The 7 Pillars of Advisor Morale

What does it really take to keep advisor morale consistently high?

Our Editor – Megan Jones – spoke to employee engagement experts Alex McConville, Danny Wareham, Emma Wilson, Maria McCann, Matt Riley, and Shep Hyken to find out what the 7 pillars are and why you need them – all to help you easily pinpoint where there’s room for improvement across your contact centre.

1. Getting Pay and Holiday Right

The essential basics have to be delivered correctly to ensure a strong baseline for agent morale.

This includes getting pay, any commission or bonuses, and annual leave right – every time. And if there is an error? Make sure it’s fixed immediately!

“I’ve always been told “Never mess up an agent’s pay or holiday. After that, you can’t go too far wrong!”

Agent morale will unravel fast if they are venting to their colleagues about “Why is my pay always wrong?” or “I put my holiday request in four weeks ago and still haven’t heard anything back”.

You just can’t build good culture on rocky foundations.” – Alex McConville, Contact Centre Consultant and author of ‘Diary of a Call Centre Manager’

2. Explaining the “Why” Behind Any Changes

Always explain “why” something is happening to take agents on that journey with you – for changes big and small.  

If you do this consistently well, it’s far easier for agents to understand why they are being inconvenienced and asked to learn a new system or approach – particularly if you can link it to the company mission statement.

Sadly, it’s too easy for decisions to be communicated via top-down emails that simply say “from tomorrow, you must do this” – with no explanation. And that just rubs everyone up the wrong way and compromises morale in the long run.

For advice on managing change in the contact centre, read our article: How to Manage Big Changes Well in the Contact Centre

3. Knowing People as Individuals

As a leader, it’s fundamentally important that you understand your people and recognize their individual talents and idiosyncrasies – the good and the frustrating. When people feel that they belong, they’re seen, and they matter, this all helps to build up morale.

“Creating sustainable morale all comes down to the core psychological drivers of people – including “Do I matter?”, “Am I seen?”, “Do I make a difference?” and “Do you miss me when I’m not around?

When these things are missed, it’s easy for people to feel replaceable, and nobody likes to think of themselves as being just another cog in a machine.

It’s all about how you tailor your approach to show Sarah that you know who she is as a person – not just an advisor.” – Danny Wareham, Founder & Director of Firgun

4. Offering Wellbeing Support

If you look after your agents’ wellbeing, then not only does it have a positive impact on morale, but it also boosts productivity and reduces absenteeism. It’s a no-brainer!

“We have two wellbeing advocates here in the Specsavers contact centre that drive all of our wellbeing activity.

For example, they recognized Sun Awareness Week with a campaign of top tips for staying safe in the sun, as well a competition to win a pack of goodies – including sun cream.

Business-wide, we’ve also got free access to Headspace, a wellbeing hub, Mental Health First Aiders, and a WeCare employee service.

We really encompass everything that there is about wellbeing and I believe it’s absolutely vital for morale.” – Emma Wilson, Operations Manager – Optics at Specsavers

For top tips to help you better support your agents’ mental health and wellbeing, read our article: 10 Wellbeing Tips From an Award-Winning Contact Centre

5. Running a Varied Reward and Recognition Programme

Reward and recognition is key too! However, this is about far more than just handing out pizza on a Friday and expecting it to magically boost morale.

Rather, it’s about bringing together a programme of weekly, monthly, and even yearly recognition – aligned with your company values, or even celebrations for annual events such as Easter, Diwali, or the Great British Tea Party, to hang it on something bigger.

Quite simply, keeping morale high doesn’t just stem from a one-off fun activity!

So yes, you can still give out pizza on a Friday, but it needs to sit within a wider programme to make a real, long-term impact.

6. Empowering Agents to Say “Yes” to Customers

If agents live in a world where their leaders don’t trust them, they will likely feel a bit oppressed and not enjoy coming to work.

This is why it’s so important to empower agents to say “yes” to an unfamiliar request – without having to escalate to a manager every single time.

“Empowering agents starts with applying “the yes mentality”, where agents feel confident to apply creative thinking to meet customer needs. This takes training to show how far an agent can go to take care of a customer.

To work well, this also needs a safety net for agents, so if they do something they’ve never done before and tell their manager after the fact, there’s no grounds for negativity or punishment.

Just space for the manager to either say “That is great. I’m going to share this with everybody” or “That’s great, but next time I want you to try this instead…” – Shep Hyken, Chief Amazement Officer (CAO) at Shepard Presentations LLC

It’s about having a conversation – not dishing out a punishment, so agents feel safe and empowered to keep delivering great customer service.

7. Making Sure You’re Always Being True to Your Word

This trust has got to go both ways! So, it’s equally important that, as a leader, you are always true to your word, so agents trust and respect you too!

“So much of keeping morale high is just being true to your word. This comes down to managing expectations too – especially if you can’t get the answer straight away.

For example, it can go a long way to say “I don’t have all the information on that right now, but I’m hopefully going to have it by the end of the day, and then I’ll be able to get back to you” – and then make sure you keep checking in, so you’re good to your word.

Even if the answer isn’t what they want to hear in the end, at least you’ve followed through and helped maintain your credibility for next time.” – Matt Riley, Contact Centre Performance Specialist

After all, agents can quickly lose faith in your leadership if they feel you’ve forgotten to follow up about something that’s important to them.

Don’t Just Check In Once a Year! Routinely Measure Agent Energy Levels to See Where There’s Room for Improvement

Success doesn’t come from an annual survey either. It’s about staying close to your agents and understanding how they feel, so you can intervene sooner rather than later.

“In a previous role, I developed a way to measure the energy levels of agents, with a very quick self-evaluation form that would appear on an agent’s desktop to ask, “What’s your energy level like right now?”

We then tracked the results and learned a lot about our agents – including that energy levels were always really, really low on a Wednesday morning.

After a bit of investigating, we discovered that Tuesday night was student night, so we decided to make Wednesday morning “breakfast morning” to help soak up the booze and get the day off to a better start for everyone.

It really made a difference and proved the value of a little and often approach to checking in with our agents.” – Maria McCann, Co-Founder of Neos Wave

Which Pillars Do You Think Are Most Critical to Keeping Agent Morale High in the Contact Centre?

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With thanks to the following people for sharing their thoughts for this article:

• Alex McConville, Contact Centre Consultant and author of ‘Diary of a Call Centre Manager’
• Danny Wareham, Founder & Director of Firgun
• Emma Wilson, Operations Manager – Optics at Specsavers
• Maria McCann, Co-Founder of Neos Wave
• Matt Riley, Contact Centre Performance Specialist
• Shep Hyken, Chief Amazement Officer (CAO) at Shepard Presentations LLC

If you are looking for more information to improve your contact centre environment and motivate staff, read these articles next:

• 10 Quick Wins for Cheering Up Your Agents
• How to Overhaul Your Employee Engagement (EX) Strategy
• 18 Goodwill Gestures to Build Better Employee Relationships

Author: Megan Jones