Proven ways to keep your top performers

7 Proven ways to retain your top performers 

With the ever-increasing impact of employee attrition affecting businesses in the contact centre and CX space, it is important to keep your team feeling valued, challenged and engaged.

Robyn Kiely, one of our specialist recruiters and Account Managers within Contact Centres and Customer Experience sectors here at Tenacity CX, has spoken to many of our clients within the industry and has some great advice to share on how these industry leaders hold onto their top performers:

Engage your top performers!

Robyn comments that all too often she meets with talented employees who are looking to move on because they are unchallenged in their current positions and unaware of opportunity for career development within their current role or organisation.

Here are her suggestions on ways to overcome this common scenario.

1. Promote internal career paths

Your employees are your most valuable asset.

Ensure you promote internal opportunities and career growth within your organisation – at all levels.

Particularly within front line and entry-level roles within contact centres – these employees are often younger and unaware of opportunities within the broader organisation and are inclined to move on before seeking internal prospects.

These types of roles can also be highly repetitive in nature, so rotate your employees to other areas regularly to create diversity in their role and upskill your team.

2. Engage your top performers in company goals

Identify your top performers and incentivise them with shares in the company’s profits or involve them in projects or staff selection.

Not only will they feel valued, but it will also enable them to directly contribute to the overall company’s success and empower them to look at the big picture.

3. Present a leadership opportunity

Extend your top performers the opportunity to take on a leadership role on a new project or within their current team.

4. Find out what drives your top performers

You may find some hidden talents you can utilise within the business, igniting their passion and at the same time making your brand more appealing to potential employees.

Example 1. Your top performer may have a keen interest in photography.

You could utilise this skill internally for staff website photos or images for your social media platforms.

Example 2. Your top performer may have a cause or charity that they hold close to their heart.

You could incorporate this into the company’s social responsibilities and put them in charge of setting up an ongoing company initiative to support this cause.

A win-win scenario, motivating your employee whilst giving back to society and providing your brand with favourable recognition!

Recognition and reward

Robyn remarks that everyone likes to feel valued, supported and acknowledged for their contribution.

She has some great ideas for recognising your individual’s achievements:

5. Monthly or yearly team awards

It is important that these awards are not purely sales-focused giving everyone the chance to shine.

6. Incentive or rewards programs

Setting achievable KPI’s to give your team something to work towards. It doesn’t necessarily have to be monetary rewards, it could be extra time off or vouchers for accommodation, dinner, movies or massages.

7. Verbalising your appreciating for a job well done!

My final tip on how to retain your top performers may seem to be stating the obvious, but when was the last time you congratulated an employee on a job well done? Or expressed your appreciation for their assistance? Sometimes simple acknowledgement of hard work goes a long way to boosting morale.

As all employers know, hiring experienced employees is time-consuming and costly for any business, so finding ways within your organisation to keep good talent from moving on is ESSENTIAL and will also make your brand more appealing to future employees.

Recommended further reading: Six Best-Practice Ideas for Motivating Call Centre Agents

Find a list of all the upcoming industry conferences, training courses, network events and more on the Industry Events Calendar >>> or search the CX Directory to find a list of recruitment agencies that specialise in contact centres >>>