Performance management systems are an invaluable tool for contact centers. With customer experience expectations increasing all the time, it’s vital that you are keeping track of overall staff performance and monitoring where improvement is needed. But how can you ensure that the performance management system you implement is a success? Here are our top tips:
1. Make positivity your focus
Successful performance management is a positive force for your staff and the office atmosphere as a whole. Faced with so much data about your employees work it can be tempting to jump on the areas that need improvement. But this approach is not only demoralizing for staff, it also misses skill sets and achievements that should be nurtured and celebrated. So how can you found your system on positivity?
- Share positive feedback with the whole office.
- Give praise sincerely and often.
- Develop an incentives/rewards system that celebrates exceptional performance.
A positive approach is key to implementing a successful performance management system.2. Communicate with your team
Rapid changes to working practices and expectations can understandably be unsettling and disengaging for your employees. To tackle this and get your staff on board with performance management, it’s important that you keep staff well informed. This helps everyone to feel comfortable with the new processes they will be working with. How can you do this?
- Be open and honest with your team about the new system and what it means for them from the outset.
- Share the exact details of what you will be measuring and how.
- Be open to staff feedback. This is important during initial implementation but also continually as the system gets up and running.
3. See it as an opportunity to upskill staff
Performance management systems are excellent at aggregating employee data and highlighting areas that need to be improved. This is a fantastic opportunity to get to know the individuals in your team, which areas they prefer and which they need more training on.
Targeted training and upskilling your employees raises overall performance and is engaging for staff.So what can you do to help upskill your team?
- Identify areas for employee improvement and provide coaching and personal development.
- Introduce further training and upskilling to staff career paths
- Don’t be too hasty in letting poor performing employees go – take time to understand the exact reasons for their results, there may be a simple solution!
4. Train your managers
At the end of the day the better managers understand the system they are working with the more likely it is to succeed. Thorough training from experts on how to run and implement a performance management system and integrate it into existing routines can help pave the way.
If you’re looking to implement a performance management system into your contact center and want to make it a success, get in contact with the experts at Call Design today.