We all know that Contact Centres can suffer from low levels of employee engagement and high staff turnover – this in turn can impact all aspects of Customer Experience. Sinead Healy, Founder and Managing Director at Fanclub Recognition, shares her insight on reducing staff turnover and what millennial employees value at work.

Three ways to reduce employee turnover

No business wants to see their best people leave. Great talent, company and market knowledge can be difficult to replace, and a culture which sees a string of top performers leave for greener pastures hints at underlying issues beyond better pay and loftier job titles elsewhere.

High employee turnover is a costly business, too. SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management) estimates it can cost anywhere between six and nine month’s salary to properly replace a salaried employee. So, for a top plant manager or creative director earning £40,000, that’s a £20,000 to £30,000 cost to the organisation to find, recruit and train their replacement.

But beyond the expense, losing people can have a big impact on morale for the rest of the team. Losing grafters, top contributors and leaders can cause delays in projects and if it goes on for too long, it will leave other good employees thinking it may be time for them to move on as well.

So what can businesses do? Here are three things to consider.

1.  Does your business offer career progression opportunities?

One of the big reasons that top performers leave an organisation is because they’re highly attractive to other organisations and will likely have numerous offers on the table and the chance to join a new business in a higher position.

In fact, two-thirds of employees in a study from Penna say that a lack of career development opportunities at their current employer would see them looking for a new role.

2.  Does your organisation have a purpose beyond making a profit?

With the boundaries between work and life becoming more blurred, work for younger generations including millennials and Gen Z is less about paying bills and more of a lifestyle choice.

And a large part of that shift in thinking is the values of the employer, what their purpose is and how they contribute towards society.

Extensive research from Deloitte examining the behaviours and beliefs of millennials discovered that 74% said businesses have the potential to make a positive impact, from social progress to the environment, but less than 60% are doing everything they could to do so.

And with 75% of millennials saying they’d happily take a pay cut to work for a socially responsible company, can your business afford not to think about its’ impact on the wider world and a single purpose which can focus the vision and goals of the entire organisation?

3.  Do you recognise your employees?

Do your staff feel appreciated for the work they do? If not, this could be one of the key contributing factors behind a high voluntary turnover rate.

Research from Office Team found that 76% of millennials would resign from a job if they felt their organisation didn’t appreciate the work they put in on a regular basis.

For businesses that rely on managers to drive teams forward and recognise great work, this can be a challenge. Recognition is often the last job on the to-do list, and many daily behaviours that contribute positively to the overall success of the company can go unnoticed, and unappreciated.

A solution to this problem is implementing a peer-to-peer recognition program, empowering the people within your organisation to freely recognise each other for all the good behaviours and great work they see – as and when they happen.

 

Five things millennials value at work

Millennials make up the bulk of most front line contact centre staff and they have had a massive impact on workplaces globally.

The Baby Boomer generation had a more traditional and transactional view of going to work and receiving a pay cheque in return.  Millennials, as well as Gen Z, have completely changed what it means to be happy at work, how a job should represent more than a 9-5 and what they expect in return for their efforts.

For businesses, it has meant a shift away from the reward and recognition models of the past that relied more heavily on performance bonuses, years of service gifts and so on.

Today’s workforce wants more and, in some cases, they’d be willing to take a pay cut to get it.

So what do millennials really value at work? What day to day experiences and longer-term goals do they have?

Here’s a look at just five:

1.  Feeling recognised

More so than any other generation, including Gen Z, millennials want to feel appreciated for their efforts – and on a regular basis too.

In fact, research from Office Team found that 76% of millennials would consider leaving a job if they felt their efforts weren’t recognised.

However, over-reliance on management to be the sole distributors of praise and recognition within a business can hinder the frequency, as well as quality, of recognition that takes place.

2.  Alignment of personal and organisational values

Millennial workers want to feel there is a higher purpose to the work they’re doing and are driven by opportunities to contribute towards a bigger cause or create something new.

But beyond simply having interesting projects to work on, this also extends to the goals, visions and purpose of the business they’re working for, too. As a result, don’t be surprised to have conversations during the recruitment process that focus on the organisation’s values and CSR policies as millennial’s actively seek out employers whose values match theirs.

3.  Personal development opportunities

Millennials want to feel that they’re progressing, learning and moving forward with their careers – often at a pace that traditional organisations can’t facilitate!

However, workplaces that do facilitate learning opportunities, either through on-site coaching or off-site training budgets, can help keep millennials on-track with this need.

4.  Flexibility

One of the big reasons the gig economy is thriving is that younger generations want flexibility. And even in full-time, office-based jobs, millennial employees often expect the same flexibility.

This generation is focused more on getting a job done than clocking in and greatly value trust and transparency in workplaces which allow remote working and flexible working hours, too.

5.  A great place to work

As the boundaries between work-life and personal-life become more blurred for an always-on generation, younger workers also greatly value the environment in which they spend the majority of their week.

A report from CBRE found that 80% of those they asked said the quality of their work space was important. Interestingly though, only 33% said they preferred a collaborative workplace, and two in three aspire to have their own office one day.

 

Summary

The benefit of employee recognition is that there is a clear link between profit and employee engagement that has been proven again and again. Companies that have more engaged employees and higher morale are often leading in customer experience – which can generate higher ROI. In fact, companies that use peer to peer recognition have seen increases in customer satisfaction of up to 41%.

The benefits of employee recognition are hugely cost effective; from staff retention to employee satisfaction.  As experts in driving employee recognition, Fanclub Recognition Ltd can provide the tools to help organisations drive recognition behaviours.  For more information please visit https://www.fanclubrecognition.com/

psd has had a longstanding relationship with Fanclub Recognition and will be holding a series of round-table events focussing on employee engagement and recognition and how to use this to drive customer experience in 2020.  The first of these will be held in our Manchester office on Wednesday 12th February 2020. For more information on these sessions please email customer.contact@psdgroup.com