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Managing a multi-generational workforce in a customer service environment.

Adecco Staffing, USA – HRCI Webinar Series 09 | 10 | 14

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Panelists

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Bruce Tulgan •  Advisor to business leaders all over the world

•  Sought-after keynote speaker and seminar leader

•  Founder and CEO of RainmakerThinking, Inc., a management research and training firm, as well as RainmakerThinking Training, an on-line training company

•  Author of numerous books. His new book, “The 27 Challenges Managers Face: Step-By-Step Solutions to (Nearly) All of Your Management Problems” will be released by JosseyBass/Wiley in September

•  Can be reached at brucet@rainmakerthinking.com

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Panelists

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Wendy Slayton SVP, HR at Adecco Group NA •  More than 18 years experience in HR leadership in professional

services industries

•  Leads Adecco’s HR Business Partner team

•  Drives talent strategy for several Adecco business units in the U.S.

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Panelists

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Kristen Leverone SVP, Global Talent Development Practice Leader Lee Hecht Harrison •  15+ years experience in career development, change

management and project management

•  Consults with businesses on their talent development process

•  Develops and implements solutions to help organizations develop, engage, retain and redeploy their workforce to drive business results

•  Leads strategic client engagements, develops new products and services, and provides thought leadership in career development and change management

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Panelists

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Lauren Griffin SVP, Adecco Staffing, USA •  Manages a multi-generational team, ultimately responsible for

500 colleagues with diverse demographics

•  Works in a heavily customer-focused environment

•  Trains employees on service excellence

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Generational shift in the workplace

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Multi-Generational Workforce: A snapshot

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Pre-Boomers (born prior to 1946) – all but gone from the from the workforce

Boomers – first wave is turning 70 and reinventing retirement; youngest are climbing their 50s and 60s

Gen X – now the “prime age” workforce; the original rule-breaking “new economy” free agents

Gen Y – oldest of them are nearing 40, youngest are in late 20s

Gen Z – today’s teens and twenty-somethings; second wave of Millennials

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Webinar Poll: Which generation are you?

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Baby Boomer 33% (157)

Generation X 38% (185)

Generation Y/Z 29% (138)

Other 0% (2)

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What shapes generations?

Forces of change

Accidents of history

Steady transformation of the workforce and workplace –

Numbers, attitudes, norms, expectations and behaviors

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What is shaping the newest generation?

Major historical forces, including:

•  Globalization

•  Technology

•  Institutions in a state of constant flux

•  Information tidal wave

•  Immediacy and the accelerating pace of change

•  Growing diversity and acceptance of difference

•  The end of job security

•  New career paths

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Young workforce in customer service.

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Young employees spend a lot of time dealing with actual customers.

Young workers are disproportionately represented in frontline service roles because these roles are often the lower-tier positions.

Why?

Most organizations seeking to scale their operations in any significant way will tend to put a young (and therefore relatively inexpensive) workforce out front.

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Customer service workforce

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10 Common Complaints

Customer service delivered by young employees: 1.  They are unavailable

2.  They are sometimes present, but not working; they are talking with each other, on the phone or are otherwise unavailable

3.  They are sometimes available, but are rude, rushed or indifferent

4.  They are sometimes engaged and polite, but unknowledgeable

5.  They sometimes provide customers with misinformation or conflicting information

6.  They are sometimes too slow

7.  They sometimes make mistakes

8.  They sometimes unnecessarily complicate transactions

9.  They are sometimes unable to solve small problems

10. They are sometimes unable to deal effectively with customer complaints

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Meet “Generation Z.”

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The debate

Demographers, sociologists, historians:

Generation Y’s “Millennials” 1978-2000

vs

RainmakerThinking:

Generation Y 1978-1989 – first wave of Millennials

Generation Z 1990-1999 – second wave of Millennials

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Generation Y (1978-1989)

•  Childhood during peace and prosperity of the 1990s

•  Now in second or sometimes even third stage of their career

•  First stage of their careers was during the worst part of the global economic crisis

Generation Z (1990-1999)

•  Childhood during the “war on terrorism” and economic uncertainty

•  Bumping up against “career delayed” Gen Yers

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Gen Y vs Gen Z – The differences

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The “new” new young workforce

Generation Z – the second wave of Millennials

•  Born during or after 1990

•  16-24 years old today

•  Already nearly 12% of the North American workforce

•  16% of the workforce by 2015

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Webinar Poll: What do you see as Gen Z’s greatest challenge?

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Less prepared for the workforce 29% (143)

Lack professionalism 37% (183)

Weaker soft skills 33% (164)

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Gen Z’s strengths & challenges

Strengths

•  Social media savvy

•  Quick technical learners

•  Digital natives

•  Not afraid to share their thoughts

•  Not intimidated by hierarchy

•  Used to flexible work/life balance

Challenges

•  Less prepared for workforce than past generations

•  Lack true professionalism

•  Weaker soft skills

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Bringing out the best in today’s young workforce

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A different approach

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Mainstream advice

Praise and reward

Create thank you programs

Transform the workplace to be more fun

RainmakerThinking advice

Commit to high-maintenance management

Make the expectations and rules clear

Guide, direct and support them every step of the way

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Dealing with over-parenting

•  Parents’ involvement is no longer tapering off after education, but continuing into careers

•  You hired the employee, not the parents

•  Sink or swim?

•  Step into the void – take over the tutoring aspects of parenting

•  Give them respect

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Teachers are no longer alone

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In loco parentis management

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1.  Care about your young employees

2.  Don’t pretend to be their best friend

3.  Give them boundaries and structure

4.  Help them keep score

5.  Negotiate special rewards in very small increments

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Successfully managing a multi-generational workforce

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Generational strengths

Boomers

•  Empathetic

•  Competitive

•  Reliable

•  Experienced

•  Good work ethic

•  Favor relationships, loyalty and teamwork

•  Patient

Gen X

•  Hard workers

•  Independent

•  Resourceful

•  Favor merit-based rewards over tenure

Gen Y

•  Most educated

•  Global

•  Appreciate diversity

•  Digital natives

•  Multi-taskers

•  Willingness to work with all levels of workers

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When generations can balance each other’s strengths and weaknesses, you have a well-rounded workforce. Establish mentor partnerships both ways.

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Webinar Poll: What do you see as Gen Z’s best strength?

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Education 8% (34)

Digital natives 61% (262)

Globally minded 16% (71)

Multi-tasking 15% (65)

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Inclusive leadership

•  Be aware of generational tendencies, but remember every individual is different

•  Avoid making assumptions about people based on their generation

•  Will lead to more engaged employees

•  Avoid legal pitfalls

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Helping Gen Yers and Zers provide great customer service.

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Gen Yers and Gen Zers think like customers.

…but many of them have little or no experience on the other side of the transaction

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They can relate

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•  Companies pay employees. This is the ultimate source of an employer’s authority – the source of every employee’s obligations at work to everyone

•  Everyone is a customer: coworkers, boss, subordinates and actual customers

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Employment is a multi-faceted relationship

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•  Frontline is overstaffing, leading to a lack of urgency

•  Frontline is understaffed, leading to a lack of coverage

•  No one has taught young employees the basics or convinced them to care about great customer service

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Why customer complaints arise

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•  It will make them more valuable to any future roles at any organization

•  Has a huge impact on their ability to enjoy work

•  Investing effort early on ultimately saves everyone a lot of time and energy

•  Offers a valuable opportunity to network with customers

•  One way to get financial and nonfinancial rewards on your team is delivering great service to customers

-  Best assignments, best shifts, best learning opportunities, exposure to decision makers, days off, cash, gift certificates and promotional giveaways

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Show them the value of the skill

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Webinar Poll: Is your company investing in training programs?

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Yes, formal programs 42% (176)

Yes, one-off programs 29% (124)

No, but planning to 12% (50)

No 17% (74)

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Training and development

Initial training:

Understanding the pre-conceived notions their customers may have

Managing customer expectations

Tips on encouraging patience in customers while still training

Develop training programs targeted toward heading off common complaints

Invite top reps to be mentors to new-colleagues

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Questions?

Adecco Staffing, USA – CPE Webinar Series 09 | 10 | 14