Agent of The Month Awards

[Carrigman]

I want to introduce a formal recognition system for outstanding agent performance and am unsure as to how to proceed. I'm thinking of having Team Leaders nominate an agent each month or each quarter and publicising the nominations throughout the Contact Center by means of articles in the newsletter, intranet page, etc.

The danger is that this could be a demotivating factor to other good agents who may feel they provided as good a service, if not better, than those nominated. Equally though it would show everybody that we recognise, and reward, outstanding performance. There are pros and cons to the approach therefore and I would be very interested in hearing what is being done successfully elsewhere.

Many thanks.

John,
Ireland.

[RC43]

John I would suggest creating a group goal- requiring teams to compete. Give a group award based on the group achieving the goal, then rewarding the top contributor (s) within each group for his/her contributions (e.g. "The outstanding producer of the month" award to include a special layout or an amount proportional to his or her contribution).

I guarantee, that this approach will foster teamwork, keep motivation up and empower reps to find alternatives as a team additionally everyone comes out to be a winner.

The stress or demotivating factors would be minimal.

Announce that the top contributors in each team will also received special....

I hope this helps.

Let me know how it can out.

[mdbabb]

Robert has some great suggestions.

One time I would like to suggest. It is much easier to base awards on objective issues rather than a voting issues, in order to eliminate fairness concerns.

For example, use performance metrics such as quality, adherance, call stats rather than call center voting - which could be perceived as a popularity contest.

While performance metrics don't always capture all of the items that make an outstanding agent, rarely will you find an outstanding agent who doesn't meet the above criteria.

[sealink]

Develop a list of criteria that the agent must meet during a call and then monitor and grade the call according to if the standards are met. Then use the team method to see if the team can achieve the highest grade and then list the agent which is the highest on the team.
Use this method for your entire floor and this way you can reward the highest team and the highest agent in an effort to increase all the agents performance.