ARE YOU AN EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT ADDICT ?

In the recent past most conversations that I have been having around employee engagement & retention revolves around how to keep employees engaged during the first 60/ 90 days. More often than not Managers are very happy to blame the quality of hire and the recruitment team tends to take the beating.

Now, I am not for once saying that there isn't a problem there. Recruitment teams definitely need to spend more time in assessing the candidates and should not be in a tearing hurry to fill the positions. Agreed but hey now these guys have already been hired so now what? Do we raise our hands up in the air and thrash recruitment or do we fold our sleeves s and say let’s do something about the people who have joined.

Based on researching a whole lot of data from several exits interviews and Early engagement surveys we have conducted there are some key elements that we have identified which will improve early engagement:

COMMUNICATE EFFECTIVELY & BUILD TRUST WITH THE NEW HIRES.

Trust is the most important factor in building relationships. It’s important to be honest with the employee about his role, salary, targets etc. Leave no chance for guesses. Having an effective communication channel and building trust will also mean that the employee will reach out to his Manager or the HR team if he has a query and that in itself will reduce discontentment to a large degree. ‘Transparency at the work place ‘is one of the most important values that employees look for in an organisation. Every manager is faced with situations where the truth is bitter, however, it’s always better to communicate this to the employees and the sooner is always better.

MAKE EMPLOYEES SEE THE BIG PICTURE

Treat employees with respect. Haven’t we heard the old adage ‘Give respect, get respect’? Employees need to be told how their contribution helps the company. Let the employee understand his /her importance and how they add value to the overall growth of the organisation.

Share organisations goals and growth plans. It saddens me immensely when Managers feel that employees won’t understand. They do and they care!

ENCOURAGE EMPLOYEES TO HAVE FUN

Considering that employees spell close to 10 hours a day at work it’s important they have fun at work. While data suggests that fun necessarily doesn't make employees stay back in companies, the lack of it could make them look out. The most important part of fun activities is that it should be as sustained effort and should not lose momentum. Managers need to encourage participation and encourage employees to take time off to participate in these fun events.

RECOGNISE, MOTIVATE & INSPIRE  

All employees like to be recognised. Recognition can be in the form of awards, trophies, certificates, vouchers, or even a pat on the back. The type of award is not always important; however it’s always best to appreciate the employee at the earliest .In my personal opinion appreciating an employee is best done in public. Let the rest of the team know that the employee is being appreciated and the success should be shared.

Motivation is the continuous process of stimulating people to actions to accomplish their goals. One of the most important functions of management is to create willingness amongst the employees to perform in the best of their abilities. Therefore the role of a leader is to arouse interest in performance of employees in their jobs.

True leaders will inspire employees to perform and the most reliable way to inspire is by being a perfect role model. Managers need to remember that they are being watched and employees tend to follow their leaders

SHARE THE GROWTH PLAN.

Employees need to know their respective growth plans. Be honest about the time frame. Share feedback with them and let them know what they need to do to improve. Assist, mentor & Coach Employees .Employees should never feel they are doing a bring job, make it exciting for them.

Work with them to identify their career plans and help them achieve their goals. Show them that you care about them too.

I can say with reasonable confidence that you will definitely see a challenge in the way your employees feel, behave and respond if all Managers practice all of what has been mentioned above.I am sure you agree it shouldn't be difficult.

Share with me if you think it has worked or hasn't, I will be happy to hear from you ….

IS IT THE END OF THE ROAD FOR BPO's ?

Is it really the end of the road for BPO’s in India? More and more people I talk to seem to think so. While I would like to beg to differ,  I hope I am not being overly optimistic.

A good friend recently pointed to me that the quality of people joining has definitely deteriorated. Back in 2003 all companies would hire graduates, quite of few of them talented and also grew with the organization. However by 2009, companies were accepting pretty much anyone who could speak English.

Interestingly while quality of hires deteriorated, expectations didn’t. Employees still wanted to get promoted within 2 years and would be disgruntled if they didn’t. This led to high attrition which complicated problems for recruitment teams as they could no longer afford to pick and choose the best.

It became one big viscous circle.

Meanwhile Clients started paying Indian BPO’s lesser and from an average of $ 15 Dollars it dropped to as low as $7 an hour. The Indian companies couldn’t afford to push back as they were not meeting deadlines, performance was poor and several SLA’s & KPI’s were being missed

Organisations then had to look at means to reduce cost to make the business continue to be profitable and then the emergence of B town cities took place. The challenges though have not gone away.

Fundamentally the BPO’s will have to start doing things differently; else it will only get worse.

One of the problems it appears is that there is this nonchalant attitude and everyone believes the problem is external and refuses to look within.

With any industry where the workforce is large, taking care of the employees should be on the top of the, Managements list.

These are some of the steps that companies could take to make a difference.

Create better Frontline Managers

Since 20 something's to manage 20 something's, it’s important that they are coached adequately and not set them up for failure. A proper leadership program for the TL's should be mandatory where the new Managers are coached on how to be effective people Managers.

Improve early experience

Since attrition is highest on the 0 to 3 month category, ensure that the employees are cared for right from the time an offer letter has been issued. Make an effort to make them feel warm & welcome from Day 1 and ensure that adequate support is provided. Most happy employees tend to meet their targets too

Communicate with the employees

Communicate and set expectations on career progression. Employees need to understand that there will be growth opportunities but it will take certain amount of time. It’s also important to share with the employees, the progress of the company. If there is bad news let them know as they directly contribute.

 Performance Feedback mechanism

Adequate, feedback on performance should be provided, not just at the end of the year (as part of the appraisal cycle) but on a continuous basis. Employees should know what they need to do to get a better rating or to be considered for a promotion. Transparency is a big value

Bring about changes in Recruitment process

Hiring profile to be re looked at. Maybe 20 year olds are not the best fit for this kind of a job.

Spend more time with each candidate at the time of recruitment to assess his interest levels. For some months it may appear that lesser number of employees are being hired but you’d rather hire the right profile that someone who will leave in less than a month.

Be Honest

Lastly take the clients into confidence. Be honest with them if there is a challenge. Most of them will appreciate it and perhaps help too.

At the end of it all it’s a maximum of 1:15 manager vs. agent ratio. So why can’t each manager do what it takes to keep his 15 team members happy?

If employee morale improves, they start performing better, if they perform better, they start achieving their targets and the projects meet their SLA’s. Companies can then go to clients and ask for a better dollar rate too. If companies can up their performance perhaps the clients won’t mind paying a little more.

Is this all easier said than done?