What Motivates Call Center Professionals? Not What Management Thinks

It can be a challenge finding solid incentive planning guides. Oh, there are lots of guides that suggest they’re the one to be used when making decisions on how best to motivate employees and what incentives work best — but most of are a varying quality that make their implementation sketchy at best.

So I was heartened to run across a document by Mary Paige Forrester.

Forrester and I have exchanged articles and comments over the past few months. Last week I discovered that she has written an Incentive Planning Guide that she has given to friends and employers. I asked for a copy and shared it with others within Snowfly. We were all very impressed. For one thing, she opens with an incredibly strong chart: What Motivates Call Center Professionals.

There it is, in black and white: Management wants to believe that a simple “great job!” is enough to keep employees happy. Employees, though, would rather translate that “great job!” into more money because compliments don’t pay bills.

When I asked Forrester how she came about to create her Incentive Planning Guide, she said, “It began as an effort for employee retention and morale improvement in a private sector company facing high turnover and poor morale.” That’s something I’m sure even the happiest of companies find themselves considering on a somewhat regular basis.

Forrester’s excellent document hasn’t ever formally been published, but she has generously allowed Snowfly to host it on our site. I encourage you to click the download link below and see for yourself how great this information is.

http://www.snowfly.com/Blog/post/2012/02/04/A-Contact-Center-Employee-Incentives-Planning-Guide.aspx

And of course I’d love to hear any feedback you have — so feel free to leave a comment below.