Optimal Employee Experience Strategy for Your Contact Center

At a time when the workplace is constantly evolving and competition for recruiting top talent is fierce, there’s only one thing that hasn’t changed: the necessity of delivering an outstanding employee experience. Use this guide to develop a world-class employee experience in your contact center by creating the optimal working environment to foster productivity and an exceptional customer experience.

Strategizing for the Optimal Employee Experience A Guide to Cultivating Employee Satisfaction Across Your Organizational Structure

INTRODUCTION At a time when the workplace is constantly evolving and competition for top talent is fierce, there’s only one thing that hasn’t changed: the necessity of delivering an outstanding employee experience. To remain competitive in your industry, it is more critical than ever to cultivate employee satisfaction by visibly and reliably demonstrating that your organization has stake in their professional and personal lives. Every company promises a supportive culture, outstanding benefits, growth, and engagement, but do they deliver?

Use this guide to develop a world-class employee experience [that prioritizes]:

• Employee recognition and appreciation programs to improve employee satisfaction and retention • Establish a positive and engaging workplace culture that anticipates employee needs, provides access to solutions and support to advance employee loyalty • People-centric management that inspires and motivates, driving employee growth and development • An optimal working environment to foster productivity and an exceptional customer experience • Holistic wellness benefits to improve retention and acquisition of top talent • Flexible scheduling initiatives to reduce absenteeism and tardiness and increase employee satisfaction

PEOPLE CENTRIC PEOPLE MANAGEMENT To be considered people-centric we need to think about how our people want to work. What inspires and motivates them to do their best?

Reward Leadership How do we reward leaders by investing more in them? How do we evaluate leadership and people management capabilities, so leaders receive on-going feedback to improve? Do we capture moments of “leadership in action”? Perfect Practice Makes Perfect Empower staff to take responsibility and pride in their work product and relationships. Engage them in role-playing desired behavior. Start by demonstrating what “nailing it” sounds like.

Leadership Development Culture How do we help people-managers become more effective leaders? Is there structured development to aid leaders with adaptation in approach, technologies, virtual management, engagement, and strategies? Career Paths and Bench Strength How do we cultivate talent, and make the right investments in soft and hard skills to meet business goals and individual development needs? Coaching Culture A comprehensive coaching toolkit is necessary for ensuring that areas of strength are praised, improvement opportunities are identified and collaboratively solutioned. Creating a schedule of regular check-ins between employees and their direct supervisors creates opportunity to check progress on project and performance goals with a frequency that guarantees performance advancement remains on track.

360 Feedback Loops Do employees know their feedback

matters? Can they submit suggestions and see results? Do they have an opportunity to engage in skip-level sessions and meet with a senior leader?

Equipping your supervisors with resources, such as our Coaching Tool, is an excellent way to start establishing a positive coaching culture.

CHECKLIST FOR AN ENJOYABLE, CLEAN & SAFE WORK ENVIRONMENT

Sanitized regularly and stocked with cleaning supplies that are available to all

Designed for comfort in both work and relaxation areas (i.e., comfortable, ergonomic workstations, natural lighting)

Inclusive of places for employees to relax during breaks and/or lunch

Conducive to both one-on-ones, and team meetings

Stocked with the right supplies, both in production and break rooms

Arranged in such a way that private or sensitive conversations can occur with confidentiality, in a safe space

Visually representative of what we say is important • Company values are on display • Visible employee recognition

Safe and secure

HEALTH, WELLNESS AND BENEFITS

Organizations will adopt new employee well-being measures that capture the financial health, mental health and physical health, of their employees to more accurately predict employee performance and retention.

Financial Extends beyond base wage and benefits to education surrounding overall financial management that steers toward lifelong success. Examples are budgeting, investing and debt reduction strategies. Emotional Emotional wellness has always been important, but the pandemic has intensified the need for focus. An SHRM survey of 1,099 employees found 55% report often having little interest or pleasure in doing things since COVID-19 began.

Physical Employees’ physical health is of the utmost importance. While inclusive of encouraging behaviors in the contact center and education, health and fitness can also include team competitions and events. Understand Resources Include access to commonly over-looked and under-used programs, such as: EAP, healthy- activity related incentives and assistance finding resources

- HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW

Provide Effective Positive Feedback Tell people what they do well, tell them why it’s important, and encourage them to continue the behavior. Involve the team. Praise in public. Behavior rewarded is behavior repeated. Employee Appreciation You don’t need a special occasion to express gratitude for a job well done and promote greater workplace culture. Practices and traditions such as employee appreciation events create a positive employee experience, show your team the effects of their outstanding work, and drive motivation, performance, and operational success. Rewards and Recognition Are there short-term and long-term programs in place to reward performance, improvement, consistency and living company values. Celebrate Improvement and Results Recognizing top performers is baked into the contact center manager’s age-old handbook. Who else is being celebrated? How about an employee who acted on feedback and made a difference in performance? An employee who escalated a customer concern appropriately, leading to resolution?

RECOGNIZE AND CELEBRATE YOUR PEOPLE It’s important to show employees that they are valued and motivate them to continue to help the company grow and succeed .

Organizational Value Awards Identify individuals that have exemplified one of your core values. Allow for supervisor and peer nominations and present awards with a detailed description of why you’re honoring the employee. Metrics Performance Raffle Compile a list of your critical metrics and identify which employees met or exceeded these metrics over the last week. For every instance of achievement, the employee receives one raffle ticket toward a prize, such as an extra day of PTO, a special parking spot or scheduling preference priority for the next pay period. Entertainment Dens Set up a popular TV show, movie, or video gaming system in a conference or break room, provide treats, and let your employees kick back for some entertaining down time while on break. KMS Scavenger Hunt Create a scavenger hunt that takes employees on an adventure through your KMS answering questions related to your organization. Offer prizes to those who complete the game. This creates an opportunity to test platform navigability and KMS training program efficiency.

Snack & Beverage Bar Fill a rolling cart with various snacks and beverages and make rounds throughout the day to refresh your employees at their stations. Be sure to restock as needed so later shifts can still participate. Peer-to-Peer Kudos Remember the power of peer-to-peer recognition. Use a public platform or hang kraft paper on the wall to allow employees to give shout-outs to each other or put a ballot box on every desk and invite employees to write notes of gratitude and kind words to their team members. Start the Day Off With Swag Surprise your employees by putting a special gift on every desk and include a handwritten note of appreciation. Put them out at close of business so your employees are greeted with an expression of your gratitude the moment they arrive to work. Pet Therapy Collaborate with a local animal shelter to schedule a visit from a pet therapy provider. Dogs are the obvious choice, but pet therapy experts also work with miniature horses, rabbits, and more! It’s a small, but impactful way to bring joy into the workplace.

MEMORABLE ACTS & EVENTS TO SHOW YOUR EMPLOYEES THE APPRECIATION THEY DESERVE Whether your employees are in- office, hybrid, or remote, our recommended programs for memorable employee appreciation events are guaranteed to bring meaningful recognition and excitement to your workplace.

QUICK TIPS FOR IMPACTFUL EMPLOYEE APPRECIATION INITIATIVES

Ensure participation from the executive leadership team This kind of presence and engagement speaks volumes. Additional impact can be made by inviting your executives to serve as laborers to run some of these programs. Depending on your programs, leadership can participate in various ways, such as; serving food, visibly setting up activities and attending to interact with all levels of the organization, hand-delivering swag or treats to employees’ desks, and cleaning up after the events. Deliver an equally valuable experience to your remote team Whichever programs you choose, have plans to deliver an equally valuable experience to your remote team. Many programs translate to remote employees, but some still need to. Have a Plan B to recognize and appreciate your remote team members. Create equal opportunity for all shifts and levels of employment Plan the events so that every shift has equal opportunity for participation, recognition, and enjoyment. Make sure that any activities celebrating performance provide an opportunity for recognition of lower performers. Create this opportunity by celebrating behavioral achievements, such as attendance, positive cultural contributions or abilities, or efficient after-call work performance. Remember to take photos Take photos and make them accessible to employees by creating a photo wall or a digital photo album. This is a great way to document and demonstrate your culture for online brand recognition and recruitment efforts.

Flex-Time Employees determine their own

Compressed Workweek Employees work the same number of weekly hours over fewer days (ex: four 10- hour shifts). Descending Shift Schedule A full-time schedule where day one of the workweek is the longest shift, with each following day descending in hour-count. Part-Time Schedule Any scheduling framework that keeps working hours under full-time hours on a regular basis. Hybrid Work Providing employees with the freedom to determine when to work in-office and when to work remotely. Annualized Hours Employees work towards target outputs within a total and highly flexible number of working hours per year. Commissioned Outcomes Employees have no fixed working schedule, only a target output to work towards.

FLEXIBLE SCHEDULING THE NEW NORM With a global employee demand for flexible scheduling, the modernized schedule model has become less of a daydream and more of a reality. Flexible scheduling has made possible the realization of numerous employee satisfaction metrics. Learn more about the different types of flexible scheduling initiatives.

schedules, within established limits, to reach a standard number of hours or to accomplish target output. Shift Bid Shifts are made openly available on a rolling basis, allowing employees to “bid” for their desired shifts with final schedules depending upon factors such as seniority or performance merit. Split Shifts Employees work two separate daily runs with an extended mid-shift break.

Remote Work Employees work from their home environment within hours based on your need.

Shift Work Scheduled hours outside of the traditional 9a-5p workday (ex: overnight shift).

Use our Flexible Scheduling Due Diligence and Compatibility Guide to determine your capacity for adopting the “new norm” in shift scheduling and employee experience.

Work Sharing Assigning the duties of one full-time position to 2+ part-time employees to reduce need for layoffs.

INSITE CLIENT SUCCESS STORY CUSTOMIZABLE EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT SOLUTION CULTIVATES EXCEPTIONAL EMPLOYEE & CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE, EXCEEDING KPI GOALS

Insite is an industry-leading business management and performance optimization firm specializing in customized, innovative, and scalable solutions that propel our clients to the forefront of their industries. Our unique and data-backed approaches identify revenue and cost savings opportunities, optimize processes, and enhance the customer and employee experience for rapid, unprecedented, and sustainable results. In short, we provide a clear path to your accelerated success. Contact Us to Connect with One of Our Employee Experience Experts

www.getinsite.io 239.284.7529 connect@callinsite.com

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