Guest Blog:
Dana Olson, Process Manager, West Corporation
While you may not be a soccer fanatic, you have to admit that World Cup Soccer fuels extra spirit and passion around the sport. Why? The World Cup happens once every four years. Rare events bring excitement. If the world cup happened four times during a year, it would probably not be as exciting. What if it happened every day? When activities occur on a regular basis, people tend to find them routine and begin to lose the passion. Service Desk Analysts take several phone calls every day so how do we keep their passion alive? Knowing the economy, this A – E list contains ideas that require little to no cash.
Appreciation: In these tough times everyone wants to feel valued. A sincere thank you can help improve morale and provide a sense of appreciation. Praise should be used for work that is beyond the normal job requirements. To be effective, make sure you are specific in your gratitude and be
selective when you use it.
Balance: How can you provide better work/life balance? It might be working a few days from home or working four ten hour days and having an extra day off. Employees are more productive when they can adequately juggle career and home concerns. In addition, you will see improved morale. If flex time is new and you are concerned, start small and only try it one or two days a week.
Connect and Communicate: Think about all your interactions with staff members. You need to be accessible and ready to listen. This provides you an opportunity to find out what makes your employees happy and what concerns them. Once you connect, be ready to communicate. Communication is even more critical in difficult times. Be honest and up front with any situation. While you are connected, brainstorm with employees on ways to reignite their
passion.
Development: Personal and professional development allows employees to grow. While funds may not be available for training, you can assign employees tasks that will allow them to utilize their skills or their strengths allowing them to be active contributors.
Another way to build skills is allow them to attend a local HDI meeting and share thoughts with others in their industry.
Extend time off the phone: What? Time off the phones – this is our job. True, this is not the easiest to do. However, handling issue after issue can lead to stress. What is a proven method to reduce stress? Exercise! Give them an extra 15 to walk outside or extend their lunch so they can shoot some hoops.
In tough times like this managers tend to focus on the financials and ignore the needs of their staff. This lack of involvement can lead to disengaged employees. Their dissatisfaction will spread like a wild fire throughout the group. Additionally, the impact from disengaged employees has been linked with decreased employee retention, customer loyalty and revenue. The results can actually be worse than financial concerns taking your attention.
