Priceless Motivation

When tasks become routine, it creates boredom.

This is rampant in call center.

Agents shift from one job to another because things are becoming routine.

Call centers initiate a lot of activity or giveaways which they perceive are motivators for agents to stick to their job or somehow do their job efficiently. Spot cash, knick-knacks, cash incentives, gift checks are just some of the perceive motivators.

But there is one motivator that is priceless, effective and more importantly cost–effective:

The Stack Ranking.

Every end of the fiscal month, stack ranking is being generated. As mentioned, being in this industry is like being in school. Bayad ka nga lang!! And just like in school may Top 1 and eventually may Summa Cum Laude, may Magna Cum Laude and may Cum Laude and the rest of the honorable mention.

The same is true with Stack Ranking. There are those who are consistent to be on Top 10 and there are those who are consistently an outlier. It gives a sense of hope and or pride to those who are on the upper 20% of the Stack Ranking just to be able to see their name “posted publicly” as one of those who are keeping up with the account especially if the account is demanding. However, in order not to shame those who are at the lower 20%, it would be better to just put a disclaimer on the ranking.

To the rest of the people on the Stack Ranking, it also gives them a motivation to strive harder. If for example, one of their wave mate is on number 5 and he is on number 55, there is really that inherent motivation to be on that same level. The question that is on the mind of the person on the 55^th rank might be, we started on equal footing but now he is so ahead of me? For team mates, they know one another as to who is new and who is tenured and if a newbie was way far ahead than the tenured, that is somehow an insult thus they need to shape up.

Another benefit of Stack Ranking on part of the Operations Manager is that it will determine how many agents are really passing the metrics. If the overall score in order to pass with the account is 85% then how many agents pass to meet that score? What is the percentage of those agents who pass the score with the overall size of the account? What qualities those agents who pass the account has that those who didn’t doesn’t have whereas they are all evaluated using the same parameter during recruitment?

Stack Ranking can be done weekly or bi–weekly or if you are lazy, every end of the fiscal month. With Excel file comes pre–programmed wherein you just need to enter figures to change the value and it will automatically calculate all entries, I don’t see any reason by which posting of Stack Ranking would not be possible.

Most call centers are “superficial” when it comes to motivating agents to do their job efficiently. The technique that they are using is elementary. It’s like, if you will study harder, I’ll give you chocolates to put it in words. Call centers should start treating their employees as adults. Adults who are accountable and responsible enough to do their job and if they are able to execute their job efficiently, rewards is on the way. Cash is the most motivating rewards that an employee could receive.

Team Leaders should lead their subordinates to a common goal. Team Leaders should be able to motivate their agents as to what needs to be done and how to accomplish it and that is what they should be doing eighty percent of their time. But is that happening? I have first–hand experience from Team Leaders who feel intimidated if you will ask them question about the product whereas they are the one who should first to know about it. There are Team Leaders who is almost pushing you away just because you are an outlier and is treating you like a black sheep to the group.

Kung sisigawan mo yung empleyado mo sa harap ng maraming tao, you are demotivating him. If you are intimidating your employee because you are not knowledgeable about the product, you are demotivating him. If you are sensitive about criticisms about you and you think there is nothing wrong with you, you are demotivating him. Part of the job description of a Team Leader is to be flexible to different personality types. May agent diyan na napaka–reklamador. May agent diyan na tamad. May agent diyan na hyper palagi. May agent diyan na pala–absent. May agent diyan na Honda–dat. May agent diyan na seryoso palagi. As Team Leader, are you ready to accept them for what they are? Or pipiliin mo lang kung sino yung gusto mo at gagawin mo lahat ng paraan para ma–eliminate yung hindi mo gusto? Sa palagay mo every month magagawa mo yon? Eh kung lumipat ka sa ibang company at nagkataon na Operations Manager na yung agent na yon dun at siya ang magpa–final interview sayo at tinanong ka about your management style, anong sagot mo? Thus, it is very important that each one of us should be level–headed and act professionally as possible to avoid friction.

Lifted from The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lesson in Personal Change by Stephen R. Covey,

In addition, emphatic listening is the key to making deposits in Emotional Bank Accounts, because nothing you do is a deposit unless the other person perceives it as such. You can work your fingers to the bone to make a deposit, only to have it turn into a withdrawal when a person regards your efforts as manipulative, self–serving, intimidating, or condescending because you don’t understand what really matters to him.

Empathic listening is, in and of itself, a tremendous deposit in the Emotional Bank Account. It’s deeply therapeutic and healing because it gives a person “psychological air.”

If all the air were suddenly sucked out of the room you’re in right now, what would happen to your interest in this blog? You wouldn’t care about the blog; you wouldn’t care about anything except getting air. Survival would only be your only motivation.

But now that you have air, it doesn’t MOTIVATE you. This is one of the greatest insights in the field of HUMAN MOTIVATION: Satisfied needs to do not motivate. It’s only the unsatisfied need that MOTIVATES. Next to physical survival, the greatest need of a human being is psychological survival – to be understood, to be affirmed, to be validated, to be appreciated.

When you listen with empathy to another person, you give that person psychological air. And after that vital need is met, you can then focus on influencing or problem solving.

This need for psychological air impacts communication in every area of life.

Lifted from, In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America’s Best–run companies by Tom Peters & Robert H. Waterman,

In short, negative reinforcement will produce behavioral change, but often in strange, unpredictable, and undesirable ways. Positive reinforcement causes behavioral change too, but usually in the intended direction.

Why spend time on this? It seems to us that central to the whole notion of managing is the superior / subordinate relationship, the idea of manager as “boss,” and the corollary that orders will be issued and followed. The threat of punishment is the principal implied power that underlies it all. To the extent that this underlying notion prevails, we are not paying attention to people’s dominant need to be winners. Moreover, repeated negative reinforcement is, as Skinner says, usually a dumb tactic. It doesn’t work very well. It usually results in frenetic, unguided activity. Further, punishment doesn’t suppress the desire to “do bad.” Says Skinner: “The person who has been punished is not thereby simply less inclined to behave in a given way; at best, he learns how to avoid punishment.

As Skinner notes, the way the reinforcement is carried out is more important than the amount. First, it ought to be specific, incorporating as much information content as possible.

Second, the reinforcement should have immediacy. Thomas Watson, Sr., is said to have made a practice of writing out a check on the spot for achievements he observed in his own peripatetic management role.

Third, the system of feedback mechanisms should take account of achievability. Good news swapping is common in the excellent companies.

The fourth characteristic is that a fair amount of the feedback comes in the form of intangible but ever–so–meaningful attention from top management. When you think about it with management’s time being as scarce as it is, that form of reinforcement may the most powerful of all.

Treat People as adults. Treat them as partners; treat them with dignity; treat them with respect. Treat them – not capital spending and automation – as the primary source of productivity gains. These are fundamental lessons from the excellent company’s research. In other words, if you want productivity and the financial reward that goes with it, you must treat your workers as your most important asset.