The new breed of supervisors are game-changers. More coach and mentor than cop and enforcer, these enlightened leaders drive engagement — and results.

For customer-centric companies like Zappos, Southwest Airlines, and Nordstrom’s creating high employee engagement is a core business strategy. According to the latest research by the Ascent Group on customer service success, the most highly rated companies focus on the human aspect of customer care. Ascent says, “People matter. Engaged employees are the key to excellent customer service. Engaged employees are employees who feel as though they are truly valued at work; that their efforts directly contribute towards the mission and success of the company.”

Quality supervision is a key driver of employee engagement. According to the Gallup organization, “Supervisors who cultivate positive, caring relationships with employees generate high levels of engagement.” It makes sense that when employees tasked with serving customers have the confidence of knowing their supervisor cares about them, they feel more valued. When these service providers feel valued, they are eager to pass that positive feeling on to their customers by making them feel valued and important.

What makes the supervisors who have highly-engaged employees different, is how they view their relationship with their direct reports. Rather than seeing themselves as an enforcer of performance; they consider their role as a manager and developer of front-line talent. While conventional supervisors rate the person and develop the performance, this new breed of supervisor does just the opposite – they rate the performance and develop the person. The most effective leaders believe that every person is different and should be treated as such.

Despite the fact that quality supervision is a critical success factor for delivering top-box customer service and a key driver to employee engagement, supervisors are the most under-trained employees in most companies. Most are experienced service reps promoted from within the service center who receive training in the technical and systems side of managing a service operation. Seldom do these new leaders receive in-depth training in coaching and mentoring — two of the basic skills for gaining employee commitment and engagement.

Four Essential Ingredients for Supervisor Success

1. Accountability for engagement survey scores.

2. Time to spend with their reps.

3. Specialized engagement training.

4. Creative communication tools.

Look for an examination of these 4 essential ingredients for supervisor success, as well as recommendations for implementing them in your organization, in upcoming Monday Aha!s

Have a terrific week!

Barbara’s Most Recent TV Interview — February 16, 2010
Channel 9/FOX NEWS/Minneapolis: Job Shop with Tom Butler

Work Stress: Mind Over Matter

We all have stressors in our lives and stress at work can really wear us down. Here to talk about that and how to be happy and successful by simply changing your mind is Minnesota author, Barbara Burke. Her new book: “The Napkin, the Melon and the Monkey.”

The time has come for all good managers to come to the aid of their highly-stressed employees.

When the employees who serve your customers are feeling overwhelmed by stress day after day, your customers hear it and feel it. Satisfaction plummets, personnel costs rise and morale tanks.

If you don’t already have a room where your employees can go to get some peace and quiet, please consider creating one. A few months ago I did a survey of companies who have Quiet Rooms asked them to share lessons learned.

Steve Bassett who works in Facilities Management for Wachovia Bank said that his company has a quiet room in each of their 13 call centers (6000 employees). He wrote, “Quiet Rooms are considered an important facility need to create a ‘Great Place to Work’ environment. You take care of the call center agents and they’ll take care of your customers. This is proven true for us since we have received #1 customer service award eight years in a row in our industry.”

Six Tips for Creating a Quiet Room for Your Employees

1. When it comes to rules, less is more.
The vast majority of respondents said they do not have many formal rules for using their quiet room. The employees who use Quiet Rooms understand the need to respect others and maintain silence.

2. Avoid allowing the room be used for other purposes.
Resist the temptation to use the room as a break room, meeting room, a place to make phone calls or access the Internet. Some call centers have a separate “fun room” where employees can go to play video games, watch TV, play board games, etc.

3. Involve staff in the creation of the room.
“Many individuals added items to the room from their own homes to make it comfy and fun.” commented one respondent.

4. Locate the room adjacent to the office or call center. Include a window to the outside, if possible.
One respondent said that when they moved their quiet room to a more visible location (closer to the door) they noticed an significant increase in usage.  A surprising number of respondents said a quiet room was actually included in the design of their new facility.

5. When furnishing the room focus on comfort.
Standard furnishings include: comfortable chairs, a small table, lights on dimmers, a small clock, soothing colors on the walls (green was popular) and an area rug. Several said that they had message chairs and sound machines in their rooms. Other ideas worth considering: a lending library of books (employees bring in books to share), a fish tank, lava lamp, stuffed animals, soft-piped in music.

6. Not all employees will use the room regularly, but those who do consider it vitally important.
About 48% of the survey respondents said that between 5% and 15% of their employees used the quiet room in the last week. Another 40% of the respondents said that their room was used by 20% to 40% of employees during the same period. “The Specialists appreciate the fact that management supports them and understands what they experience every day; providing them with a quiet room communicates that management “gets it.”

If your company doesn’t have a designated quiet room where employees can go when they need to get away from it all, why not suggest it to upper management? If you are fortunate enough to have a room at your company, take advantage of the opportunity by using it yourself and encouraging others, as well.

You will find that taking time out to sit and “do nothing” for as little as 10 minutes during the work day can make the difference between a good Monday and bad one.