Posted by on July, 18 2019 7:29 pm
With the seasons changing once more to let the summer sunshine in through the windows of your facility, it can be easy for your employees to feel restless in their seats. After all, who wants to be stuck at their desk when there is so much going on outside? Summer is one of the worst times of the year for that bored, restless feeling to settle in and call center employee morale to take a downturn.
How can you keep spirits high and attitudes sunny in the summer months at your contact center? Here are a few helpful hints for improving summertime call center employee morale - and keeping things cheerful no matter what the seasons bring!
What’s the best way to bring some of the summer sunshine into your office? Get outside and experience a little of it firsthand! It’s something we are quick to say to our children and teenagers, but how often should we instead be saying it to ourselves?
When possible, get groups of your call center staff out of the building and into the sunshine for five-minute periods up to three times during the workday. This will be long enough to benefit from fresh air and sunshine without risking sunburn. It will brighten moods and improve call center employee morale - just be sure everyone has their sunglasses!
When this isn’t possible, try to let in more natural light. Artificial light can cause headaches and eyestrain after a while. Natural light is best for the eyes and can boost the mood organically. Let in the sunshine and watch morale go through the roof!
Walls - whether they are permanent, physical walls or flimsy, temporary cubicle barriers - are a mainstay of the office space. This is certainly true of the contact center. Many centers are set up with each individual agents working in their own cubicle space and only interacting during breaks or collaborative projects.
The problem with that is a lack of community and camaraderie that develops when coworkers do not get to know one another. It’s hard to foster workplace friendships when you barely know the people you are sitting beside, much less the people across the office from you. One of the best and only ways to remedy this situation is to remove the walls that separate employees in order to allow them to see and interact with one another.
Removing walls doesn’t just foster more interaction. It also creates the opportunity for collaboration that your employees otherwise wouldn’t have. Being close to one another gives your management team members the opportunity to work with agents in ways they might not otherwise have and gives same-level agents the chance to collaborate on projects that would otherwise be solo endeavors.
Does your contact center have a break room? If so, how often do your employees actually use it - and do they enjoy using it?
Sadly, these are questions that many call center managers don’t even think to ask themselves when trying to improve call center employee morale. Perhaps it’s because they don’t realize just how big of an impact the break room space can have on the psychological health of contact center employees and their quality of work. But the connection is real and obvious with just a short observation - and you can utilize that connection to your advantage when designing improvements that will result in sunnier, happier work days.
Think about improving your break room by creating a non-room. Outdoor spaces are increasingly popular, especially in areas where the weather is usually nice or where outdoor lounging is seasonally appropriate. This may be the perfect time of year to get your employees outside in the sun for a little while for their breaks.
Likewise, taking a more traditional approach can be beneficial when you think outside the boring and basic. Add fun touches to your break space to make it somewhere your employees actually want to be, rather than somewhere they end up. You’ll see a major boost in call center employee morale as a result!
Many contact centers fall victim to the curse of tedium and when it comes to the workplace environment. After all, most agents spent the majority of their days performing the same tasks repeatedly - it’s no wonder they become bored and restless after a while.
One of the best ways to break up the monotony is with genuine spontaneity, but this can be difficult to introduce in an office setting like that of the call center. However, with some forethought, it’s doable - and very beneficial for call center employee morale!
Consider hosting off-the-cuff workplace celebrations, bringing in guest speakers, or simply passing out tokens of appreciation without notice beforehand. A little surprise - whether it’s at your agents’ desks or waiting on them in the break room - can go a long way to bring sunshine to their faces and their attitudes.
Perhaps one of the best incentives you can offer to create the drive to achieve more is flexibility. Your agents will love the chance to have more freedom to be involved in their scheduling, up to and including when and where they work. When you can offer them the opportunity to work from home or other remote locations, it only boosts their satisfaction with your incentive offerings - all while helping you cut costs and boost scalability on a budget.
The happiest contact centers are those that are best prepared to handle the tasks they are given, so prepare your staff with the tools and technology they need to handle their jobs. Rely on the industry experts at ChaseData to outfit your facility with everything your employees need to have their best work days, every day.