If your organization is struggling to motivate its healthcare call center staff, chances are that morale and job satisfaction are low. As this Harvard Business Review article points out, “happy people are better workers.” That’s why it’s important to make your employees’ job satisfaction a top priority. Fortunately, there are many ways you can improve your organization’s employee morale and motivate your workers to perform at their greatest potential.
Here are three tips for engaging and motivating your healthcare call center staff.
Recognize superior performance.
Seems like a no brainer, right? Well, sometimes employers forget about the simple things. Employee recognition is one of the hallmarks of a positive organizational culture. By recognizing your team for their achievements, they will be motivated to continue working to the best of their abilities. Don’t underestimate the power of a “Thank you” or “Well done.” You call center staff crave recognition for their accomplishments and appreciate positive feedback for their work. In addition, you may want to consider having a structured and achievable system of recognizing superior performance in every employee – this gives each employee, new or old, an incentive to work hard both individually and within a team. It’s basically free for you to dole out praise, but expensive to have underperforming employees and high turnover.
Offer a variety of tasks.
Call center work can become very monotonous if employees have nothing to break up their day. By offering a greater variety of tasks, you can keep call center staff engaged and interested in their work. For example, many call centers can disperse tasks among calls, email, web chat, and social media channels so employees are not solely focused on over-the-phone contact. The variety of responsibilities will keep your employees on their toes and give them the opportunity to work in different capacities so they do not become bored with their jobs. How much would it cost you to cross-train staff on a variety of skills to make them more productive and happier? Probably a lot less than replacing them after a period of underperformance.
Provide growth opportunities.
Unmotivated employees often feel unchallenged by their day-to-day tasks. Providing opportunities for your call center staff to grow within your organization will inspire them to aim for more advanced roles, motivating them to perform their current job at a higher level. Additionally, offer your employees options to work on projects or assignments beyond their current scope of work. Providing these opportunities gives your employees other outlets to showcase their skills and be more engaged within their work environment. Give employees the opportunity to contribute feedback and participate in shaping their work environment. It doesn’t cost you anything to do so and keeps them engaged, productive and happy.
Creating a true sense of meaning within your work environment is one of the keys to developing a culture of happiness among your employees – which will ultimately lead to increased motivation in your call center and throughout your organization.
The more you foster genuine relationship-building and give employees the opportunity to grow, the more you will build a workforce that is aligned with your organization’s mission and values.