Management Trainee Program for the Contact Center Enviroment

How do you train the middle management in your contact center? Do you have a training plan at all or do you just take long tenured reps and make them supervisors/team leads when a supervisor leaves? If you hire a supervisor off the street what training do you give them?
Most call center organizations that I have seen do not do a very good job in preparing their supervision for the job at hand. Many call center managers assume that because they were good reps they will be good supervisors. Big mistake.
I have found that having a solid management trainee program not only trains your future managers on their job but also shows career progression.

THE PROGRAM:
I like to have my tenured supervisors each have a management trainee on their team if possible. That way if they need to go to lunch or are sick the team is covered. When the main supervisor is there they are on the phones working and learning.

Here is a quick rundown of the 3-6 month program.

I try to have a trainee class when needed. While it is fine to hire a couple trainees off the street I believe it is much more beneficial for the organization to really try to hire from within. This way we can have classes just when we need them and do not have someone designated a management trainee for a long period getting frustrated from there being no supervisor position available.
We would have an hour weekly meeting where training would take place. This is the fun part. You can really tailor this to the needs of your operation. I put a ton on emphasis on leadership, how to act on the team, how to deal with tough reps, dealing with confrontation and how to turn attitudes around. I want to give them all the "psychological tools" for them to succeed.
We will also train on systems (call management system, workforce management, theory behind how and why we route calls... ).

One of the most important classes is our legal class. We make sure to go over sexual harassment issues, what you can say and what you can't say on your team, any companies policies such as dress code are all handed here as well to make sure that all our middle management are as professional as possible and do not open us up to any litigation.
These meeting are also the times where we train how to open and close a shift, controlling the first 30 minutes, how do weekly agent analysis and career progressions and how to make their reps better from a quality perspective.

If you have the time it's great to have each trainee spend a week or two in all the companies' different departments as well to see how everything works together. They can see when errors happen how it affects the company and how each department is dependent on another.
Remember as they are learning all of this they are applying it every day when their main supervisor is on break or lunch. We also make sure to sit in on trainees while they are doing supervisor weekly agent analysis reviews and any monitoring issues that arise with associates.
Once you have them trained on all aspects of what it means to be a supervisor in your organization it's now time for the final test.
They are given a team for one week on their own where they are reviewed for how they do. They are closely supervised but given reign over that team.

If they pass and you feel they are ready it's GRADUATION TIME!!!
We had a small swearing-in ceremony before a shift (normally on a Friday) where they would take an oath (let me know if you want the oath), get a diploma and then have balloons and cake. We also presented them with a new name badge as well. Make it fun. They put a lot of time in they deserve a little recognition.

Hope this helps a little to get you to think about how you help your middle management become stars!

If you would like more information of how we train supervision at Expivia visit our website at http://www.expivia.net or visit our blog at http://www.expivia.blogspot.com.
Contact me at tlaird@expivia.net
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