You're struggling to engage your call center staff. Could reverse mentoring be the solution?
If you manage a call center, you know how challenging it can be to keep your staff motivated, productive, and satisfied. High turnover, low engagement, and burnout are common problems in this industry. You may have tried different strategies to improve the situation, such as offering incentives, training, or feedback. But have you considered reverse mentoring?
Reverse mentoring is a form of mentorship where the roles are reversed. Instead of the senior or experienced employee mentoring the junior or new one, the opposite happens. The junior or new employee shares their knowledge, skills, or perspectives with the senior or experienced one. This can create a mutually beneficial learning relationship that fosters innovation, diversity, and collaboration.
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Richard Shutes
Vice President of Inform Florida |Co-Chair of the 211 National Steering Committee| 211 & 988 Subject Matter Expert| Public Speaker| Mental Health Advocate| Partnerships
There is always something that can be learned by others. This perspective comes from a junior level person providing insight and knowledge to the person with experience or at a senior level. This often times is a mutual opportunity for growth from both perspectives. Building morale and rapport is a positive outcome from participating in reverse mentoring.
Reverse mentoring can have many benefits for a call center, both for the employees and the organization. For example, it can help bridge the generational gap, allowing older employees to learn from the younger ones and vice versa. It can also boost the skills and performance of both parties, as senior employees learn new skills or technologies from junior employees and junior employees gain insights or feedback from senior employees. Moreover, reverse mentoring can increase engagement and retention of staff since it makes employees feel more valued, respected, and empowered. This can improve morale, motivation, and loyalty of the staff, as well as reduce turnover rate.
Reverse mentoring is not a one-size-fits-all solution and should be tailored to your specific needs and goals. To start a reverse mentoring program in your call center, you need to define your objectives and expectations, identify and match the participants, provide training and support, and evaluate and improve. You should consider what you want to achieve with reverse mentoring, the benefits and challenges, the roles and responsibilities of the mentors and mentees, how you will measure the outcomes and impact, who are the potential mentors and mentees in your call center, how they will be selected based on their skills, interests, and availability, how they will be paired up based on their compatibility, what kind of training or guidance will be offered on how to communicate, set goals, give feedback or handle conflicts, how you will collect and analyze feedback from the program, assess the satisfaction, learning, and performance of the participants, identify any gaps or issues that arise, and celebrate successes.
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Leonette McKay
Food Service Director | Process Improvement, Technical Support
One has to understand that patients is your number one friend. I call Center employee is technically a hero because they’re able to fix the issue that the person is having with the call center employee has to understand nine times out of 10. The client has no idea how to use a computer only knows how to do the job that they are higher for so at the end of the day is our job to treat this as if I am talking to my five-year-old child, and walk through the steps of fixing their issue. The number one key to be in a call center is patience and that is what has to be taught in the training environment.
Reverse mentoring can be an incredibly effective tool for your call center, but it requires some planning and commitment. To make it work, you should be open and curious; willing to listen, ask questions, and challenge your assumptions without letting your ego, status, or bias get in the way. Respect and support are also key; be honest, constructive, and appreciative of each other's contributions. Additionally, be flexible and adaptable; reverse mentoring is not a rigid or formal process and may vary depending on the needs of the participants. Be ready to adjust expectations, goals, or methods as you go along, and don't be afraid to experiment or explore new things.
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Richard Shutes
Vice President of Inform Florida |Co-Chair of the 211 National Steering Committee| 211 & 988 Subject Matter Expert| Public Speaker| Mental Health Advocate| Partnerships
Placing any ego to the side is a great place to start. A person needs to be vulnerable to learn and listen to feedback from someone who may be green but may have a unique perspective on how to tackle shared objectives. Always be ready to adjust and pivot as needed. Only you can determine if the process is an ultimate positive one or not, but closing yourself off from it is a non-starter.
Reverse mentoring presents several challenges and risks that must be taken into account. For example, it can create conflict or resentment among employees, especially if they feel threatened or insecure. It can also be time-consuming or distracting, taking up a lot of time and energy from the participants. Additionally, it can be ineffective or disappointing if the participants are not committed or compatible. It is important to consider these risks before engaging in reverse mentoring to ensure a successful outcome.
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