Manage Next Gen in BPO
Young generation – As creative, confident and ambitious and the future of the workforce – brilliant, but also difficult to manage. They are the driving force behind the smooth running of today’s contact centre industry, but they can be difficult to manage and retain.
At work, as this is generally where the ‘how to manage’ scenario arises, they want their job to have purpose, be fun and want to feel that what they do counts. They also have a low boredom threshold and are keen to undergo new challenges and new experiences.
Managing young generation
The management and retention of young generation are disciplines which are inextricably linked. In a call centre environment you cannot expect to retain youngsters indefinitely – most intend to stay with an employer for as little as two years – and, to avoid disappointment, it is important to address the personal expectations of you and your young generation management team from the outset. The key is to manage ‘entertain me’ people in a way that leads to them being retained for slightly longer. Indeed, this is where a competitive advantage is conferred.
Getting down to basics, there’s no escaping the fact that contact centre work can be repetitive and unless you are a team leader or manager with additional reporting and management responsibilities, this is something which needs to be managed. Particularly in customer service roles, the fact that an individual agent is helping to deliver a service to customers or to answer a query should be positioned as rewarding work. Young Generation workers should be encouraged to take pride in things like satisfied customers and closed cases, depending on the business model concerned.
Where possible, engage this generation in projects which, for example, research how a given cluster of agents operate. Encourage them to develop rosters and rota’s or results totalisers and take ownership. You could even let them work from home. Also flag promotion as a relevant and a very achievable goal, and set clear timelines and deliverables. Make sure best practice and good work never goes unnoticed and encourage plenty of opportunities to socialize, celebrate and make sure the workplace is as fun as possible.
If unsure how to progress in any situation, a good rule of thumb is to intervene early. This ensures that poor quality working practices, repetitive behaviors driven by boredom, or whispering campaigns that fuel attrition are ‘nipped in the bud’ before they take hold. This generation thrives on attention and personal contact and does respond well to this kind of intervention if positioned positively. Equally, if someone wants to leave a role, sometimes it is healthy to work with them to find a way forward where they get to do a decent handover or have a timeframe in which to work while finding a new job. Bringing matters in to the open is something that earns the respect of Youngsters.
Points to help the Managing your Employee
1. Work with what you’ve got – there are, in many cases, fundamental cultural differences between young generation and older managers. These need to be understood and managed. Not resisted.
2. Be honest about your business and the opportunities that are available.
3. Manage the factors which motivate the individual and incentives accordingly.
4. Develop a more consultative style and empower individuals with talent before they slip through your fingers.
5. Make the workplace and operating procedures as logical and purposeful as possible.
Use training providers which challenge the individual and implement programmes which are, themselves, exciting. You get out what you put in.
Employers need to take action and work with their recruitment partners to engage with young generation, understand them, incentivise them and reap the rewards. Youngsters are the future of the workplace and have so much to offer. They are a resource that cannot and must not be wasted.
posted by Marketing Team @ 2:06 PM
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