motivational tools

[crave_ph]

hi there guys! im sure you cen help me out. i'm a newly promoted group manager currrently handling 3 TL's and 45 agents. Can u give me some ideas to motivate the agents and Team Leaders alike?

if you guys have some tips or tools that i can use to be an effective and efficient GM, feel free to send me info.

thanks!

[n_meghanath]

Take out a scrap piece of paper and your finest pen (yes, you actually have to write the answer down). you might like to answer this question:
What motivates your agents? List five of the top motivators that came to your mind. Did you create your list? Do not even think of cheating. asked for five and give all five. Open your bottom drawer and put the paper inside of it. Now take another piece of scrap paper because you are going to write out one more list. Ready? Here is the question:
What motivates you? List five of the top motivators for your agents.You have probably already determined where this is pointing because you are a call center professional! Pull out your first piece of paper from that bottom drawer. What do you notice? It is common to have a different list of motivators that you have for yourself compared to agents. It is not necessarily bad but it does provide a significant and valuable clue to giving you a fresh perspective about motivating your agents.
We think money (bonuses etc.) is near the top or at the top of what motivates agents. Look at your personal list? Where did you rank “money”? Generally, the primary motivator for agents is not money. We behave as though it is because we design programs that reward in cash but it is not the base motivator. The primary motivator for agents is to make a valuable and appreciable contribution to the success of the company. It is common for us to have a personal set of motivators yet when asked to list what motivates others, we assume that it is a very different set of motivators at work for other people than for ourselves.
So what does this mean for us today in your call center? It could mean several things. A) It is nice that some people did some research B) That your list of motivators is unique because, well, you are unique or C) there is a clue here that may help you and your team motivate your call center agents! I hope C) is what you think. It is highly probable that you may attempt to motivate staff using the wrong set of priorities. That leads you to focused more attention on motivators that are in the middle or at the bottom of the list and potentially missing some of the key motivators that really get agents excited.

Applying this concept to your call center operation requires that you hold a meeting. Begin by having your team do the exercise outlined above. Walk the group through the results and note the observations that come from considering this aspect of agent motivation. Next, assess the gaps that may exist between what motivates your agents and what motivation rewards exist in your call center structure. Now that you have this completed, you have just one more thing to add to your To Do list.

Cheers

Meghanath

[Bill_LumbergTPS]

n_meghanath--- that was great.

If you'd like some more useful ideas, check out the book Managing and Motivating Contact Center Employees. That will surely give you some good tips.

Good luck!

[n_meghanath]

Thanks, Don't have that as of now but will have a look if I get one.

[NBosch]

First of all, Respect to n_meghanath, a good advice that is definitly helpful.

At the moment I work at a paper, called reward and recognition, where I try to focus on the latter.
Talking to teamleaders, specialists and call agents in my center (100 employees), I came to the following shortlist:

1. Responsibility
All people want to feel responsible for certain parts of the day to day business. With clear and well discussed targets, I made every single one of the employees responsible for his own results, and offer diversity in work in return (see point 2)

2. Diversity
All employees are motivated to spend a certain amount of time supporting other teams. This creates multi skilled employees who have an insight in all day to day business. Off course, this depends a lot on workload.

3. Recognition
Recognize the effort people put into their jobs. Make sure that you have regular evaluation meetings so that your employees feel noticed.

Just my $ 0.05.

[n_meghanath]

Responsibility, accountability are words which shows trust and faith. Every part of a business is important to the business and when you are made to understand how important your role is towards the successful of the business, you know you have been trusted for the job and when someone trust you on what you do then you know how it motivates to keep up the trust. Nbosch that was Great!

Cheers