As we kicked off the New Year, you are probably considering your employee engagement strategy for 2015. How will you motivate employees to do their best work in 2015?
This year I’m advocating a focus on performance driven culture to engage employees and ultimately drive positive customer interactions this year. Organizations that emphasize performance driven culture regularly see an increase in CSAT of 10+ points AND lower cost of employee care by 10% – those are some lofty goals for 2015 but I promise with the right focus they are within reach.
There are three hallmarks of a company with performance driven culture: targeted coaching, actionable insight and motivation through social collaboration.
1. Targeted coaching with individualized goals
Organizations with a thriving performance driven culture know there’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all coaching program. They understand that every employee needs a coaching program unique to the individual being coached.
Do this by transparently sharing performance data with coaches and employees. This way, both parties come to coaching sessions with an accurate view of success as well as areas for improvement. Employees and coaches can track progress across time and adjust training needs when transparency is part of the overall strategy.
2. Actionable insights based on rich data
You collect tons of value-rich data on customer interactions and employee habits. But numbers do no good when they are stuck with number crunchers at corporate. Instead, deliver reports straight to managers and employees on the frontline so that they can take action!
Actionable insights are gained when employees can easily drill into root cause analytics and listen to calls to understand the behavior behind a service issue. By putting the right data at an employee’s fingertips they can maximize growth and align around company goals with a single source of truth as the measuring stick.
3. Social Collaboration for Sustained Motivation
Keep motivation high and employees engaged by focusing on social elements. Technologies like gamification and best practice libraries keep employees connected, aligned with company goals, and focused on keeping customer centric skills sharp.
Accomplish this by implementing a gamification strategy that goes beyond keeping track of top performers on a whiteboard. Reward employees for their performance on a yearly, monthly, weekly – even daily – basis, so more people have a chance to be recognized by their peers. Use a strategy that encourages employees to reach out to one another when they are stuck on a training, quest or task. This works especially well in work-from-home environments. Best practice libraries aid in keeping employees sharp and focused on what really matters to the organization. Create gamified challenges that focus employees on organizational goals, and skills to support new products or initiatives.
When creating a performance driven culture, emphasize targeted coaching, actionable insight and social collaboration. This trio will keep your employees focused on metrics that matter and give them the ability to change behaviors that hamper customer experience. Employees will be motivated to do their best work when they are engaged in culture of performance. We’re calling on you to help us start a revolution of performance driven culture in 2015!