NICE Performance Management Coaching Best Practices and Benchmarking Study

NICE Performance Management Coaching Best Practices and Benchmarking Study

TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction...1 Basis For Our Findings...1 I. Why Coach?...2 II. How Is Coaching Delivered?...2 III. Who Needs to be Coached?...3 IV. When, How Often to Coach...3 V. Impact of Coaching Time...4 Conclusion...4

INTRODUCTION In contact centers, front-line coaching and development practices are one of the most important drivers of customer satisfaction, revenue, and productivity. Operations throughout the corporation rely on coaching to help improve individual, team and operational performance, while aligning employee behaviors with strategic objectives. To do this successfully, sophisticated supervisors do three things: Understand which individual agents need coaching and on what topics Individualize coaching frequency depending on an agent s performance Tailor the coaching session methods to meet the needs of each agent Yet finding an organization that has formalized and integrated these development practices is rare. In fact, coaching is often one of the least understood and controlled processes in the operation. To some, coaching means one-on-one meetings between an agent and supervisor. To others it means having ad hoc hall conversations, monitoring calls for quality, or conducting team meetings. Although coordinating across these diverse coaching practices can seem daunting, implementing a set of synchronized coaching practices is essential to changing employee behavior and improving operational performance. BASIS FOR OUR FINDINGS The study was conducted between April 1 and May 11, 2007. To participate, individuals completed an online survey and at the conclusion of the study, individual responses were combined to uncover industry trends and benchmarks. To maintain objectivity, no NICE Systems customers were included in the study. The survey drew participation from a representative group of call center employees from more than 200 companies. Of the 500 employees that participated, nearly 30% of study participants were site directors or members of a contact center s executive management team. Companies participating in the study ranged in size from operations with less than 250 agents to over 5000 agents. What is your individual role or title? Number of agents in the operation? The supervisor s practices, then, are the critical link to driving organizational effectiveness and efficiency, and executing enterprise goals at the front-line. While the coaching process can never be fully scripted or automated, best practices combined with enabling technology should be used to optimize all coaching activities. These tools provide Supervisors with additional time and insight to increase their effectiveness, and allow organizations to experience quality gains by methodically uncovering and addressing individual improvement opportunities. What is the primary function of the call center where you work? NICE Systems conducted the Coaching Best Practices and Benchmarking Study to identify current front-line coaching and development practices in the contact center industry and to help operations examine several key questions: Does the organization have the right coaching strategy? Can the operation accurately measure success against strategy? Are coaching practices consistent across the operation? What are the operation s strengths and opportunities? Figure 1: Study Participants by role, operation size, and function 1

I. WHY COACH? There are various reasons for coaching within the call center. 67% of participants reported roles, responsibilities, and tasks as one of the top three reasons to coach, while 45% reported performance against goals among the top three most important motives for coaching. Regardless of coaching need or purpose, 72% of people surveyed agreed or strongly agreed that their agents value the coaching they receive and 91% of study participants agreed or strongly agreed that coaching has an impact on the financial returns of the organization. II. HOW IS COACHING DELIVERED? Even though all contact centers use coaching and development activities to manage individual and operational performance, the NICE Systems Coaching Best Practices and Benchmarking Study revealed a wide range of current methods. 54% of participants responded that their organization s standard coaching procedure was a blended process a combination of formal and informal practices used across teams and sites. Over 81.5% of respondents indicated verbal feedback was the primary delivery mechanism for coaching in their operation, while 18.5% of respondents identified verbal discussions with formal documentation as the primary method of follow-up on action items after a coaching session. How would you describe the STANDARD process for coaching in your organization? (select one) Formal Process - well outlined and documented coaching procedures across teams and sites 30.5% Informal Process - limited coaching procedures and documentation across team and sites 13.6% Blended Process - combination of formal and informal procedures used across teams and sites 54% I Don t Know 1.9% Figure 2: Standard Coaching Process What is the PRIMARY challenge your organization faces in effectively coaching agents? Difficult to track coaching compliance with established guidelines and expectations for coaching 10.3% Difficult to track the effectiveness of individual coaches 22.7% Difficult or inadequate coach access to agent-level performance information 2.1% Lack of consistency of coaching delivery content and metric evaluation across different coaches and sites 32.4% Inadequate coach-level time allocated or scheduled for coaching 19.1% Inadequate agent-level time allocated or scheduled for coaching Other 5.7% 7.7% Figure 3: Primary Challenge in Effectively Coaching Agents 2

Spent A large number of operations - 32.4% - cited a lack of coaching consistency among their challenges. Additionally, inability to correlate coaching activities with agent performance surfaced as another prominent issue. 48% of respondents disagreed or strongly disagreed that the organization quantitatively tracks the effectiveness of coaching, including agent performance before and after coaching sessions and 42% disagreed or strongly disagreed that the organization qualitatively tracks the effectiveness of coaches. It was also found that many supervisor activities are not audited, including the inspection of coaching comments and observing coaching sessions. 23% of participants pointed to difficulty tracking the effectiveness of individual coaches (i.e. difficult to correlate a change in agent performance with coaching sessions), and 41% disagreed or strongly disagreed that their organization has a coaching calibration process that ensures consistent evaluation across different coaches. III. WHO NEEDS TO BE COACHED? The coaching and development needs of contact center employees vary based on attributes such as agent tenure and motivation. With limited coaching time, a coach often feels forced to focus on bottom performers, sacrificing critical time with performers who have the most potential to improve middle performers. According to the study, only 25% of participants agreed or strongly agreed that coaches in their organization spend their coaching time on the employees that have the most potential to improve. More specifically, the study found many operations spend approximately 30% of available coaching time with middle performers. Yet, these operations also reported approximately 60% of their agents were middle performers. Top Performers Mid Performers Bottom Performers % Population % Coaching Time Difference 20 30 +10 65 30-35 15 40 +35 Figure 4: Population Being Coached Figure 5: Average Hours per Month Coaching Each Individual Agent IV. WHEN, HOW OFTEN TO COACH The NICE Systems Coaching Best Practices and Benchmarking Study also found variation in coaching frequency and average time spent with each agent. 38% of participants reported that individuals are coached at least once a week, while 44.5% indicated individuals are coached at least once a month. % Preparing for the session collecting data as well as writing formal and informal preparatory notes or evaluations before the session occurs % Conducting the session meeting with the individual agent and discussing his/ her individual performance % Documenting the session formally writing and archiving the content of the session, interim goals, action items or specific next steps that result from the coaching session % Following up on session action items meeting and formally reviewing agreed upon next steps, action plans, or specific next steps from prior coaching sessions with the specific agent % Coaching Time Spent on 23.7 47.5 15.4 14.1 Figure 6: Percentage of Coaching Time Spent by Task 3

Participants reported their companies on average spent 3.09 hours per month coaching each individual agent. However, with a standard deviation of 2.26 hours, there exists a wide range of responses and a big gap between those spending 1 hour per month and 5 hours per month. What accounts for this wide range, and is it having an impact? V. IMPACT OF COACHING TIME Examining coaching time against self-reported operational performance, the NICE Systems Coaching Best Practices and Benchmarking Study uncovered several key links. Participants who reported higher than average hours per month spent coaching individual agents were more likely to report performance at, above, or significantly above goal for revenue, customer satisfaction, productivity and quality. Additionally, respondents who indicated higher than average hours per month spent coaching individual agents were more likely to report attrition lower than expected.lower than expected. CONCLUSION The NICE Systems Coaching Best Practices and Benchmarking Study provides a glimpse into performance management practices within the contact center industry. While the study found that operations generally recognize the value of coaching, many lack consistency in coaching activities and the ability to track the eectiveness of coaching. This data highlights how critical coaching time and practices are to an operation s success. Through adherence to a set of consistent coaching practices and supporting tools, an organization can optimize performance within the call center and deliver success on a greater enterprise level. It remains then for a company to ask itself: Is the right coaching strategy in place? Can the strategy s success be measured? Is there consistency across the operation? What are the operation s strengths and opportunities? 4

ABOUT NICE NICE Systems (NASDAQ: NICE), is the worldwide leader of intentbased solutions that capture and analyze interactions and transactions, realize intent, and extract and leverage insights to deliver impact in real time. Driven by cross-channel and multi-sensor analytics, NICE solutions enable organizations to improve business performance, increase operational efficiency, prevent financial crime, ensure compliance, and enhance safety and security. NICE serves over 25,000 organizations in the enterprise and security sectors, representing a variety of sizes and industries in more than 150 countries, and including over 80 of the Fortune 100 companies.. CONTACTS Global International HQ, Israel, T +972 9 775 3777, F +972 9 743 4282 Americas, North America, T +1 201 964 2600, F +1 201 964 2610 EMEA, Europe & Middle East, T +44 0 1489 771 200, F +44 0 1489 771 665 Asia Pacific, Singapore Office T + 65 6222 5123, F +65 6222 5459 ACTIMIZE, Actimize logo, Alpha, Customer Feedback, eglue Interact, FAST, FAST alpha Silver, Fortent, Fortent Logo, IEX, Insight from Interactions, Intent. Insight. Impact., Interaction Capture Unit, Know More, Risk Less, Last Message Replay, Mass Detection, Center, Mirra, My Universe, NICE, NICE Analyzer, NICE Inform, NICE Logo, NICE Perform, NICE Situator, NICE SmartCenter, NICE Storage Center, NICE Systems, NiceCall, NiceCall Focus, NiceLog, NiceTrack, NiceTrack IP Probe, NiceTrack Location Tracking, NiceTrack Mass Detection Center, NiceTrack Monitoring Center, NiceTrack Pattern Analyzer, NiceTrack Traffic Analysis, NiceVision, NiceVision Alto, NiceVision Analytics, NiceVision ControlCenter, NiceVision Digital, NiceVision Net, NiceVision NVSAT, NiceVision Pro, Open Situation Management, Playback Organizer, Scenario Replay, Searchspace, Syfact, Syfact Investigator, TotalView are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of NICE Systems Ltd. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. DATE 4/2012 WP-22080 CONTENTS OF THIS DOCUMENT ARE COPYRIGHT 2012.