Upheaval in the job market is the present and unfortunate challenge of sourcing talent, particularly in frontline positions. It’s seen all around us – “Help Wanted” signs abound. In fact, more than half of the country’s workforce is looking for a new job in 2021, according to a report from the Achievers Workforce Institute. Not only that, McKinsey reports that more than 15 million U.S. workers have simply quit their jobs since April 2021. This phenomenon of workforce upheaval goes by such names as “The Great Resignation” or “The Great Attrition.” But “great” is the last word that comes to mind if you’re the one needing to staff to maintain top-level service with any consistency!
If your infrastructure and culture lack quality, your most quality-minded team members can and will find a job that better suits them
Leaders of financial institutions, like executives in many other industries, are grappling with the lasting effects of the pandemic on employment. The task of recruiting and keeping skilled workers presents a new challenge: how do banks and credit unions meet the demand for employees, particularly on the front line? One frustrated credit union executive I spoke with reported that member-facing workers were quitting for “seemingly no apparent reason.” Another credit union executive said, “They either find another job on their lunch hour and give notice, or decide for no known reason to simply not come back from lunch!”
Inevitably, this persistent short-staffing and frequent turnover will have an impact on the customer experience, especially for institutions that live and breathe service as their driving differentiator. And God help the poor call center manager who is feeling the greatest brunt of it all! Now, let me add to this one more factor: consumer intolerance is steadily mounting as the capacity to deal with “just one more thing” reaches a tipping point. However, your best frontline folks can navigate through those tensions and create a winning experience with each and every customer.
In such a low-tolerance environment, how do you respond? First and foremost, focus on quality.
Quality people want to work for a quality organization, characterized by:
- Quality processes – reliable, friction-free flow from frontline to back office
- Quality training and development – relevant learning opportunities that build essential skills
- Managerial interactions characterized by quality – coaching that encourages and supports professional development
- Quality interactions with peers – collaboration across the organization and shared focus on the customer
- Recognition for quality delivered genuinely and seamlessly – reinforcement that “we’re all in this together!”
If your infrastructure and culture lack quality, your most quality-minded team members can and will find a job that better suits them, where they can perform their very best without the barriers present in a low-quality working environment. And remember, they can likely do so on their lunch hour!
To become a quality organization, start with facing the brutal facts of where you lack quality. Obtain this insight directly from customers and employees – capture customer and employee feedback and then have it translated in a way that gives your executive team an accurate, objective, clear line-of-sight. With this analysis, you can prioritize and act to remove barriers to quality experiences from back office to front office, from employee to executive and all points in between. You will be building an infrastructure and culture of quality that gives you the edge in both recruiting and retaining the best talent for a winning workforce. Having teams that thrive on being a vital part of a customer-centric organization will put you in prime position for success, no matter the challenge.
As we accelerate toward 2022, be sure you’re getting the whole picture. For help with measuring your customer experience, here’s how to get started: supportexp.com/insight-builder
To get answers about your employee experience: supportexp.com/team-builder
