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When my father retired, he had worked for the same company for 40 years. Why he stayed with the same company throughout his whole career was because he was “happy” with his job; he had job satisfaction. Back in those days, the workforce tended to be loyal to the employer, and in return for loyalty; [...]

Even in the days of the old waterfall model , one of the key factors of success was to identify issues and defects as early as possible so as to minimise remedial costs. But what if the wrong product is being made in the first place? This is a quality issue which is much harder [...]

How often have I not heard comments from fellow developers, like: "That's designed for consumers; we make business software." What this implies is that users of business software tolerate a lower usability level. Yet, when you come right down to it, both consumers and business workers are basically people using software. Admittedly, these target groups [...]

One of the most controversial issues in a contact centre is the scheduling of shifts, especially when a centre works outside the regular nine-to-five working hours and weekends. Then we have to deal with evening shifts, and very often, overnight shifts as well. Generally these are not very popular with agents. They’re off when most [...]

No. This is not the movie sequel to “Rise of the Planet of the Apes”. Who are "the millennials" and why should you, as a contact centre manager care? The millennials, better known as “Gen Y,” are young persons with birth years ranging from the early 1980s to the early 2000s. This is the first [...]

"No pain, no gain”, still relevant today? A recent study on employee productivity of Latvian-based, social net-working Draguiem Group, using desktop analytics, reveals what could well be the most optimal work-rest pattern: - 52 minutes of work - followed by 17 minutes of rest time Even more interestingly, the 52-17 pattern yielded top results, especially [...]

Measuring KPIs has always been a central task in workforce management, so honestly, what can gamification add to this? Isn’t it just another buzz word without any actual news value, much like the absence of clothes in the children’s tale, 'The Emperor's New Clothes'? We probably all know people addicted to Candy Crush or youngsters [...]

A couple of weeks ago I attended the “Close Network for Contact-Centre-and-Customer-Services Managers” in Sweden. “Close” is the largest and most professional manager network in Sweden and a great forum for discussing challenges with experienced people in the same profession. It´s always interesting and fun to meet counterparts and learn from their challenges and processes. [...]