15 Award-Winning Ideas from Teleperformance Contact Centre

Our Editor – Megan Jones – visited Michael Broughton, Dave Green, and the team at the Teleperformance site in Gateshead to hear what it takes to be an award-winning contact centre and even achieve Great Place To Work Certification an impressive 5 years in a row!

1. Bring Different Teams Together for “Tea Tuesdays”

It can be tricky for agents to get much chance to socialize with those outside of their immediate team – beyond chance encounters in the breakout room.

One way to help cross-team bonding and connection is to host a “Tea Tuesday” – every second Tuesday of the month – “just like a parents’ coffee morning”, as one agent put it.

This 15-minute social break with free tea and biscuits offers a monthly opportunity for agents to chat to their friends in other teams and build broader relationships across the contact centre.

2. No Updates? Use Your Team Huddle Time for Bonding Time Instead

Don’t cancel your team huddle if there’s nothing significant to report that day.

Use the time to promote team bonding. For example, do a quick quiz, play bingo, or even go for a team walk. It’s scheduled time together, so make the most of it.

3. Set Up an #Ideas Channel on Teams or Slack (With Prizes!)

One way to drive a culture of continuous improvement is to set up a dedicated #Ideas channel on Teams or Slack.

For example, Teleperformance have a #TPLovesIdeas channel where agents can post their ideas for improvements – and there’s even a prize if an idea gets implemented.

4. Introduce a Risk-Based Quality Model to Highlight the Biggest Issues, Faster

Quality scoring can easily become a tick-box “we’ve always done it this way” exercise with so many trackable elements that critical insights can be lost to information overload – making it difficult for agents and QAs alike to pinpoint where the biggest issues are.

That’s why Teleperformance overhauled their quality process with a new risk-based quality model – splitting feedback into 4 categories, 1 of them being ‘Risk’.

This new framework allows for greater clarity on what part of the call was flawed and what needs to happen next to address it – for all-round improved accuracy and support for agents, as Jordan Cousins, Quality Manager of the Year Finalist, explained:

5. Capture How People Are Feeling Every Day (And Do Something About It!)

Don’t just wait for an annual employee engagement survey for agents to tell you how they feel!

Teleperformance track employee sentiment every day for a pulse check on what’s happening across the contact centre.

These insights are then shared with the Employee Experience Lead, who makes sure that if there’s a spike in people feeling stressed (for example), they take steps to offer additional support – including sharing webinars and podcasts on tackling stress.

6. Try the Balloon Chair Challenge for a Fun Team-Building Exercise

A great team-building exercise to try is the ‘Balloon Chair Challenge’, where agents work together to build a usable chair out of balloons, string, and Sellotape.

Then, at the end of the exercise, see if they can sit on it for one minute without it breaking.

You can see this in action in this short YouTube video on the Balloon Furniture Challenge.

If you are looking for more ideas to engage your teams, read our article: Kick-Start Your Next Team Engagement Day

7. Share and Celebrate Agents’ Diverse Ethnic Backgrounds

Teleperformance truly celebrate diversity across their teams. Not only putting equal emphasis on all religious festivals but also creating structured opportunities for agents to share and celebrate different cultures.

Most recently, they’ve introduced a Culture Day, where agents from different ethnic backgrounds are encouraged to wear their cultural dress, as well as cook international dishes to share with their colleagues in the canteen. All to promote education and celebration.

8. Send Out a “Bump and Beyond” Pack to Expectant Parents

To show their support for and recognize expectant parents, they send out “Bump and Beyond” packs – including branded babygrows, bibs, toys, and rattles.

It’s an initiative that’s been very well received by employees so far – with the added benefit of being quick and easy for managers to order too.

9. Think Beyond the Vending Machine!

Going far beyond just having a vending machine in the corridor, the Gateshead site has a self-serve shop – offering freshly made sandwiches, sausage rolls, and coffee – being sure to support local suppliers wherever possible.

They also have healthy options available – including Slimming World lunch bowls available to buy and microwave.

Not only this, but they have a sweet lady who regularly visits to sell ‘pick and mix’, and they even have birthday cards on sale for added convenience.

10. Print Themed Postcards and Make Them Available on the Contact Centre Floor

A great way to help agents engage with key events in the social calendar – such as Pride Month in June – is to print themed postcards and make them available on the contact centre floor.

This makes it quick and easy for agents to choose one and write a nice message for a colleague, which can then be proudly displayed at their workstation.

11. Give Neurodiverse Candidates Interview Preparation Workbooks

Through one of their Employee Networks ‘TP Enable’ – which focuses on disability and neurodiversity – Teleperformance have set up an initiative to help support neurodiverse candidates in the recruitment process, by providing interview preparation workbooks in advance.

This has helped neurodiverse people by giving them the interview questions in advance, along with tips for success, so they can feel as calm and prepared as possible to give the interview their best effort.

For more advice on how to adapt to neurodivergent people and widen your talent pool, read our article: An Introduction to… Championing Neurodiversity in the Contact Centre

12. Use Lanyards as Visual Reminders for Mental Health First Aiders and Hidden Disabilities

Lanyards aren’t just useful for holding key passes. They can also be used as visual reminders.

For example, Teleperformance help colleagues identify who the Mental Health First Aiders are by giving them a distinct lanyard to mark them out.

They are also proud to support the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower campaign and give out sunflower lanyards to highlight agents with a hidden disability, who may need extra support or consideration from their colleagues.

13. Engage With Local Charities to Send Employees on External Secondments

Charity work doesn’t just have to be about donating money.

Teleperformance have taken their charitable efforts one step further by seconding one of their employees into a local charity for a whole year – paying their salary and maintaining other corporate benefits, whilst giving the charity the gift of time.

As a fifth person in a small team, their seconded member of staff has had a big impact already and the initiative has proved an overall success.

For a mix of practical ways to make your contact centre more charitable, read our article: Easy Ways to Make Your Contact Centre More Charitable

14. Try “Music Mondays” to Liven the Mood When Agents Aren’t Taking Calls

Depending on the nature of your teams’ work, there may be opportunities to play music – for example, if they are completing some admin tasks or just handling emails on a Monday morning.

So why not take full advantage of these moments and set up a speaker and playlist – where everyone can put their suggestions into the mix to lighten the mood?

15. Work With Schools to Help Create Better Futures for Local Young People

Teleperformance have a strong focus on social responsibility and supporting the local community.

For example, they work with a local charity to train their staff to offer career mentoring to students who don’t have a mentor in their personal life. It’s a win–win of supporting the community and employee engagement.

They also host monthly School Insight Days, working with My Big Career to bring 20 students at a time onto the site for a day of team-building and networking.

More recently, they’ve taken this to the next level by making it a bigger event – inviting 150 students in each day – and to date have now worked with over 1,000 students in their local area.

Overall, this type of work helps to support schools with The Gatsby Benchmarks and beat stereotypes about contact centre work too, as Dave Green, Managing Director at Teleperformance, shares:

To help them deliver against their wider social mobility initiatives, Teleperformance also proudly partner with The Purpose Coalition and, as such, form part of a group of organizations that are committed to breaking down barriers to opportunity.

They even launched their ‘Purpose Report’ in the House of Commons last year.

For more best practices and fun tips from other contact centres that we have visited, read our articles:

• 20 Innovative Lessons from Simplyhealth’s Contact Centre
• Behind the Scenes at Ocado – 21 Simply Soup-erb Ideas
• 15 Ideas You Can Use From Bupa’s Contact Centre
• Take Your Employee Experience to the Next Level – Lessons From Leeds Building Society

Author: Megan Jones
Reviewed by: Xander Freeman