”Leadership means never having an off day.” Not many leadership teams can live up to this high standard, and contact center leadership is no exception. However, we have to try!
The questions in this category focus on whether leadership listens to employees, is perceived as trustworthy by the employees, and acts in a manner consistent with what it says.
The least favorable ratings came from the item focused on employee trust of the messages and information they receive from senior management (as opposed to operating management). The best item was the question on consistency between the words and actions of leadership. The overall total made the Net Score, at over 67%, far and away the highest of the three items in this category.
Interpretation
Centers in which agents give management uniformly top grades for all of these items are rare. Most centers of any size will have at least some agents who disagree or strongly disagree on these indices.
The results above pose some interesting issues for analysis and interpretation. The first item, (“Our leadership listens to employees”) scored reasonably well. However, since it doesn’t cost anything to improve, and it can pay dividends in terms of loyalty and engagement, many managers would be well advised to take concrete actions to bring this metric up. Walking around, listening to employees, listening to calls - - all of these actions, and more, can improve perceptions in this area. Managers can continually reinforce their position through listening and responding on a regular basis.
This effort can be pursued along with the third item, “Employees trust the messages/information from senior management”. Contact center managers should create good communications upwards and sideways, as well as downwards. Having “radial connections” throughout the enterprise increases the chances that contact center managers will be consulted by senior managers and other departments on messages that will impact the center. Where possible, contact center managers should be written into the senior management messaging process, with “sign off” privileges. This will enable contact center managers to ensure that messages are transmitted to contact center employees in the most credible and trust-building way.
Above all, it is vital that ideas are heard, for they are the source of improvement initiatives going forward.
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Leadership Impact: |
· Agent Satisfaction · Turnover · Call Center Communication Processes |
My Agent Voices blog posts are the result of research on over 5,000 agent surveys conducted in North America.