Strengthening the Circle of Hiring, Training , and Performance

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Strengthening the Circle of Hiring, Training ,
and Performance

• Marc Van Baar
• Blackbaud

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The Big Picture
2-Training
3-Coaching
1-Recruiting
4-Performance
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The three linking tools
1. Individualized Training Plans (ITPs)
2. Linking Meetings
3. Client Centric Goals for non-agents
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ITP Screen used by Ongoing Training Coordinator
to assess training needs per individual.
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• Screen used by recruiter, trainer, coach and
  manager to enter training needs.

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Recruiting

• Looking back Which employees currently are top
  performers? What is their educational background?
  What work experience do they have? Recruit more
  people with similar backgrounds.
• Looking forward Track potential success factors
  so that you can improve recruiting in the future.
  We track several potential success factors (see
  next slide)

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• Recruiters role in Linking meeting
• Provide strengths and weaknesses of upcoming
  hires to trainers and add these to ITPs.
• Review performance of people currently in
  training and cross reference with perceived
  pre-employment weaknesses.
• Review performance of people that recently
  graduated.
• Bi-monthly Prove your theory presentation.
• Brag about recent successes/analyze failures.

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Training

• Looking back All our trainers started as Contact
  Center agents. To stay in touch with the Contact
  Center agent position, trainers become coaches
  after they graduate their most recent students.
  Trainers coach new employees when they first come
  on the floor. If no additional coaching is
  needed, they become escalation points until the
  next training group comes in.
• Looking forward Trainers capture real life
  situations during these coaching periods and use
  them in the next training to provide Question
  Centric training. Since troubleshooting is a key
  skill in our Contact Center, we have shifted our
  teaching styles from Answer Centric to Question
  Centric to improve performance.

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One tangible outcome of a Linking Meeting We
noticed that people that ask the right questions
perform far better on the floor. We switched to
Question Centric Teaching vs. Answer Centric
Teaching to increase performance

• 1) State a client issue and select the same
  wording as a client would.
• 2) Trainer asks students what questions they
  would ask of the client (as opposed to what
  answer they would give)
• 3) If trouble shooting/probing skills affect
  performance at your Contact Center, then give
  this a try! Both the curriculum and the teaching
  style need to be made question centric for this
  to be a success.

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• Trainers role in Linking meeting
• Provide strengths and weaknesses of current
  trainees back to the recruiter.
• If a group just graduated, present the graduates
  graduation profiles to the recruiter, coaches and
  managers. Strengths and weaknesses are noted in
  these graduation profiles.
• Review performance of people that recently
  graduated and cross reference with their
  graduation profiles.
• Bi-monthly Prove your theory presentation Is
  performance on a certain test during training
  indicative of future performance?
• Brag about recent successes/analyze failures.
• Add training needs from recent graduates to ITPs.

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Example of a Graduation Profile

• Name Sharon
• Attitude Meets Expectations
• Initiative Exceeds Expectations
• Attendance Meets Expectations
• Scores Meets Expectations/Exceeds expectations
• Ability to find answers using resources Meets
  Expectations
• Class participation Meets Expectations
• Sharon is the strongest analyst in this class.
  She picks up on all new concepts very easily and
  also thinks critically about the design of the
  software, constantly trying to understand the
  overall and specific functions. Several times
  during LAUNCH, she asked when she could take a
  case and would also spend time looking at the
  cases in the live Clarify queue (without
  accepting them) so that she could get a better
  idea of what to expect. She is very proactive
  when answering questions on labs and did very
  well on her phone mocks. I have no concerns with
  Allison.

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Linking meeting Trainers in touch with future
performance
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Coaching

• Looking back We used to rely heavily on coaching
  via randomly recorded contacts. Reviewing
  recorded contacts takes a while, so the agent
  received delayed evaluations from coaches she
  barely knew. Goals for coaches were Coach
  Centric They were based on scores assigned by
  coaches For example, Our agents average score
  needs to be 1.97.
• Looking forward It is our belief now that the
  best way to provide feedback is not after an
  action has taken place, but right before the
  action takes place again. For that reason, we now
  provide side-by-side evaluations in addition to
  randomly recorded evaluations. Goals have shifted
  from directly Coach centric to Agent/Client
  centric.

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An example of linking performance objectives of
coaches to the performance of the agents they
coach
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An example of linking agent performance back to
coaches and managers.
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• Coachs role in Linking meeting
• Learn about the people that are currently in
  training
• Review Graduation profiles for people that
  recently graduated.
• Review performance of people that recently
  graduated and assess what they need to be coached
  on. For example, if an agent takes less contacts
  than her peers, then coaching on Disengaging
  from the client may be needed.
• Brag about recent successes/analyze failures.
• Add information to ITPs (this is done after
  coaching sessions and after Linking Meetings)

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Looking at performance in the Linking meeting
How does a persons performance compare to her
team or the entire Support Department?
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Linking Meeting What did the Trainers predict
and how are they actually performing?
Trainers
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In summary

• 1) Farm potential success predictors by looking
  at your strongest agents.
• 2) Going forward, track these potential success
  indicators for all new hires and have recruiters
  rank all new hires. Add new hire info to ITP when
  appropriate.
• 3) Trainers create a graduation profile in which
  the recent graduates are ranked. Trainers also
  add information about each student to ITPs.
• 4) After X months after graduation, rank the
  performance again of the most recent graduates.
• 5) Review the potential success indicators for
  the top performers See any trends? Provide them
  to the recruiters. Also, was the recruiter
  ranking in sync with the performance ranking?
• 6) Contrast the true performance rankings with
  the rankings the trainers provided. Discuss
  successes and failures. For example, agent Jeff
  is a star on the floor but had a low ranking in
  training. Learn the reasons for the discrepancy.
  Perhaps assertiveness plays a bigger role than
  trainers thought.
• 7) Provide your coaches and Ongoing Education
  trainers with all the rankings and info so that
  they can tailor their coaching and training to
  the individual needs of employees.

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A culture of linking recruiting, coaching and
training to performance

• As a result of Linking meetings, recruiters,
  trainers and coaches may start exploring links
  spontaneously (example of an email)

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Questions?
MarcVanBaar
_at_Blackbaud.com