I am now working on week 8 without seeing a member of my team properly, no team briefings, no 121s or monthly reviews however lots of calls are being answered and thank god team morale seams to be holding on.... i have been side by side coaching, working shifts on the phones myself, spot games and challenges to keep them going but im running out of ideas... please help? Also i am moving to a different position in the company in a few months and im not sure when is the right time to tell them? as the last thing i need at the moment is a crash in team spirit(they are likely to be split up and dished out to other managers when i move on).

Hey there,

Well one of the solution is Training, training and training untill it becomes a habit.
Let me elaborate on this, normally after an effective training the participant tries to adhere to the learning for few days and then again comes back to square one. At this stage he requires training again to re-shape his morale and continue the change, the process should continue until at a level where the agent does not require training as it has become his habit to look at things from a different angle then being in comfort zone and team discomfort.
Such process would require loads of team building, behavioral, skill based and sensitivity trainings


Prashant

>>>>normally after an effective training the participant tries to adhere to the learning for few days and then again comes back to square one.

Prashant,

I dont know where you learnt your training theory but this is an example of a training intervention that has clearly failed. If you train someone and the learning only sticks for a few days then your training intervention has been unsuccessful. The point of training (married to any serious evaluation) is that the learning is still being effectively implemented 3-6months after the intervention.

If you are re-training to 'reshape morale' after a training intervention clearly your training hasnt addressed the morale issue effectively and or may have contributed to the downturn.

If you continue until 'something becomes habit' then thats usually called instruction not training and is a totally different method of learning - usually encompassing routine tasks, often physical, frequently repetitive and often involving safety critical issues.

… was waiting for a reply like this! Appreciated.
Well just forgot to add train, train and train until the participant dies hahahahaha, well let me put it this way the reason for me to put the comments was just a reply either positive or negative cause this structure of training was followed in some companies rather is still followed. Well I’m sorry if I have broken the rules though.

Several upskilling and soft skills courses have been cancelled and this happens regularly when call volumes are high

Welll Kathryn, is staffing a problem there?

Staff contracted to expected call volumes is no problem however We have issues with emergency holiday days taken as a given when holiday is refused and absence/sickness is very high 12-17% The world cup has seen absence reach 20% on certain days... So what happens is,planning and resource announce NO off the phone activity and everything but call answering stops, performance management is a challenge and even i(miss positive)am starting to struggle... All the ideas that are put forward to challenge these issues seam to be quick fixes and mostly based around bribary. Sometines i feel we make everything so complicated everyone loses out but im a fairly new manager and my views are often stomped on by my collegues, managers meetings tend to discuss who is to blame and a discussion to produce ideas of solutions i can only dream about....

Hey Kathryn,
Forecasting with the appropriate shrinkage would give the proper planning for the roster. Though World Cup must not have been considered for the forecasting and planning that is a reason it is affecting the productivity.
Now probably its a great week for you since the matches are done with and I'm happy bout Italy's win too :)
One more suggestion please do not feel stomped just because the ideas did not work out its just another idea that could not prove its point.
Maybe the way you pitch it can be changed to make it more effective.
All the best.

Prashant

This week is looking up already! Over forcasted this time so i have loads of time with my team! feel like a proper manager again and loving it! Also i think your right im a little too over enthuastic at times and i suspect i need to develop a softer approach to get their buy in.... ill have a think... thanks for you help!!

happy realisation, well yes don't forget to ....



Keep Smiling

Over forcasted this time so i have loads of time with my team!

This may get you trouble later this month!

Really?, why?, Oh im worried now, ah quick re read.. so just to let you know that I dont have any control in the planning and resourse side of things, they decide holiday allocation, overtime needed etc.. (this week they have extra advisors in working overtime and not enough calls are coming in so im taking the opportunity to take my team off for bite sized training, reviews etc...) Generally my side of things is to ensure they are motivated enough to turn up for their shift and work hard while they are here. Is this what you ment? or am i still facing trouble?!!.... Cheers Kath

Well it is sounding positive though still if you have so many agents involved in activities then the productive ones then it is obvious that the staffing would be less at times. Ofcourse there is positive side to these trainings and activities. So be positive ad be appropraitely staffed too.

:)

Hmm maybe ill spend some time with planning and find out everything they do, i see them as the annoying phonecall that halts my day at the moment... Thanks for your comments, i have done alot of thinking since joining this forum...and have lots of new objectives now!! Thanks again Kath

Kathryn,

It has been interesting reading your posts. I can remember being in a similar situation.

It sounds to me like the resource/planning team are running the centre and not the managers. The planning and resource teams should be giving the people who manager the frontline staff information on which to make a decision. Not making decisions about your teams activities themselves.

Your example of cancelling all off phone time because absence is high due to the World Cup is a good example. The team managers and the Contact centre managers should make that based on the information they have from the planning team and their own information about the off phone events. For example the long term benefits of say a training event maybe more beneficial to the business than losing service level for a period! (Why didn’t they plan for this anyway? Every two years there is a major football event!)

Its a cultural thing, you need the planners coming to your management team and saying to you if you do X this will be the outcome, If you do Y this will be the outcome and act on your managements teams decision. Not you’re doing this so we can hit service level.

Its the same with IT departments, all to often they dictate what should happen with systems and upgrades etc in contact centres rather providing information for the Frontline management team to make a decision upon.

Andy

Hey nice to hear that, all the best.
:)

I had never really thought about it that way Andy, i guess i have just accepted thats the way things have always been (or un hook my phone.. naughty i know) Thanks i will add to that idea and raise it!!

Kathryn

I do have to agree with Andy that it would appear you resource team are running the call centre. They should be providing information for the call centre manager to make commercial decisions.

It not uncommon for call centres to ‘pull’ coaching/buzz sessions etc when call traffic is high and this can be the first thing that a resource and planning team do when call traffic is high and/or staffing is low. However, this should be the time when coaching/buzz sessions should be continue to be carried out to ensure customer service standards are achieved.

With regards to time with your team, is it possible that you could all go to lunch together? Failing that, could members of your team spare an hour either before the day begins (maybe breakfast somewhere) or an hour at the end of the day to go for a quick drink. I found these worked very well when I was a team leader in an inbound call centre.

Neil

Thanks Neil i will do that in the future :-)

My team was spit up and dished out to other managers this week, they were upset about losing me but mostly about losing each other and moving floors (our call centre is split over two floors, the ground floor is a much nicer(positive and enthuastic!) environment to work in.... and they have all been placed upstairs.

We had the best team spirit and produced good results!

My boss offered to stay with me while i told them but i refused, She wanted to tell them all together in a briefing, this horrified me as i knew the news would upset many and i felt they deserved to know from me, individually.

As it happened they were upset anyway, i got upset because they were (cried), the union got involved and tried to keep them on the same floor.it was chaos!!

My c.s.m. refused point blank to let me be involved in which managers my advisors were going to and i found out 5 mins before i told them. Dispite the disruption the decisions remained the same (buisness needs? - but no explaination given) and i advised them all in the most positive way i could... take the team values with you etc...

Everything had calmed down by Friday and we had a fun `goodbye goodluck` briefing... Until my c.s.m decided to have a `one to one` she told me she was disapointed in how upset i was and i shouldnt have shown my team my feelings, i should have remained proffessional and accepted the decisions made with no questions asked. In fairness she did wish me well in my new post at the end but i didnt take it in at all.

I would be interested in all your opinions on this situation as i have now left the department feeling `knocked` and i really dont know how i could have made this situation better? I am a new manager (8 months) and this was my first team.

From what I gathered from your post..you actually cried when this happened? Very unprofessional and even if no one on your immediate team seemed to mind rumours like that will follow you most of your career. Specifically your manager now thinks you are unproffesional (they stated that) and you are just starting a new role...you have to work very hard now to prove yourself.

I also think you probably should have told them all at once, this way they could really all work it out together and not realize they are alone. Telling them individually would also result in some of them being notified before you had the chance (in all enviroments I have worked in).

You're also really supposed to try to put a positive spin on this move, even if they are moving to a less desirable area. If I saw my manager crying when she told me I was moving I would either assume a) she was pretty emotional/crazy or b) the place I was moving to was absolutely horrible.

You seem to have really put a lot of emotion, stress and chaos into your team's transition when you should have been there to support them (even if you were feeling stressed, emotional and in chaos).

I would have tried to put a positive spin on it..something like "good news, we are all moving on to some other opportunties, it was great working with you all and I will make sure to help your new manager with this transition! I am so looking forward to checking up on you guys and seeing how you are improving all these new teams!" -cept less cheesy.