ll be happy to help you on your way.

Whitepaper 'From cost centre to centre stage'

In our whitepaper ‘From cost centre to centre stage: the effect of employee satisfaction on the customer experience’ we focus on the employee. We look at factors that have a positive effect on their well-being, and what their impact is on the customer experience and the business results. Twenty pages of useful information that you can apply immediately.

How do you make your contact centre a success for employees, customers and management? In other words, how do you change it from a cost centre to the centre stage of the organisation?

Would you like to find out how to achieve this?