Agent wellbeing: making sure the team is ready to perform

Have you ever noticed how the more helpful and conscientious you are at work, the more work you are handed? It can cause anguish for helpful team players because they find that overloading them with tasks is the reward for helpfulness. The misery is compounded when those who say no to extra tasks breeze off home right on time.

I’m aware that in a customer service environment this is even more of a problem because our agents are on the frontline representing our clients. The clients depend on our people to be ambassadors for their brand. It is a big problem if we have agents that are not performing well because of the way their work is organised, or other general work problems – often summarised as office politics.

I read a research report from King’s College London and the University of Bath recently that focused on contact centre agents and found that conscientious workers do often face problems, but it’s not just problems at work. The burnout faced by those who take on more work than they need to, affects their family life and left the workers featured in the research emotionally exhausted.

We take agent wellbeing seriously at Webhelp, not just because it is important to look after the team, but also because it makes good business sense. Agents who feel better at work perform better and that leads to a better customer experience pleasing our clients. To find out more about working for Webhelp, click here.

We focus attention on both physical and mental health, with newsletters, health fairs, blood pressure checks, and advice on healthy eating.  The aim of all these initiatives is to reinforce a culture from top to bottom of the workforce, showing that the best performers are those who think carefully about their health options.

It’s only really by creating this culture of workplace wellbeing that the issue can be addressed. Any company can publish a newsletter featuring healthy recipes, but when wellbeing becomes ingrained in the way people behave at work, from diet to allocation of tasks, real change can be achieved.

We know that our agents can only do a great job if wellbeing is taken seriously in our business, so our leadership team constantly reinforces the message by establishing a corporate culture that supports wellbeing. It’s great for the business and it’s great for the agents.

What do you think about the agent wellbeing? Leave a comment below, or get in touch on LinkedIn, and let me know.