Signs Your Contact Centre Needs a WEM Solution

How to Know if You Need a Workforce Engagement Management Solution: Answer These 12 Questions

A spring 2021 article on SHRM references the turnover “tsunami” that’s on the horizon, given that more than half of employees surveyed say they’ll look for a new job in the next year.

With turnover rates for contact centres already as high as 35%, call centre leaders may be wondering how to reverse this trend.

A Gallup report sheds light on how companies can potentially reduce turnover rates. The research found that when employees are highly engaged there’s a ripple effect that positively impacts everything from tenure to profitability.

Gallup’s research on company culture and employee satisfaction found that business units with highly engaged team members saw:

• 26% less turnover
• 41% reduction in absenteeism
• 17% increase in productivity

The report also shared that highly engaged business units see a 10% increase in customer ratings and a 20% increase in sales. With employees present and productive, highly engaged business units saw 21% greater profitability.

When employees feel connected, they’re less likely to leave. But that’s not the only benefit of an engaged workforce for an organization. High levels of engagement also strengthen your company’s financial health and translate to a stronger bottom line.

So how do you ensure your contact centre team remains engaged? Or, if their engagement has waned, how do you get them to re-engage? A good place to start is with a workforce engagement management (WEM) suite.

What is Workforce Engagement management?

At its core, WEM enhances the experience of the customer and the agent, while reducing operating costs. Some of the critical capabilities of a workforce engagement management suite include capturing, monitoring, analyzing, and assessing an agent’s interactions with customers.

Contact centre managers gain valuable insights about the quality of agents’ work and their level of engagement.

Here are a few ways a WEM suite can help improve engagement on your contact centre team:

Real-Time Feedback

With a workforce engagement management suite in place, you can monitor and listen to your agents in real-time. Instant access makes it easy for you to coach in-the-moment by offering immediate suggestions or corrective steps.

Having real-time monitoring also lets you check in with your team to gauge how they’re doing mentally and physically. When your agents know that you care enough to check on them, it builds loyalty and fosters greater engagement.

Workforce Management

A workforce management solution, which is different from a WEM suite, optimizes agent scheduling to meet the forecasted number of customer interactions. Contact centres have used workforce management tools for a while.

But today’s solutions use artificial intelligence and machine learning to facilitate an agile work environment. Agents are now part of the scheduling process so they can prioritize their work preferences and easily make changes if needed.

When you give an agent a say in when they work, they’re more likely to be engaged while they’re on the job.

Gamification

Businesses in all industries are using gaming techniques in their training, marketing, and recognition plans.

As part of a workforce engagement management suite, contact centres are finding success using gaming methods to motivate agents, encourage certain behaviors, enhance performance, and acknowledge when agents achieve their goals.

Gaming techniques are shown to be highly effective in providing employees with timely and consistent feedback. With regular coaching and recognition, agents can clearly see how their contributions benefit the broader team – another important element in fostering engagement.

Do I Need a WEM Suite for my Team?

If you’re unsure whether your contact centre needs a WEM suite or if you’re wondering if you should upgrade, we’ve made it easy for you to decide.

Take a minute to answer the 12 questions below or download our WEM decision framework. If you answer yes to seven or more of the questions, your contact centre is ready for a new WEM suite.

Does Your Contact Centre Need:

1. Real-time visibility into agent performance, whether on-site or remote?
2. The right tools to engage, recognize, reward, and motivate your team?
3. To enhance your onboarding program so agents are ready to help customers faster?
4. To reduce attrition?
5. A learning management system to improve agent efficiency and enhance the customer experience?
6. To measure what’s important to your company and customers?
7. Access to analytics so your team can be more agile?
8. An automated quality management process?
9. The ability to forecast, schedule, and monitor agents in real-time?
10. To stop using spreadsheets?
11. To include digital channels in your quality management program?
12. To be recognized as an employer of choice?

If you responded yes to seven or more of these questions, it’s time to get serious about how the critical capabilities of a workforce engagement management suite can benefit your contact centre.

After all, if your customers could interact with only one team member, wouldn’t you want it to be your most engaged agent? Why not foster that level of interaction across your entire team?

With a WEM suite, you can share real-time feedback, involve your agents in the scheduling process, and leverage gaming techniques to reinforce or change behaviors.

When you focus on agent engagement, your customers have better interactions, your operating costs are lower, and you reduce the risk of your contact centre being left in the wake of the turnover tsunami.

Author: Guest Author