Profile: Kamini McCarthy, Tower
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Kamini McCarthy
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What do you do?
I am the Manager for the Customer Contact Centre. I manage the inbound customer service teams in the Auckland Contact centre. This involves managing the Team Leaders and their teams to ensure we meet our service level targets and at the same time provide excellent professional service.
What results are expected in your position?
I am expected to ensure Customer and staff satisfaction, staff retention, service levels and other key business drivers.
I believe that working with the staff and making sure they are happy within their environment and getting the support and training they require will help the level of retention.
What has been your biggest career highlight to date?
My biggest career highlight was when I worked in Ireland. I managed 2 sites for Eircom, which is a telecommunications company. I was responsible for their inbound sales and service calls to these Contact Centres. This was a very challenging role and was the stepping stone for my career.
What is the best and worst thing about your job?
The best thing about my job is the people. I enjoy watching and helping people develop and succeed. Sometimes people can be the worst part when you are having to manage poor performance.
The worst thing about my job can be the amount of meetings I have to attend. This takes up valuable time that I could be spending implementing the changes we are making to help us succeed.
Any tips on how to get and stay ahead?
The best tip I can give anyone is to value your staff and get to know him or her. Knowing your employees’ weaknesses and strengths is important. To be part of the team you have to be part of them. It is beneficial to know about their lives and what is happening with them as a person.
How do you encourage loyalty with your staff and clients?
As above – you need to get to know your team. You need to be approachable and supportive, clear in your communication about expectations, business requirements and knowledgeable about HR process and procedures. Show a genuine interest in employees’ training and development. Be prepared to take customer calls, know the business and show a hands-on approach.
What do you think employees want from their employer?
Recognition for hard work and career development. We help to put people into career paths if they show they have the initiative and the right attitude to develop their career. In today’s market, money plays a big part in whether or not you can retain your staff. If you don’t reward employees they start to look elsewhere. Giving them a good environment and atmosphere to work in also helps retention.
What does your company do for its staff that you feel is different from what other companies provide?
We provide leadership programs to help in development. We have also started a new system, which recognises good performance. We are rewarding staff for their excellent work. We also believe in flat management structure. By this I mean we have open policy with all levels of staff. Everyone knows who the CEO’s are and can liaise with them and other management at anytime. There is no closed-door policy in the organisation.
What are the biggest human capital issues your industry is dealing with? …and what should be done about it?
The biggest issue we have is staff retention. We have started to concentrate on career development. We are promoting industry specific study and also contact centre qualifications as well as looking at recruitment.
It is a hard job finding the right people to fit our organisation. We have currently undertaken profiling our successful agents in the contact centre. This gives us a better understanding of what types of people will excel within our organisation.