Doing everything faster and with more focus is the big command in every contact center up and down the land. The work pace goes by with such ferocity that workers have no idea what they’re doing anymore, and although they’re getting through by the skin of their teeth it will inevitably cause them burnout. Sound familiar? Productivity is essential. We need to create ways to make our staff work faster and harder, and keep focused, but we’re going the wrong way about it. We seem to value making ourselves exhausted as the benchmark for getting a job done, but this is wrong. Ariana Huffington burnt out in 2007 for that reason, and she has now started a crusade to set the balance right, and so you should too. Luckily there are simple routes to take.
Upgrade Your Tech
It’s easier to measure productivity now in our workers than before. But why don’t we make the interactivity of our systems increase and put the onus on the customer instead? Customers are already using eCommerce to purchase and to review items, taking a lot of the promotion and transaction of the products out of your hands. The way we can upgrade the performance management best practices is to put software into play that takes a lot of the guesswork out of the processes. Looking at analytics software is a great way to show a staff member how they are doing based on the key benchmarks in your company, and rather than communicating it on a semi-regular basis in a one-to-one session, give them the data and they can see how they are doing constantly. It can be a strategy that will pay off as a lot of people operate in the dark somewhat and don’t know how they are faring on a day-to-day basis. This also puts the ball back in the court of the employee so they can take ownership of their work.
Look At Your Business Setup
The task of business improvement and productivity is not like a spring clean, it takes a long time to fine-tune everything. Sometimes it is best to get an external opinion of the business, and so the strengths and weaknesses can be pinpointed and changed. You may also wish to look at other business models and look to the industry to see how the benchmarking is out there. But if the shoe fits for them, it may not for you. And it is not the best practice to adopt another business model if yours isn’t working for you. This is a big bear trap for many small companies, but in looking for the right model to cut business costs, you may end up wasting money in other areas. The ability to streamline a business isn’t just making cuts upon cuts; it is about the value in the time spent working. Employees are not a person to be chained to a desk, they need to be nurtured and invested in themselves, and encouraging working smarter, not harder, will go some way to reset the balance.
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