|
| Human Resources |
Human Resources
There is a point developed by Bartlett and Ghoshal (2002) make the case that human, not financial, capital must now be the starting point and foundation for successful strategy. They consider that financial capital and also technology are increasingly being commodified, and each is found in abundant supply. Derived from that, the skills, knowledge, and ability to innovate of an organization's staff will increasingly be the distinguishing factors for successful strategy implementation and value creation.
It is shown by customer service studies that when something goes right, customers give credit to the individual employee dealing with the problem; when something goes wrong, customers usually blame the organization itself. It makes it crucial for any organization to have the right number of people, with the right skills, at the right place and the right time, ready to answer customer demands (Krol, 2002). Personnel costs form 60% to 70% of costs in call centers in North America.
Therefore, recruitment and hiring of front line and call center managers, training and coaching of staff, and ongoing performance management are very important to a call center's success. Staff of call centers are the front-line human element for the customer, they need to feel that they are a vital part of the organization in order to promote the reputation of the organization. It is very important to select staff with customer service skills , such as excellent communication skills, writing skills, and a positive attitude. What is also important to recruit personnel with appropriate experience and educational background, to ensure that they are capable of providing quality services to customers or students.
But what is even more important is training and ongoing coaching, as call center environments, technologies, processes, etc., tend to change rapidly. It is essential that staff is involved in the changes, buy into the new processes, and have the information they need to be able to carry them out.
What is extremely important is assessment and performance checks. Some examples of questions one would like to ask are:
1. What are the employee satisfaction levels?
2. What are your customers saying about the service they are receiving? Etc.
Staff retention is as important as retention of customers, so that loyalty to the service is maintained. One of the scientists (Rigby et al. (2003)) notes that the prime driver of customer loyalty is the loyalty of the organization's employees. Surely, creating a positive and healthy environment for employees will improve the service they provide to customers. It is found (Evanson et al. (1998)) that institutions with customer service representatives recruited from within the organization experience lower turnover. Organizations that have fewer empowered employees have higher turnover. It was also noted that institutions with higher employee empowerment tend to have higher overall customer focus, and that institutions with greater customer focus have higher average spending on labour.
It is argued that call centers can and should allow employees to upgrade their skills, make more and better decisions, and participate in team-based organizational culture. Undoubtedly, skills training leads to higher employee satisfaction and higher productivity. Staff should be corporate ambassadors for the organization. It is also argued that organizations should pursue decentralization and team building: frontline employees are more productive if they are allowed to make decisions and provide input into the operation of the call center; and customer service is more effective if employees feel they are part of the common effort to achieve excellence.
|
|
