Case Study: Performance Improvement

How we helped a large financial services company greatly improve its customer service unit’s performance.

Company Profile

Industry: Financial Services
Ownership: Privately Held
Employee Count: 50,000+
Annual Revenue: $20+ Billion
Location: United States

The Challenge

From survey results, the company identified a need to improve employee engagement and performance.

Many managers were avoiding difficult conversations because of a company culture characterized by politeness and team spirit.
The organization sought to empower managers to effectively conduct difficult conversations with their direct reports.

A large financial-services company’s customer-service unit (six regional call centers plus back-room operations) approached us, seeking to improve employee engagement and performance.

The company wanted to do that because research showed a positive link between associate engagement and performance outcomes. The company was using the Gallup Human Capital Survey to measure associates’ engagement in the unit; scores were moderate, not stellar.

The company also recognized that to improve business results, managers needed to be able to have direct conversations with associates about performance improvement. Managers were having weekly 1:1 meetings with associates; the conversations were generally friendly and relationship-building, but they were not clearly aimed at improving performance.

Managers avoided difficult conversations about inconsistent performance, did not ask associates how they could improve, and did not get commitment to improve. Many managers and their direct reports saw having this kind of direct conversation as a culture change because most managers, steeped in the company’s culture of politeness and team spirit, were reluctant to make associates uncomfortable.

The Solution

We worked with the organization to identify the core issues and to custom-design a leadership development program that helped managers improve three key types of business conversations.
Our training methodology of real-life practice and focused feedback immediately impacted managers’ ability to handle difficult conversations.
As deeper organizational issues surfaced, we collaborated with senior management to focus managers’ conversations on actions direct reports could take to mitigate those issues.
Every manager from SVP to Team Leader, approximately 1,000 in all, participated in the People-to-People (P2P™) program.

Before the training, we conducted an online survey of participants’ direct reports. The survey showed that although managers were doing well at being accessible and approachable, and were clearly communicating the quantifiable metrics each associate was expected to achieve, they were generally not clarifying the leadership behaviors associates were expected to demonstrate, such as professionalism, teamwork, collaboration, etc.

Managers also were not directly discussing performance deficiencies with associates, or were discussing them only in vague and indirect terms, and were not ensuring that associates understood why these important targets mattered. As a result, most employees felt no real urgency to change.

In response, we tailored a leadership development program, focused not only on learning concepts but also on developing conversational skills, using our proven methodology of real-life practice and focused feedback:

Real-Life Practice: Participants spent two-thirds of the program practicing conversational skills with expert facilitators, using real-life scenarios participants were facing in their jobs.
Focused, Multi-Angle Feedback: We video-recorded each practice session in small groups. After each practice and video playback, participants received specific, direct, and honest feedback from facilitators and peers.
The video enabled managers to see themselves as their associates saw them, so that managers could make specific changes in how they communicated. Those changes, in turn, had a significant impact on associates and their performance.
Post-Training Reinforcement to Sustain the Skills: Upper level managers were provided with tools for reinforcing the skills and embedding them into other management practices. For example, at team meetings, when a dialogue was needed to analyze an issue and develop solutions, someone would usually suggest, “Let’s P2P this issue!,” using skills learned in the workshop. These managers also included these conversation skills as a key performance indicator in their performance reviews with lower-level managers. Managers were also encouraged to share challenging situations with their peers who also had attended P2P, and to practice these difficult situations with each other.
After attending P2P, each participant received a monthly Tips and Reminders email from AlexanderHancock for 12 months. Each monthly reminder provided specific ways to use the skills learned in the program, and posed challenges and questions to stimulate managers’ thinking about how to handle difficult conversations.
Participants knew that their associates would be surveyed again in about a year, and that the results would be compared to their pre-workshop results. This knowledge also served as an incentive to improve.

The program was aimed at improving three types of business conversations:

A conversation about setting performance goals and expectations -- both metrics and leadership behaviors.
A teachable-moment conversation.
A conversation addressing a performance issue.

To develop the program, we interviewed leaders, conducted focus groups of managers and of associates, listened to recordings of associates taking calls, and observed some of the 1:1 sessions. Those focus groups, interviews, and observations enabled us to identify the key skills involved in the various levels of customer service.

We also worked closely with the HR Business Partner as we developed the program. He walked with us every step of the process, and his insight and input into the design were invaluable. One of the most important things he did to ensure the success of the project was to enlist the wholehearted sponsorship of the senior vice president who was head of Customer Service. This leader's visible and constant support sent a clear message to all managers.

As the first groups of managers participated in the intensive, three-day People-to-People (P2P)™ program we had developed, we uncovered deeper issues, which we then addressed.

We found, after we had conducted several training sessions involving VPs, directors, and first-line managers, that the company saw Customer Service as a "loss leader" supporting the profitable investment side of the company. And we observed that CS managers were not communicating to associates any sense of urgency to reduce those losses. In fact, it appeared that none of the managers below VP were even aware of the losses the unit was incurring. As a result, no one had discussed the losses during our interviews, focus groups, and observations, so we remained unaware of them until after training started.

As the training progressed, we continued feeding back to senior management what we were seeing in the classes, and eventually the financial issues were shared with us. We modified the training to help managers communicate to associates how everyday performance ties directly to the company’s bottom line, as well as to customer satisfaction.

Over the next three years, every manager from SVP to Team Leader, approximately 1,000 managers in all, participated in the P2P™ program.

The Results

Participants’ behavior immediately shifted following the training, and when we surveyed managers’ direct reports 12 months after the training, these managers showed sustained improvement on all measures.
Managers reported being more willing to hold difficult conversations with associates because they felt better equipped to do so. They also reported better performance results as a result of these conversations.

After training, these leaders reported having more and better one-on-one discussions with their staff, and taking advantage of “teachable moment” conversations, which they had let slip by in the past. We surveyed managers’ direct reports again approximately 12 months later, and managers showed sustained improvement on all measures. In addition, the company reported improved scores on their own internal coaching survey (employees rate their own supervisors on their coaching skills) and improved customer-satisfaction scores. Efficiency scores also improved.

Some of the comments from managers reporting self-improvement:

“I can't begin to tell you the difference your training has made in my management style. While I still need to work on paraphrasing and Asking and Listening, the skills are coming along and I find the conversations I have far more meaningful, actionable and, in short, more effective!”
“I thought this was going to be easy. It was much harder than I ever imagined.”
“While I found the videotaping to be very intimidating, I actually found it very helpful and the discussions afterward were awesome.”
“The real-life situations were extremely helpful. Facilitators did an incredible job of mirroring our employees [in the lab sessions].”
“I have used many of the things I learned a couple of weeks ago -- find myself doing a great deal more Ask and Listen than Tell -- makes for better conversations that are, quite frankly, more fun and more effective.”