Over our last three weeks we’ve brought you a selection of work-from-home tips and advice from the Sensée frontline. We hope you’ve found them useful. In this final post of the series, we’re pleased to bring you a selection of management tips from our Team Managers.
How do you:
Ensure your team thinks and acts like a team (when people are sometimes living hundreds of miles apart?)……
“Create friendly competition between teams by comparing KPIs and QA scores. Encourage a team orientation rather than concentrating on individual performance”.
David, Sensée Team Leader
Support team members with stressful situations……
“We use weekly coaching sessions to identify stressful issues that team members may face and put the necessary support in place. That could range from catching up more often, through to reaching out to HR.”
Sarah, Sensée Team Leader
Support team members struggling with complex customer questions…..
“The use of breakouts within Team Rooms is very helpful as you can screen share and talk through issues to give a better understanding.”
Kelly, Sensée Team Leader
Bring a sense of fun and togetherness to the working day….
“Regularly send out emails to your team to update them on performance. Call out any special achievements and give praise where people are excelling. Mirror this in the Team Room with regular praise and encourage new advisors to lean on more experienced advisors for support”
Kelly, Sensée Team Leader
Make virtual training sessions more fun and engaging…..
“When designing group coaching/ training sessions use lots of open questions so that everyone has the chance to speak. Use microphones so that everyone can talk rather than type. Some team members are naturally quieter than others so make sure you have a good mix for each session.”
Steph, Sensée Team Leader
Maintain effective communications with team members….
“Always acknowledge receipt of a request. While I always aim to respond to emails the same day, it is still important for remote team members to know that I’ve received their question and am working on a response.”
Sarah, Sensée Team Leader
Show trust to people working remotely….
“Ask different team members to deliver training sessions. It’s not always easy to give extra responsibility in the homeworking environment so anything where that is possible is really useful in creating mutual trust and respect.”
Kelly, Sensée Team Leader
Support people through the (sometimes difficult) first few months of their homeworking journeys….
“Put together a library of short training videos to deliver refreshers for new starters on systems, procedures and processes.”
David, Sensée Team Leader
Enhance job satisfaction……
“Ensure there are plenty of opportunities for progression from providing support on the Sensée live desk, to call listening, providing feedback to other advisers, to become a deputy team leader with increased responsibility.”
Sarah, Sensée Team Leader
Run activities designed to help stem potential isolation….
“At this time of uncertainty, I’m running more group coaching sessions. A recent one focussed on wellbeing. Every team member was able to share their thoughts and feelings and many team members sent feedback that it was really useful to hear that other members on the team were having the same concerns.”
Steph, Sensée Team Leader