Beyond the phone: helping your front line employees grow

Working in a call center is one of the few jobs that employees with little or no formal secondary education can do, and expect to “rise in the ranks” to an “office job”.

There’s a few career paths your employees could take:

Operations:

The most likely path. From agent to team lead to supervisor, and up the ranks. I’ve seen agents go from answering phones to managing accounts in about 5 years or so. Not bad for those who started with very minimal English language skills and no college degree.

Training:

Another very easy path. Agent to SME to trainer to lead trainer, and up the ranks. For those that would like to expand their skill set, or maybe even travel, this is the way to go. This path could lead all the way up to office jobs such as Instructional Designer or Project Manager.

Specialist:

This is a shorter path, but is a good match for those that might want to leverage years in a certain specialized field into consultation one day.

There are some other paths, but those are the options that I’m most familiar with.

Now, how do you help your employees get there?

Talk to them about their goals

                Where do they see themselves in a year? Do they have any work heroes or people they look up to?

Encourage them to get certified, take classes, and continue their education in and out of work

                Many offices offer professional development classes of some kind or another—these can be valuable when applying for internal jobs.

Coach to their strengths

                Rather than hammering away on a skill set they may leave behind in a year or two, focus on how they can develop long term skills like problem solving, leadership, and innovation.

Develop a good relationship with Human Capital or HR/Recruitment

                Your word will count for something when you want to recommend an employee.

Make your employees aware of these paths

                It’s hard to keep people in your team when they feel the job is a dead end. Make sure they’re aware they have options.

Use these tips and resources to make sure your employees stay with you and stay engaged!