The Best Way To Grow Your Business Might Be Closer Than You Think
I spent a day at NorthEast Contact Center Forum’s winter event and saw how focusing on leadership and employee experience can transform businesses in every sector.
By ANGELA GENDRON
A few days ago I attended NorthEast Contact Center Forum’s Winter event and one trend stood out in every presentation and conversation: the importance of good leadership and cultivating theemployee experience.Employee experience (EX) might be a new term, but its value is critical. EX affects everything from customer satisfaction to employee efficiency to business growth and bottom lines.
The best part of EX is that improving it doesn’t take a massive IT overhaul or year-long project — the key to improving EX is treating employees like humans.
“The key to improving EX is treating employees like humans.”
A Community of Leaders
NECCF’s winter event was packed with leaders from across the north east’s contact center landscape. Representatives from small companies, large corporations, and everything in between attended the event perfect for networking and honing in on the biggest trends shaping CX in 2019. The roomful of business leaders had a few job descriptions in common, but one was highlighted specifically: everyone there managed people.
That might not sound like a revolutionary statement, but there is a critical shift in perspective happening across businesses and contact centers. Leaders are managing people, not as numbers and HR statistics, but as individual human beings. Every employee has different abilities and personalities that make them great at their jobs but require different sets of training and accommodation.
Differences in agent personality types have been influencing hiring and management for years (this HBR articlehighlights a few main categories), but now they are taking on a new angle — not just how to evaluate traits to put the right people in the right positions, but recognizing an individual’s traits to provide the best tools and resources needed to help them in the position they’re in.
The Right People In The Right Place
One of my favorite presenters at the event focused on a growing trend: remote workforces. The key takeaway here is that not every employee works best in a remote environment, but not every employee works best in an office environment either.
Remote work can be a blessing to a whole host of employees. For employees like those with disabilities, remote work might be the only avenue for employment at all. The first speaker (fromNTI at Home) emphasized this point. People without the ability to routinely leave their homes need a thriving remote work environment to be successful.
A remote workforce isn’t one that just never comes into the office, however. For a productive remote workforce, the entire company culture needs to include employees in every location. I once heard of a team that had regular meetings and sent the notes from each one to remote workers when they finished. This tactic is closer to outsourcing work to freelancers than including a remote employee in company culture.
“For a productive remote workforce, the entire company culture needs to include employees in every location.”
Modern technology gives us the ability to connect faster and more conveniently than ever before. A remote workforce needs to be given the ability to video call into meetings to convey the valuable input they can provide. The remote workforce stands to offer businesses today enormous potential, but only if companies include these workers in company activities and make them an active part of their teams.
A good team spread across various locations necessitates quality training that can move as well. When employees in an office have difficulty with a task they might turn to their coworker next to them for assistance. Remote workers don’t have that convenience. Resources must be provided to help remote workers grow with their fellow employees. Communication networks like Slack and recorded training videos can help remote workers get the same amount of attention and speedy assistance office workers are provided.
The Loyalty Factor
Training local and remote workers and providing the right resources to create an inclusive team is only beneficial if the employees stick around. Seeing employees as individuals benefits the employee experience and increases employee loyalty as well. When employees participate in company activities and feel individually cared for, their loyalty grows.
The keynote speaker at NECCF’s winter event, Dianne Durkin, highlighted the famous Mr. Rogers. The minister and children’s entertainer made a name for himself by emphasizing kindness and genuine care for those around him. His lessons impacted the children who watched his tv show, but also touched the employees that worked for — and with — Fred Rogers.
“His lessons impacted the children who watched his tv show, but also touched the employees that worked for — and with — Fred Rogers.”
The show had rough years where Mr. Rogers’ unique brand of entertainment didn’t fit with industry trends, but his team stuck by him. Everyone who interacted with Mr. Rogers only has good things to say about the man. He worked hard to love and accept the people he worked with and clearly demonstrate how much he cared to them as well.
That care paid off.
His coworkers and employees put all of their effort into the work Mr.Rogers needed them to accomplish. When he thought of a new character and asked someone around him to fill the role, even those who had never performed in front of a camera before took the plunge — for the sake of their friend and boss.
Building A Business Starts With Building A Team
The legendary business leader Richard Branson said, “Train people well enough so they can leave; treat them well enough so they don’t want to.”
Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don’t want tohttp://t.co/QHONOZYXEy
That was the theme of NECCF’s winter event this year. Leaders from across the north east came together to understand the value of each individual employee. By recognizing the needs of different workers, leaders can unlock their true potential. Giving the right training and resources to the right employees can spark incredible growth for a business, but only if those employees are loyal and committed to the companies they work for.
Businesses around the country will undoubtedly see new innovations and technological developments in 2019, but one of the most important avenues for growth is closer to home than they might expect — it’s the people they work with every day.
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The Best Way To Grow Your Business Might Be Closer Than You Think
I spent a day at NorthEast Contact Center Forum’s winter event and saw how focusing on leadership and employee experience can transform businesses in every sector.
By ANGELA GENDRON
A few days ago I attended NorthEast Contact Center Forum’s Winter event and one trend stood out in every presentation and conversation: the importance of good leadership and cultivating theemployee experience.Employee experience (EX) might be a new term, but its value is critical. EX affects everything from customer satisfaction to employee efficiency to business growth and bottom lines.
The best part of EX is that improving it doesn’t take a massive IT overhaul or year-long project — the key to improving EX is treating employees like humans.
“The key to improving EX is treating employees like humans.”
A Community Of Leaders
NECCF’s winter event was packed with leaders from across the north east’s contact center landscape. Representatives from small companies, large corporations, and everything in between attended the event perfect for networking and honing in on the biggest trends shaping CX in 2019. The roomful of business leaders had a few job descriptions in common, but one was highlighted specifically: everyone there managed people.
That might not sound like a revolutionary statement, but there is a critical shift in perspective happening across businesses and contact centers. Leaders are managing people, not as numbers and HR statistics, but as individual human beings. Every employee has different abilities and personalities that make them great at their jobs but require different sets of training and accommodation.
Differences in agent personality types have been influencing hiring and management for years (this HBR articlehighlights a few main categories), but now they are taking on a new angle — not just how to evaluate traits to put the right people in the right positions, but recognizing an individual’s traits to provide the best tools and resources needed to help them in the position they’re in.
The Right People In The Right Place
One of my favorite presenters at the event focused on a growing trend: remote workforces. The key takeaway here is that not every employee works best in a remote environment, but not every employee works best in an office environment either.
Remote work can be a blessing to a whole host of employees. For employees like those with disabilities, remote work might be the only avenue for employment at all. The first speaker (fromNTI at Home) emphasized this point. People without the ability to routinely leave their homes need a thriving remote work environment to be successful.
A remote workforce isn’t one that just never comes into the office, however. For a productive remote workforce, the entire company culture needs to include employees in every location. I once heard of a team that had regular meetings and sent the notes from each one to remote workers when they finished. This tactic is closer to outsourcing work to freelancers than including a remote employee in company culture.
“For a productive remote workforce, the entire company culture needs to include employees in every location.”
Modern technology gives us the ability to connect faster and more conveniently than ever before. A remote workforce needs to be given the ability to video call into meetings to convey the valuable input they can provide. The remote workforce stands to offer businesses today enormous potential, but only if companies include these workers in company activities and make them an active part of their teams.
A good team spread across various locations necessitates quality training that can move as well. When employees in an office have difficulty with a task they might turn to their coworker next to them for assistance. Remote workers don’t have that convenience. Resources must be provided to help remote workers grow with their fellow employees. Communication networks like Slack and recorded training videos can help remote workers get the same amount of attention and speedy assistance office workers are provided.
The Loyalty Factor
Training local and remote workers and providing the right resources to create an inclusive team is only beneficial if the employees stick around. Seeing employees as individuals benefits the employee experience and increases employee loyalty as well. When employees participate in company activities and feel individually cared for, their loyalty grows.
The keynote speaker at NECCF’s winter event, Dianne Durkin, highlighted the famous Mr. Rogers. The minister and children’s entertainer made a name for himself by emphasizing kindness and genuine care for those around him. His lessons impacted the children who watched his tv show, but also touched the employees that worked for — and with — Fred Rogers.
“His lessons impacted the children who watched his tv show, but also touched the employees that worked for — and with — Fred Rogers.”
Training local and remote workers and providing the right resources to create an inclusive team is only beneficial if the employees stick around. Seeing employees as individuals benefits the employee experience and increases employee loyalty as well. When employees participate in company activities and feel individually cared for, their loyalty grows.
The keynote speaker at NECCF’s winter event, Dianne Durkin, highlighted the famous Mr. Rogers. The minister and children’s entertainer made a name for himself by emphasizing kindness and genuine care for those around him. His lessons impacted the children who watched his tv show, but also touched the employees that worked for — and with — Fred Rogers.
Building A Business Starts With Building A Team
The legendary business leader Richard Branson said, “Train people well enough so they can leave; treat them well enough so they don’t want to.”
Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don’t want tohttp://t.co/QHONOZYXEy
That was the theme of NECCF’s winter event this year. Leaders from across the north east came together to understand the value of each individual employee. By recognizing the needs of different workers, leaders can unlock their true potential. Giving the right training and resources to the right employees can spark incredible growth for a business, but only if those employees are loyal and committed to the companies they work for.
Businesses around the country will undoubtedly see new innovations and technological developments in 2019, but one of the most important avenues for growth is closer to home than they might expect — it’s the people they work with every day.
