Profile: Christine Henderson, Bank of New Zealand
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Christine Henderson Number of years in role: 4 years Number of staff / seats: anything between 7 - 13 Industry: Banking/Financial |
What do you do?
I lead a team of people within the customer contact centre by inspiring, motivating and coaching them to success. I live and breathe our bank’s vision, which is “To be the leading bank, trusted by customers and reknown for getting it right first time”.
Our high performance culture is built around leadership, empowerment and performance. Our corporate principles tell us how we will grow our culture. It’s about being open, honest, ownership and ensuring that each person is accountable for their decisions and actions.
Teamwork, sharing information and regular two-way feedback is paramount to our success. It is also about being able to change the game plan, being able to do this quickly, and without taking our eyes off the ball.
What results are expected in your position?
Like any business, banks also need to generate revenue and reduce cost. Our key business drivers are based on financials, customer and community, employees and capability leverage. Some key result areas are bank wide eg: Net Profit after Tax and Customer Satisfaction. This means every staff member has “skin in the game”, we all contribute to the big picture. We win or fail together.
There are Service Level result areas, where we expect 80% of half hour periods to be within a given zone. We need to ensure that we are always available to our customers.
There are also expectations around personal compliments/complaints and supporting business initiatives. We drive results through quality and increase our share of wallet through either retention or acquisition.
As a unit we continually assess our results and strive to do better. We need to be courageous and willing to change the game.
What has been your biggest career highlight to date?
As an organisation it would be the fact that for the last three years, BNZ has been judged best Contact Centre in the Banking Industry. For the last 2 years we have won CRM Diamond Award for Best Contact Centre across All Industries (>50 seats). This year we are going for the hat trick. This is a huge accolade and all the hard work and dedication from our staff is recognised with the winning of this award.
For me personally I would have to say that being nominated for the prestigious Chevron Award a couple of years running, for Best Team Leader. It has been fantastic and very humbling as the calibre of people that are nominated is outstanding.
In terms of highlights around my team it would have to be the fact that I have a hugely successful team in terms of what we have achieved as a unit. It is the ultimate satisfaction when you bring a new person into the team, help develop them and then see them grow and move into other areas within the organisation.
What is the best and worst thing about your job?
The best thing is so easy, and that is having daily contact with people who are all striving not just to meet but to exceed the organisational goals and who all live and breathe the bank’s vision. It is so easy to go the extra mile when you are surrounded by people who are extremely positive and focussed. I also love the challenge of going into work in the morning and not quite knowing what today is going to bring (every day is different and exciting).
To be honest, I don’t really have a thing that I think is the worst. I will say though that the most challenging thing is to ensure that you manage your time efficiently to enable you to get through admin requirements some days.
Any tips on how to get and stay ahead?
To have fantastic time management skills, ensure that you prioritise every day what you need to achieve. Never put off anything that you can do now because you think that there is plenty of time – there will always be something that will come along to fill up this time in a contact centre environment. Ensure that you regularly review the “Big Picture”. This will allow you to stay on track and focused.
To stay ahead as an organisation is easy – we have to do things with excellence on every contact.
Finally, “People make the business” without them we are nothing.
How do you encourage loyalty with your staff and clients?
You need to ensure that you treat both your staff and customers with the same respect. My people are my customers. You need to ensure that you are honest and that your actions are transparent and beyond reproach. You must live live and breathe the vision and culture of the organisation.
Customers like staff members need a reason to stay with you. We do this by differentiating ourselves from our competitors, by building a culture of trust and support.
Think like a customer, act like a business owner.
What do you think employees want from their employer?
People want to be treated fairly and be recognised for a job well done. Contrary to popular belief this does not involve large amounts of money or expensive gifts, it is simply about giving someone credit where credit is due. This can be a simple catch up, acknowledging them in meetings with their peers or a pat on the back.
This works wonders and goes a long way towards building a trusting and sustainable working relationship.
What does your company do for its staff that you feel is different from what other companies provide?
We do have an extensive incentive programme within the CCC. The programme rewards excellence on a monthly basis. It promotes the required behaviour around quality conversations and customer satisfaction. Recognition is through the presentation of monthly certificates around achievement participation and quality conversations.
I think accessibility to the Leadership team is fantastic. We are situated away from Head Office; however General Managers, Heads always come on site to work in our environment. It breaks down “us and them” barriers. This enables us to have clarity of the banks vision, and promotes understanding around how we are contributing to the big picture.
What are the biggest human capital issues your industry is dealing with? …and what should be done about it?
I believe the biggest issue is finding the right people to fit your organisation. As an Award winning Contact Centre we need to ensure that we have the right people from the beginning. We do have an extensive 7 week induction programme which I believe to be second to none in the banking industry. However to train someone, we need to find them first. I favour attitude to aptitude, because we can teach skills. Changing attitudes is very difficult, and to be honest can be a waste of valuable resource (time). It all comes down to individuals who want to make the difference every day.
