This is the third part in a series on the crucial role that supervisors play in driving employee engagement and customer satisfaction.

4 ESSENTIAL INGREDIENTS
For Supervisor Success

1. Accountability for employee engagement scores.
2. Time to coach and connect.
3. Specialized engagement training.
4. Creative communication tools.

“Conventional supervisors rate the person and develop the performance. The New Breed of Supervisors do just the opposite — they rate the performance and develop the person.” – Barbara Burke

Today’s employees crave more quality time with their supervisor. The results of employee engagement surveys frequently reveal the need for supervisors to do more in the way of rewarding and recognizing employees for their contribution. But that doesn’t mean “rewarding” employees with more coupons to Subway or movie tickets. What it does mean is that supervisors take a more personalized approach to employee recognition.

The best supervisors appreciate the value employees place on the personal touch. They understand the importance of meeting performance goals, but instead of chasing the numbers, the most effective supervisors focus on cultivating a positive, caring relationship with each employee on their team. These leaders understand the snowball effect of caring. When supervisors show they genuinely care about their employees, those employees are much more willing to show they care about their job and their customers.

I typically recommend that call center supervisors spend a minimum of 50% of their time out of their office, interacting directly with their people. It’s not enough to spend more time with your people, what’s most important is what you do to add value during those interactions.

I offer this example as a cautionary tale. (It’s a true story.)  A contact center manager at a utility, in an effort to improve employee engagement survey scores, ordered her team of 6 supervisors to spend a minimum of 50% of their time out on the floor “working with their people.” The well-intentioned manager assumed that since she’d know what to do if given the opportunity to spend time with service reps, that her supervisors would too. As it turned out, she was mistaken.

The supervisors, not knowing what else to do, spent half their time hanging out and chit-chatting with the reps (and each other) and the rest of their time offering their reps “constructive criticism.” After several days of this, there was a backlash. Reps complained that their supervisor was getting in their way and asked that he return to his office.

This week, observe the “snowball effect.” Notice what happens when you take the time to get to know the employees you don’t know very well. Go ahead and ask them what they need from you — what you can do to help them be even more successful.

NEXT MONDAY: The 3rd Essential Ingredient for Supervisor Success: to be truly effective supervisors need specialized training in how to build employee engagement and commitment.

This is the second part in a series on the crucial role that supervisors play in driving employee engagement and customer satisfaction.

4 ESSENTIAL INGREDIENTS
For Supervisor Success

1. Accountability for employee engagement scores.
2. Time to spend with their reps.
3. Specialized engagement training.
4. Creative communication tools.

“Conventional supervisors rate the person and develop the performance. The New Breed of Supervisors do just the opposite — they rate the performance and develop the person.” – Barbara Burke

If you are serious about improving employee engagement you need to measure it. Having done thousands of these surveys, I’ve learned what works and what doesn’t. The following list captures some of the most important lessons learned.

Barbara’s 10 LESSONS LEARNED About Employee Engagement Surveys

1. Create your own survey to fit your needs.
Consider designing a survey to fit your situation. (I limit the number of questions to 12) Implement the survey using one of the easy-to-use and inexpensive on-line tools (I like Survey Monkey).

2. Involve the supervisors in crafting the survey questions.

3. Focus most of the survey questions on getting the employees’ opinion of the relationship and quality of support they receive from their supervisor. For example: “When talking with my supervisor about a problem or concern, I feel that he or she listens to me.”

4. Do everything you can to get all your employees to take the survey.

5. Use the initial survey to obtain a “before” snapshot of the current situation.
(Please do not do a survey unless you are serious about acting on the results.)

6. Use the results to pinpoint the supervisors’ training gaps are.
(Look for specific recommendations on supervisor training later in this series.)

7. Align what was learned in the survey with each supervisor’s professional development plan.

8. Gauge the effectiveness of the training on coaching and mentoring by repeating the identical survey for the next 3 to 4 quarters.

9. Incorporate the survey scores into the supervisors’ performance scorecard.
Remember the adage — “What gets measured gets done.”

10. Don’t lose sight of the purpose of the the engagement survey. While survey results are an important and useful data point, the real reason you are measuring engagement is to improve the satisfaction of your customers.

I hope that you find this information useful as you develop an engagement measurement process that works for you. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me. I’m happy to help.

Have a great week.

NEXT MONDAY: The 2nd Essential Ingredient for Supervisor Success — Supervisors need time to spend with their reps.

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!

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