Get documents about "Katie
Document Sample
Welsh Call Centre Awards 2008
Team Leader / Supervisor of the Year
Katharine Halls
Role and Responsibility
Katharine is an experienced, highly motivated and enthusiastic Team Leader who has been employed with ING Direct since
June 2005. She is responsible for driving, leading and motivating a team of 12 Customer Service Associates (CSAs) who take
inbound calls from potential customers requiring information on our products and existing customers maintaining their accounts.
She demonstrates excellent leadership skills and is constantly committed to supporting her team in providing excellent customer
service. This fully supports the company vision “to be a fantastic company for customer to deal with”.
Katharine has a very successful background as a Team Leader and in her previous company was ranked in the top 10% of all
UK managers. A fresh challenge was needed to prove to herself that she could be even more successful in a new environment.
She was attracted to the vibrant culture of ING Direct and felt that working for a relatively new organisation would allow her to
really make the role her own and help shape the future direction of the company.
Katharine is a supportive leader with an open and honest style. She promotes an approachable environment, always ensures
she is available to her team and colleagues and strongly believes in leading by example. She always displays a happy, positive
attitude and encourages her team to work as one. This has a huge impact on the team‟s performance and morale as they aspire
to be high achievers not only for themselves but also for each other. An example of Katharine‟s success is illustrated in the
exceptional results achieved in the most recent Employee Satisfaction Survey (ESAT) survey. (A confidential survey completed
by all members of the Call Centre twice a year) When asked „how supportive is your Team Leader?‟ Katharine scored 9.2/10
(with ten being the most supportive) in comparison to an average score of 8/10 for the Call Centre. This is an excellent
achievement and shows a quantifiable result for the work Katharine has put into supporting her team. 2008 has been a
challenging year for financial services resulting in many changes for the business as a whole. This result proves that Katharine
has maintained a high morale throughout this demanding period by driving, understanding and supporting her team.
Katharine has a fantastic creative talent and will often use her team meetings as platforms for her team to exercise their own
creativity and build strong working relations through imaginative „team building‟ exercises. An example of this was in a recent
team meeting where the team were asked to lower a pole to the floor ensuring that it stayed level at all times which sounds
easier than it actually is! If it drops then they have to start again. The aim of this exercise is to get team members talking to each
other and making them aware of their strengths and using this to ensure success, it usually takes a few attempts before the team
really starts working together but gives a strong message whilst ensuring they have fun. This was so successful she set a
challenge to other teams across the both sites to do it in less time, creating a real buzz - she showed that she is willing to be
creative, try new initiatives and is always willing to share these with others across the business.
The role of the Team Leader
As an ING Direct Team Leader Katharine is responsible for a team of very varied CSAs who come from a number of different
backgrounds. The challenge for any manager is being able to relate to the staff you are managing and this is the key to
Katharine‟s success within her team. She can adapt her management style to relate to the most challenging employees and
drive them all to achieve their full potential.
Why Katharine has the winning streak?
Katharine thrives on achieving the challenging targets which are set and will always set her own personal targets which will
exceed these to ensure success. Katharine is responsible for ensuring her team meet a number of targets including AHT
(Average Handing Time), ACW (After Call Work), Adherence (ensuring agents support the service level) and setting up RSPs
(Regular Savings Plans) for customers. Income generation has been a large focus for ING Direct this year therefore RSPs are of
particular importance to help the business meet its annual objectives. Although the target for RSPs is set as a conversion rate
Katharine decided that she wanted to make it more interesting for the team and thought that if they could see the monetary value
they bring in it would make a difference to the teams (and business) performance. Her instinct was correct and the teams
performance exceeded even Katharine‟s expectations (refer to Graph 1 below). Katharine created a spreadsheet for each team
member to enter the value of each individual RSP. This calculated the individual and team value as a running total for the month.
Before introducing this Katharine‟s team were generating approximately £4,000 each month in RSPs – their goal was to
substantially improve this. By the end of the first month of the „Value RSP‟ incentive her team had brought in £10,000 of new
funds. This continued to grow to £20,000 in the 4th month which has remained consistent since. Due to the huge achievement
made by Katharine and her team in this area many other Team Leaders have chosen to adopt this approach and witnessed their
team‟s performance increase also.
2
Once you’re on Katharine’s team you want to stay on Katharine’s team!
Katharine builds excellent rapport with her team and since taking over her current team in January 2008 (Katharine was
previously employed at ING Direct as a Mortgage Team Leader) she has not had any members leave her team. This is due in
part to her positive attitude, willingness to support her team‟s ongoing development and ensuring that each individual feels
valued by herself and the company. On a monthly basis the team are asked to give a „Vibe Rating‟ from 1-10 (1 being unhappy
and 10 being very happy) on how they feel within the team by considering support, coaching, feedback, development and
anything else which affects their overall happiness. Katharine‟s average in the last 12 months is 9/10 which again is well above
the average for the Call Centre as a whole.
Project D.A.P.s (Develop and Achieve your Potential) – Developing her team
Katharine encourages her team to actively seek out development opportunities and has put together a business strategy to
ensure focus and provide support on an individual basis. This is known as Project “D.A.Ps” which stands for Develop and
Achieve your Potential. She encourages her team to use a variety of development tools such as our online ING Learning Centre
(ILC), which gives access at work or home to a staggering 29,584 courses and 12,075 books. Katharine ensures regular time is
allocated for her team to complete ILC training programs and has recently introduced the “ILC course of the month” campaign.
Katharine gathers courses that all CSAs have used and benefited from and communicates them to her team. This has been so
successful that she is now driving this through out the whole Call Centre.
She has also helped develop team members to exceed their targets, develop themselves and successfully gain promotion to
other parts of the business – one of her greatest recent successes was with a team member who wanted to develop his
confidence when dealing with difficult customers as this was an area he had always struggled with. With Katharine‟s full support
through coaching, role-plays and training his confidence and ability increased quickly and recently he has been successful in
securing a position as part of the Escalation team. This is a fantastic achievement and she is really proud that she could help to
make a difference for her team member and the business.
Self Development – ‘Me time’ is essential to her success
Katharine understands the importance of keeping her own knowledge up-to-date and to ensure that this happens she regularly
joins in with her team to take inbound customer calls. This enables her to support her team‟s queries and relate to them on a
much wider basis. This „Lead by Example‟ philosophy has had a really positive affect on her team as they can see that
Katharine is always willing to demonstrate the behaviours that she expects of them and would never ask them to undertake a
task that she would not do herself. Katharine was the first one to celebrate with the team when she set up a RSP for £100 – this
was a fantastic effort and was well praised by her team.
Katharine has also successfully completed the “Orange Management Leadership Program” which is accredited by the Chartered
Management Institute (CMI) and ensures her vocational competence in the Team Leader role. The course focuses on how to
manage the „ING Direct way‟ and has enabled Katharine to complement her existing skills with new management skills such as
“Push & Pull” questioning techniques and how to apply different coaching styles to achieve the best performance from every
team member.
Katharine fully supports organisational change and recognises that in order to maintain a competitive advantage it is necessary
for the business to constantly evolve and improve its processes. Katharine will never shy away from doing her „homework‟ and
will always make sure that she fully understands any changes and the rationale behind change initiatives before delivering (and
supporting) the messages to her team. Change processes are always delivered in a positive, professional, supportive manner
with a very clear communication style that ensures she has the full understanding and commitment from her team.
Additional Projects – why Katharine has the ‘X’ Factor
Call Centre Champions
Katharine is constantly evolving her approach to her role and her success as a Team Leader has enabled her to be nominated
for a number of additional projects including running the team of Call Centre Champions (CCCs). These are a group of top
performing CSAs who are responsible for liaising with other departments across the business such as Training and Business
Improvement, then to collate and deliver briefing updates within the Call Centre. Katharine supports the ongoing development of
the CCCs and coaches them to improve their performance. One method of achieving this is to attend the briefings the Call
Centre Champions deliver to ensure that they feel supported and to provide invaluable feedback. Recently Katharine held a
focus group with the CCC team to generate ideas on how to further improve the current process.
3
Employee Engagement
Another great achievement was being personally invited by the CEO to form part of a project group to look at Employee
Engagement across ING Direct in the UK. Katharine was selected due to her ability to boost morale within the Call Centre and
her innovative ways to get people having fun even in the most challenging of times. An example of this is when she produced a
„Caption Competition‟ in which CSAs are invited to give suggested captions to ING Direct related pictures and the best receives a
prize. This was sent out to everyone across the Call Centre and created such a „fun‟ environment that she was able to get the
CSAs to not only perform well but to enjoy doing it which is her ultimate goal. The Caption Competition has been requested
numerous times since it was launched and she has received fantastic feedback from the Head of Savings - Sales, Jane Racz
regarding the competition and impact it has had.
As part of the Employee Engagement team Katharine has been holding focus groups with all levels of staff to get feedback and
ensure staff feel valued and involved; with her openness and approachability she has been able to really engage with staff and
create some fantastic ideas on areas that can be improved. One example was that of Career Development and with this in mind
Katharine has helped to develop a 'Career Clinic' which will be owned by HR and all staff will be invited along regularly to review
their own development and discuss opportunities available to them. This has had a fantastic response and Katharine feels this is
just the start of things to come which she is very excited about.
Global Associate Recognition Scheme
Katharine started 2008 with a „big bang‟ by winning the Global Associate Recognition Award for „Most Improved Team‟ within
ING Direct UK. This honour brought with it the opportunity to visit the ING Direct office in Italy and share best practice with other
ING Direct Team Leaders. To get this level of recognition was very humbling for Katharine and a very proud moment for her and
her team.
It’s also important to have fun!
As a forward thinking Team Leader, Katharine uses her creativity to enhance performance and also team morale by bringing fun
into the workplace. This also links strongly with our company vision “to be a fantastic company to work for”. Some examples of
incentives Katharine has introduced to improve performance are as follows: “I‟m a CSA get me out of here”, “Hallsey‟s
Housemates” “it could be you” and “Summer of Fun”. *Please refer to the Graphs on page 5 to show the impact of the incentives
Katharine has introduced.
She enjoys being involved in any incentives she introduces, this can be clearly be seen from the picture on page 7 from the Call
Centre Conference with her „something about Mary hair style‟ she did as the theme was back to the movies that she has such a
creative side that really stands out from the crowd. She won Team Leader of the Year that night which was voted for by the staff
and shows she is recognised as a fantastic leader to work with.
Katharine has a really quirky side to her which gets others interested and intrigued in a really positive way, she is not afraid to try
new ideas and methods and this is what makes her so successful.
Katharine is also always willing to take on additional duties and challenges and also volunteered to help arrange this years‟ Start
of Year Party for the Call Centre. She was able to use her creative qualities to ensure the party will be remembered for a long
time to come! The party theme was „zodiac‟ and as part of Katharine‟s creative input she arranged for each table to be labelled
with the star sign meanings, traits behind each of them and also displayed some funny pictures of celebrities that share the same
star sign. This was a huge success and she received fantastic feedback from all who attended.
Charity doesn’t begin at home for Katharine
Katharine is committed to supporting charities and has volunteered for many events both inside and outside of work. She
recently completed the 5k challenge to raise funds for Cancer Research and is also in the process of organising a charity netball
match between Cardiff and Reading offices
Katharine has also devoted some of her own time to support local children in her area which are less fortunate than her. Her
contribution involves supporting their reading, organising competitions and fun activities and most importantly ensuring they
improve their confidence and feel they have a valuable contribution to make!
A final thought as to what makes Katharine a successful Team Leader?
Katharine ensures her team are happy in their work and she consistently lives by the „Orange values and Culture‟. She treats
everyone within her team fairly and ensures they all feel and deliver added value to the team and the business. Katharine has a
reputation throughout ING Direct for demonstrating exceptional leadership qualities. This is clearly visible as she manages her
team by adopting the following first-line management skills (which are actually reinforced in the well known FISH videos):
Be there Choose your attitude Make their day Play
4
Graph 1 shows RSP conversion rates Graph 2 shows the Average
Handling Time
RSPs
4.00%
3.50%
3.00%
2.50%
KH RSPs
2.00%
CC Average RSPs
1.50%
1.00%
0.50%
0.00%
Feb
March
June
September
May
July
April
August
Graph 4 shows Sales through Service
Graph 3 shows ACW
ACW
60.00%
50.00%
40.00%
KH ACW
30.00%
CC Average ACW
20.00%
10.00%
0.00%
Feb
March
June
September
May
July
April
August
“Katharine has helped to further develop “Katharine was nominated to join a team working
and enhance the Call Centre Champions. across the company to improve engagement levels.
The CCC group is an important Katharine was chosen because she embodies the ING
opportunity for knowledgeable, Direct values in that she is professional and good at
experienced CSAs to develop their skills what she does. She is open and direct and brings a
and career within the Call Centre. This sense of fun to everything she does, because of these
allows us to deliver briefings, holding traits she can engage with anyone at any level. She did
team meetings and network with other a great job presenting the results of this group to the
departments. She has been instrumental Directors and is taking an active role in driving the
into putting into action the Champions actions forward at company and department level.”
goals and objectives and I recently
attended a focus group with her that was Julian Hartley – Director of Sales and Operations
so positive. Across the Call Centre,
Katharine is very approachable, helpful
and she is relied upon to action requests “I continue to be delighted by the new ideas and
in a timely and professional manner. suggestions that Katharine makes, I can always rely on
Katharine is a great Team Leader who is her to create a competition or incentive that will raise a
extremely organised and has an smile and increase performance.”
innovative approach”.
Louise Conant - Call Centre Champion Jane Racz – Head of Savings - Sales
“Katharine is a much respected Team Leader in our Call Centre. In 2008 she won the “Most
improved team” in the ING Direct recognition awards, which being part of her team I can see exactly
why! Katharine has given me the personal support, help and encouragement towards my work and I
feel very happy that I am on her team.”
Jamiella Bruzulier – a CSA who recently joined the team
5
2008 Global Associate Recognition Scheme Winner
The “Summer of fun” incentive Katharine designed
Katharine taking time out to Katharine and other Oscar winners Infamous team building exercises
support the 5 a side team
Call Conference Awards – Top Team Leader – we Katharine just received the news she won
won’t mention the movie theme hair do! Global Recognition
Attempting to flip pancakes for a fun
incentive Katharine launched 6
