Repetitive tasks and a deskbound workforce can have a negative impact on your teams, says Wynand Smit, a director at INOVO. Increasingly, employers are seeking ways to enhance workplace wellbeing when performing the same tasks over and over. A necessary consideration is how to improve this without compromising on productivity and, with that in mind, introducing an effective means of performance management.
The workforce, in most professional environments, consists of younger people, the kinds of people who were more likely to have grown up (and may still be) playing console games. This experience speaks to their motivation, providing an opportunity to use that experience to the mutual benefit of the employee and company. Bear in mind that employees are valuable - it takes time and resources to train them, and, depending on their role, they are the experts your customers rely on, so staff retention is better-aided by having motivated, engaged teams.
When so much work is done from the desk with team members using computers it's not feasible to monitor their performance by looking over their shoulders or even relying on manual records of work done such as timesheets. Neither of those methods provide the kinds of insights necessary to track the efficiency and productivity of the workforce. It's possible, however, to combine a rewards-based system with an accurate means of tracking performance to achieve the twin goals of motivating employees and monitoring what they're doing.
Gaming motivates millennials to seek the rewards that come with operating in a competitive environment with metrics within their control, even if the rewards are merely symbolic. If this is the case in your company, you could look at what other companies are rolling out with some success to this demographic: by using gaming principles in an office environment (gamification), companies are speaking to those employees' needs, tapping into this competitive energy as they compete for social recognition for themselves and others. In the contact centre environment which is largely static, this system works well.
Using a dashboard, the agents can monitor their own progress through the day, week and month. If they're achieving their goals, they could be awarded badges, these goals could be for training goals, product knowledge, sales deals closed or customer queries resolved. Even more than that, managers can also see those dashboards and monitor and compare performance within teams. Performance management is an essential element to the business unit, and dashboarding is an excellent means of tracking this. This gives the agent agency over their own performance and provides accountability, too, so managers can tackle specific problem areas or challenges with practical solutions that come with highly visible results.
Central to this is to maintain a fresh approach to performance that considers the individual in terms of mental and physical health. A holistic approach provides an atmosphere that is more conducive to productivity and staff retention. The person likely to benefit most is your customer, who is on the receiving end of highly-motivated service, and enhanced Customer Experience.
Wynand Smit is a director at INOVO, a leading contact centre business solutions provider.
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