Response Design Corporation: Kathryn's Blog

During the following blogs, we will discuss some often unknown or overlooked elements of employee turnover. Let us begin with “employee engagement.”

Engagement occurs when employees: (1) are fully present and physically committed, (2) are emotionally energized by forming meaningful connections to customers and colleagues, (3) believe their work has value, and (4) are cognitively focused on their task and their role in the work environment.

Engagement has been linked to customer satisfaction, employee retention, organizational productivity, and bottom line organizational profitability. Need any additional reasons to be concerned about how engaged your employees are?

According to a Gallup study, 26 percent of the U.S. working population is engaged (loyal and productive), 55 percent are not engaged (just putting in time), and 19 percent are actively disengaged (unhappy and spreading their discontent). Based on these figures, Career Systems International estimates that each employer is wasting approximately 10 percent of his or her payroll dollars on lost productivity due to that level of disengagement.

So, your employees may not be fully engaged in the work they do. While you may have seats in the chair, there may be no heart in the work.

You can easily spot the disengaged employee. This is the agent who makes little effort to identify or meet customer needs…the sales agent who volunteers no product substitute for “out of inventory” requests, the customer service rep who too quickly transfers to a special group when he could have easily handled the request, the night agent who tells customers to call back the next day even though she has been fully trained to open an account.

If this describes some of your agents, take heart. There are ways to foster engagement.

A company’s culture contributes greatly to engagement. Research shows that employee engagement is greatly enhanced when employees clearly understand the link between organizationally desired behaviors and rewards. Employee focus and customer focus are complementary. When employees recognize that the organization is focused on their well being, they in turn are more engaged and strive to meet the organization’s goals.

Affiliation with, and support from, team members also contributes to engagement. Research shows that increased cohesion between team members leads to greater commitment, motivation, engagement, and performance.

The orientation of new employees is a vital step towards improving employee engagement. Effective onboarding ensures that the employees are prepared for their jobs by facilitating their interaction with colleagues and making sure they know what is expected of them.

Finally, research indicates that challenging work promotes engagement. Challenging work must be supported by a clear job role description, clear performance expectations, plenty of feedback, and the opportunity to succeed (tools and development).

I know you are addressing many of these needs in your call center, but isn’t it nice to know that research supports your efforts?