EMPLOYMENT FOR THE ALTERNATIVELY-ABLED AT REMPLOY

The 1944 Disabled Persons (Employment) Act provided the legal foundation for the first comprehensive structure to support disabled people in the UK. It led to the establishment of the Disabled Persons Employment Corporation in April 1945 and the first factory was opened in Bridgend, South Wales in 1946 making furniture and violins. Much of the momentum for these developments was the provision of suitable employment for disabled ex-servicemen. The title ‘Remploy’, meaning ‘re-employ’, was first registered by the ex-Services Employment Welfare and was adopted in 1946. The mission of Remploy is, ‘To expand the opportunities for disabled people in sustainable employment with Remploy and the communities it serves.’ Currently, over half of employees have a mental health condition or learning disability.

Remploy has a network of 82 factories in a wide range of operations across the UK and has a turnover of £165 million. In 2005 more than 5,700 people were employed in Remploy businesses and over 3,500 disabled people were assisted in finding jobs with employers. The aim is to maximize the number of disabled people in employment through employment in Remploy manufacturing businesses, service sector businesses and encouraging people into mainstream employment.

Remploy (2005: 24) considers that, ‘Learning and development is the key cornerstone to success in Remploy. It is the key enabling process that allows every person we employ or support into work to achieve their potential and independence.’ Company policy is that 5 per cent of employees’ time is spent on development and in Remploy Offiscope (a division of Remploy) it is between 10 and 15 per cent. Approximately 5,000 external courses are run across the organization and 1,000 people gained a literacy or numeracy qualification and more than 300 people gained an IT qualification. Overall, 60 per cent of employees received training leading to a qualification (Remploy, 2005). Each work site has a union learning representative and this has led to the establishment of a learning centre at each of the factories. Use is also made of Learn Direct courses and each factory has links to a local college with tutors providing training including basic skills.

Remploy has two call centres based in Aberdeen and Acton, north London, which support internal operations and mainly provide services for external organizations, many of whom are from the charity sector, eg Royal National Institute for the Blind. Remploy Offiscope can provide call centre services and combine this with dispatching, thus providing an integrated fulfilment service.

The Aberdeen call centre was set up in July 2000 with 15 seats and eight people working there. The number of employees depends on the volume of work generated by contracts and there is a very low churn rate, with people staying with Remploy for many years. When new staff are required they are located by Interwork (a Remploy agency). No specific qualifications are required although skills assessments are carried out and flexibility and enthusiasm are expected.

The learning and development structure

Induction training has evolved over the years and includes company information, health and safety, data protection, office procedures, customer service, communication skills (including enthusiasm, rate, flow, clarity, tone, voice mirroring), objection handling, and why people buy.

There is a buddy system where the new person sits next to an experienced person. Support is also provided through listening in and also replaying calls. Informally, there is also the opportunity to hold calls and seek advice from colleagues or the supervisor.

With regard to ongoing training, clients are encouraged to come and deliver training about themselves, their products and services so that Remploy becomes a virtual part of their organization. There is a considerable amount of role play and test calls before a new client’s system goes live. Clients sometimes require changes in the provision of service and this leads to further training. Some advisers have achieved S/NVQs for learning supported by a local college. During quieter times staff are encouraged to use the computers to increase their own learning.

Remploy is ISO 9001 accredited, which means that there are detailed procedures including a training matrix and the monitoring of training. There is a training plan and also a training log for each client. There is a performance appraisal system that also includes a development plan.

The technology will allow both Aberdeen and Acton to operate as a virtual call centre and it also has the potential to enable people to work from home. However, working within Remploy provides the opportunity to interact socially and allows employees to be given good care and attention. Working onsite also provides more opportunities for learning and for all these reasons homeworking has not yet been introduced.

GIVING FEEDBACK | Coaching and mentoring

Giving honest feedback is not an easy thing to do and some coaches shy away from it, defeating the purpose. However, being honest does not mean that the limitations of the learner have to be starkly presented to him or her in a personally threatening manner. Ideally, the feedback should be invited by the learner not presented by the coach and it should be done in a manner where the learner does not reject the information.

Holding back on giving honest information so as not to cause offence prejudices the chances that the learner’s behaviour will improve. The true message should not be so deeply hidden that the learner is unable to recognize it. In order to do this:

• Feedback should be clear and specific.
• It should focus on the behaviour and not on the person.
• It should focus on behaviour that can be improved.
• It should be invited where possible and not thrust at the learner.
• It should be delivered in a timely manner.

An effective model for giving feedback is the DESC approach by Bower and Bower (1976). Essentially, it involves identifying the goal or objective you wish to achieve then following this process:

• Describe your situation in terms of what happened; describe behaviour and not the person.
• Express your feelings about the situation in a calm and constructive way.
• Specify what you would like to happen.
• Consequences – explain the positive implications of the change in behaviour and/or what might happen without a change in behaviour.

Another very useful model for improving communication and coaching is the Johari Window (see Figure 1).

 
Figure 1: The Johari Window

In Figure 1 there are four areas within the quadrant: arena, blind spot, façade and unknown. The arena represents the area of common understanding by you and the other person. The blind spot represents that which is known by the other person but not by you. The façade illustrates what you know and what is not known by the other person. Finally, the unknown area represents that which is not known by you or the other person.

If we wish to improve communication and understanding in the blind spot and façade areas it is important that more information is provided by you and/or the other person in order to draw the exchange into the arena. Where nothing is known by both people, investigation and research are necessary to identify what is unknown thereby allowing it to be carefully examined and discussed.

The importance of timing

Coaching feedback should be delivered in a timely fashion. If the period of time between the behaviour and the feedback is long then the coachee may not remember what happened or be less inclined to do anything about it. This means that the coach or team leader needs to be up to speed with all the metrics and behaviours of their team. Learners will know which coaches and team leaders are on top of their jobs and those who are not. It is therefore necessary to be up to date and also to set a good example.

Providing prompt feedback is a more successful means of behavioural change. This can o en be done through listening in to calls and providing guidance and recommendations as soon as the call ends.

Coaching is not criticism

Coaching is generally regarded as a form of constructive one-to-one development that involves identifying areas where performance is not up to the required standard and developing agreed solutions to address the performance gap. Unfortunately, coaching delivered in the wrong manner or through an inappropriate system can be perceived negatively by the learner. In fact, even genuine coaching can be interpreted negatively by the learner and so it should be approached professionally.

Another area of concern is the use of the term ‘coaching’ when what is actually meant is ‘criticism’ (Cameron, 2000). This use of the word ‘coaching’ as a so form of criticism or discipline corrupts and degrades the original meaning of the word and thus undermines those who coach in an ethical and professional manner.

It is essential to separate coaching from performance evaluation because the two processes have very different purposes. Coaching may involve an assessment of a person’s skills but the main objective is about development and improvement of performance. Performance assessment connected to salary or other forms of ranking should be completely separated from the coaching process.

The most satisfactory solution to this is to ensure that the person doing the coaching is not involved with performance assessment or grading. In this way the relationship is not compromised; however, in many organizations the team leader who provides input on performance is also the coach. Encouraging the team leader to be a coach is entirely logical and practical, but this structural arrangement may also mean there is a conflict of interest and roles.

The reasons for separating grading and coaching are obvious. For successful coaching to happen there needs to be trust and a true rapport between the coach and learner. If learners feel that their performance is also being assessed and that this may impact upon salary or other benefits they will feel inhibited about admitting limitations and mistakes, etc.

Coaching the coaches

In many organizations there are trained and dedicated coaches whose main purpose is to support and develop employees. But o en the role of coaching falls within the remit of the team leader or manager who may have extensive knowledge and skills but who does not necessarily have experience of coaching. The problem is that team leaders get promoted because they are good at their job, not necessarily because they are good at managing and leading. For these reasons, there should be general management training for team leaders and this should include coaching them how to coach. In particular, induction training for team leaders should include coaching skills.

TRAINING AND COACHING AT ING/POSTBANK ZAKELIJK

In 1991, two large banking and insurance firms in the Netherlands (Nationale Nederlanden and MNB Postbank Group) merged to form ING, one of the largest financial services companies in the world. The ING brand offers banking, insurance and asset management in more than 50 countries worldwide. Most activities are ING branded, but there are also some very strong local brands, eg Postbank. In the Netherlands, the contact centres of ING bank and of Postbank Zakelijk (Postbank Business) operate as one unit, as they both serve mainly business customers. Headquarters and central management are located in Amsterdam.

The contact centres of Postbank Zakelijk are located in Arnhem and Amsterdam and employ 100 FTE customer service representatives. Each location has a manager and teams consist of 12 CSRs and a unit supervisor. In addition, about 40 FTEs work in the correspondence department and deal with written mail and e-mails only.

Recruitment and induction

All new CSRs at ING/Postbank Zakelijk are hired by a temporary work agency that does the first selection. A group assessment and a click talk with the unit managers is also part of the selection process. Because of the high skill demands, CSRs need to have commercial experience in sales or other call centres, secondary vocation education (MBO level or more) and have the right attitudes and competencies. Words like dare, eagerness, charisma and team player must apply to them and they should have good communication skills.

Induction training is normally in groups of 10 and involves products, processes and systems, with different types of learning being used including simulated calls, presentations, cases, role plays, etc. There is some attrition during the early stages, approximately two people in every group of eight to 10 who start the training leave, either during the induction training or in the first weeks after the training. This may be because the level is too high even for graduates of tertiary vocational education (HBO). The final exam after the induction training is a big hurdle. If CSRs fail and their motivation and behaviour are considered really good, they can do a resit. If they fail the resit, they will have to leave.

Organization and structure of training

The training department of the contact centre is based at ING headquarters in Amsterdam and consists of a coordinator and a project leader. In addition, each contact centre location has a trainer, who is interchangeable; if necessary, trainers can work at different locations. The training department develops and gives training, determines ING’s training strategy and meets regularly to discuss issues. It has a central budget, which includes money to pay for external training given to all CSRs. In general, all product, process and system training is in-house. Sales training and conversation training are provided by two external training agencies. Basic sales training is covered during induction and this is supplemented later with more advanced courses. In addition to the central training budget, each unit manager has a decentralized budget (an amount of money per CSR) to develop CSRs.

CSRs do not use scripts and have a lot of freedom in their customer contacts, as long as targets are reached by the end of the year. They can look up information on customers, their contact history, and on all financial products and services in the electronic knowledge system. In addition, call guides on the CSRs’ desks help them with special promotions or sales. These call guides provide examples of standard phrases CSRs could use, the main objections of customers and how to refute them, and some information on the products.

Experienced CSRs also follow additional training on customer complaints, conversation skills, and on new products, special promotions and product updates. Major changes in products or services are announced by e-mail and explained in the regular team meetings. All updates are stored in the knowledge database. Sometimes, there will be a short (maximum one hour) instruction on a product change. There is also additional training on the knowledge database and on e-mail. Training for experienced CSRs is only done when workload allows it, ie in down-times. In addition, this training should not take too long. These limitations often lead to a ‘struggle’ between the training department and the planning department.

Coaching

CSRs receive a print-out of their performance each week in which they can see whether they are above, on, or under target. The unit managers personally bring these print-outs to the CSRs and then informally talk to them about the outcomes. Targets are, for example, on sales, call time, login time and breaks.

Coaching is done at least six times a year and there is a coaching calendar to keep track of the knowledge, skills and attitude of CSRs and their points of attention. As training can only be carried out in down-times, unit managers spend quite a lot of time listening in to calls and developing CSRs’ skills at work.

Coaching is done by sitting next to CSRs and listening in to calls. Sometimes calls are taped. There is a checklist for content per product and an ‘online sales model’ to score conversation skills. These checklists contain 30 items on which CSRs can score. In an individual interview, the items and targets are discussed and three points of attention are mentioned and agreed upon. For example, these could be listening in with a colleague who is good at selling a specific product; using a specific phrase three times a day in calls; or selling a specific product twice each day.

All CSRs, like all other employees of ING bank, have an individual development plan that outlines their personal training and development. CSRs have a formal talk with their unit manager three times a year. At the beginning of the year, they have a planning interview to set goals and targets. Half way (in June) there is a staff appraisal to check up on the CSR’s goals, and at the end of the year there is a performance appraisal to judge whether targets are met. ING says the system is ‘working successfully’. A good performance could lead to a small salary increase. A bad performance means that CSRs have to enter a specific coaching trajectory for six months in which clear expectations and actions are indicated. If they succeed and get a good evaluation, then they are allowed to stay. However, if they still score badly after the coaching route, they will enter a ‘last chance route’ in which they are stimulated to look for another job and eventually can be fired.