Collector - August 2017 - 22
"Often you get this wealth of training and coaching when you have a new hire but as that person gets acclimated you kind of step back a bit," Conklin said. She said while new and seasoned employees certainly need different types of training, it should be continuous throughout their tenure with your company in order to keep them connected to your policies and procedures as well as your broader goals. Your training sessions should also mention how your employees' efforts positively impact their community (helping people get a handle on their finances) and the national economy as a whole (keeping the cost of goods and services down). PROMOTE CAMARADERIE AND CONNECTIONS Humans are social creatures-even introverts want to feel like they belong. A Gallup study found that call centers with employees who believed it was very important that they "have a best friend at work" were more productive than companies whose employees didn't have that. In fact, call center agents with the strongest preference for close coworker relationships answered .73 more calls per hour than their peers. You can't force people to be friends, but one simple way to help employees build a social network is to offer opportunities for them to connect with their co-workers and have some fun throughout the day. These can be relatively simple things, like friendly competitions to meet company goals, office pools or team lunches. "We have monthly trainings that are either company-wide or department-specific and we bring snacks and drinks to them, which make them a little bit more fun," said Cortney Fleming, hiring and training manager and junior compliance officer for Wilber & Associates P.C. "We also introduce any new team members at these meetings. As companies grow, it's easy to miss who the new people are." Edmonds encouraged companies to not only formally define exactly how everyone is to be treated in the workplace-respectfully, 22 kindly-but to also ensure leaders coach these behaviors in managers. "Leaders must no longer tolerate misaligned behavior from anyone," he said. "Quashing poor behavior will go a long way towards boosting coworker friendships." Volunteerism efforts bring coworkers together too, strengthening relationships as people work side-by-side planting trees or assembling care packages. "One thing I love about where I work now is the staff 's commitment to community involvement and charity work," Conklin said. "It can be something as simple as everybody coming together to buy raffle tickets, and then donating the money won to a homeless shelter. Or it can be something more formal like a food drive. All the different fundraisers we have help us give back and keep staff engaged. That's what people want: to be part of a company that does good things." TRAIN MANAGERS-AND EXECUTIVES-TO PROMOTE ENGAGEMENT As with every other business initiative, employee engagement is a top-down project. The way your executives treat your management affects the way your management treats their team members, which affects the whole tone of your company. Let's say it's time to implement a big change in your organization. Maybe you're replacing your collection software or reconfiguring your management team. How do you roll out that change? Should you unveil it dramatically in an all-staff email to head-off any presumed grumbling and let everyone know at once, or invest some time in gaining employee buy-in through management briefings and team meetings? While the former may be appealing for its efficiency, the latter will ultimately help ward off negativity and stress. Study after study drives home one clear point: employees value leaders who are transparent and demonstrate respect for staff. Open communication is key to earning trust. "I definitely think that sometimes managers get caught up in emails and 70% OF EMPLOYEES SAY THEY FEEL MOST ENGAGED WHEN SENIOR LEADERSHIP CONTINUALLY UPDATES AND COMMUNICATES STRATEGIES TO THE STAFF. Source: Harvard Business Review meetings and forget that individuals need that personal touch," Fleming said. "If employees don't feel comfortable going to their boss with a problem, they are going to leave the job." Your managers should not only be continually communicating corporate goals, but also tying them to specific actions employees at all levels take every day. This sounds simple enough but can be deceptively tricky, especially for those new to management positions. Middle managers participating in a Grovo survey reported that more than two out of five of their company's managers were unprepared for the management role when they took the job. "I think we tend to forget about training our management team and leaders," Conklin said. "A lot of companies lose good people because they don't invest time and ACAINTERNATIONAL.ORG