Are you promoting your best agents to supervisors and managers? If so, you may be promoting to failure.
Those of us in the contact center industry want to reward our employees and keep our star performers happy. One key reward is a career path through the leadership ranks, but it may not always be the best plan.
The best agents are your best because they thrive in that role, they have the personalities and behaviors of a successful agent, they instinctually know what to do to make the sale or make the customer happy, and they can go with the flow to understand a customer and modify their responses based on that unique customer’s needs. Your best agents oftentimes are the happiest in their jobs.
Then they get promoted!
All of a sudden, they’re not doing what they are good at. They’re dealing with situations that don’t match their strengths and their performance as a leader suffers. They were happy, but now they may hate the thought of coming to work because it is no longer satisfying for them, so they leave to find a new role that better matches their needs.
Now you have lost your best agent.
To ensure that your agents have the personalities and behaviors of a successful leader, have them take a leadership personality profile. See what their strengths are as a leader and use that to determine whether they should move to a leadership role. If they aren’t going to be a great leader, explore a different career path for them. Maybe a subject-matter expert or training support role would be a better fit. In some cases, the best option is no career path: Reward the employee with a better compensation plan that encourages their retention.
Be aware of what makes your employees tick and you will have a more stable workforce with high retention and satisfied customers.
