By nature, humans want to devote their time and energy to people and organizations that reflect their values. Values drive human behaviors, decision-making, and emotions — especially when it comes to work, which we feel should be meaningful and support us in achieving our goals.
For businesses, this begs the question: What are your employees’ core values, and how should your business align with them? To answer this, Genesys conducted a study of more than 16,000 contact center agents worldwide about what they value most.
What we found might surprise you and could also change how you do business — and much of it comes down to one key finding.
Responsibility changes everything
The study asked contact center agents about what they love, hate, and wish was different about their jobs, in addition to what they enjoy most about working in a contact center. We quickly zeroed in on high performers, and with good reason: If you better understand what high performers value, you can adjust your strategies to better hire, motivate, and retain those elite workers.
Our most important worldwide finding was that high performers value personal responsibility above anything else — rating it higher than family, relationships, financial security, health and wellness, and basic needs. This discovery means that high performers want autonomy, ownership over their activities, and a sense of accomplishment. And it means they’re looking for advancement opportunities and want more frequent and better training to make this happen.
Contact center leaders must provide high performers with more training opportunities to learn new skills and technologies to engage and motivate them. They are the voice and face of your brand, so you’re effectively building your business by building their sense of personal responsibility and achievement.
When you create a work environment aligned with your high performers’ core values and needs, they become satisfied and engaged at their most fundamental level. That prevents churn and improves the overall customer experience.
How to create a value-aligned environment
To develop a values-based framework, start by asking yourself a fundamental question: “Where do our structures, processes, and management styles align around the values of our high performers?”
Give your employees more of what they want, minimize the impact of what they don’t, and figure out how to fulfill their wishes. Doing this will help you connect with employees on a deeper level and continually narrow the gap between values, processes, and culture.
Nurturing an employee’s desire to learn and grow will always bear fruit, building loyalty and trust while boosting engagement, performance, and retention — all of which empower staff to deliver the great experiences that are at the heart of a profitable customer-centric business.
