Now there is a risky topic. Most managers are terrified to let their underlings do anything without supervision. But, imagine the management savings if employees could make some of their own decisions. If you run a call center, it takes time to wait for a call center manager. But, what if your call center clerks can make a few last minute decisions to benefit your clients’ callers?
You really need to do a cost analysis. What is the cost if your employee is too generous and lets the customer get too much compensation for a corporate mistake? What is the benefit of the time saved by allowing them to make such decisions. If they are too generous, the customers will not complain — there — another benefit.
One boss liked to go on vacation a lot. He told his people that any decision that was $100 or less they could make themselves. In the worst case scenario he would lose a few hundred per month, but then he wouldn’t need to be bothered. Now, there is a solution! Set a cap on how much they can give out without permission. You just saved management hours per week and saved your callers from being on hold endlessly.
Another approach is to let your call center employees make arbitrary decisions how to handle cases, but document the decisions in a file. Every week or month those decisions could be reviewed with management to “fine tune” the employees decision making skills. Good idea or bad idea? An idea is only as good as your ability to make it work beneficially! Letting employees be their own manager might work for some, but not for all. Or, it might work on a limited basis for a few, but on a more extensive basis with others. You can try it and see what happens. Write a blog about it if it goes well.
Tweets:
(1) Give your employees the right to make decisions. But, what if they make a wrong decision?
(2) If you give your employees the right to make certain types of decisions = easier to manage
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Having a foundation in business for long term growth
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2014/03/27/having-a-foundation-in-business-for-long-term-growth/
Do you overanalyze or do you trust your instincts?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2014/03/18/do-you-over-analyze-or-trust-your-instincts/