Ask the Experts Experts Library Performance

Topic: Performance

Question:
I am the manager of a new service desk in our company. The problem I am facing is that the analysts I have recruited are not adhering to the guidelines that were presented to them at the interview. They are to be on time, take lunch at their specified time and follow the specifics outlined in the job description. Within the last few months, I have let go two analysts, put one on written warning and another transferred out. I hate to use this term but I have analysts with an attitude problem. Many of them are insubordinate and they are always discussing their salaries with each other. As you can see, I have quite a few difficult situations to deal with besides setting up this new call centre. Any ideas on how I can recruit better analysts or how to deal with the analysts I have?

CCCAG:
Thanks for writing to us. We know you can appreciate that to begin to understand your specific situation, we would need to spend some time together in conversation. However, let's try to use this medium as effectively as we can and start off by giving you some insight into our work with call centre teams across North America that we help and support.

The challenges and opportunities you describe are actually quite common. Our experience is that one of the key reasons for people performance issues is lack of clear goals and expectations. We are advocates of instilling a charter of Customer Rights, Employee Rights and Senior Management Rights regarding the call centres. For example, you might create employee rights like the following:

1. Employees have the right to know in clear and certain terms what is expected.
2. Employees have the right to know how they are doing relative to expectations.
3. Employees have the right to improve their skills with the help of the organization.

Where these rights are in place and honoured for all call centre employees, many of the employee-related issues clear up because everyone has the same play book. This is only one suggestion but if you choose to act on it, it may surprise you how much it can help.

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