Employee archetypes in the contact center: why is it important to identify employee archetypes? Identifying the different worker profiles is key to successfully building the employee experience map. However, in order to create an employee journey map we must delve into the word employee, a term that is too generic and that offers us little or no information.
In a contact center, where professionals of different ages coexist and interact (or what is the same, a multigenerational contact center), the greatest challenge in the employee experience is personalization. However, it is almost impossible to propose a differential experience for each person within a company, since each one of them will be in different stages, diverse situations and specific needs.
That is why the topic that we are talking about today in this post is so important: the employee archetypes in a contact center. Why is it so important to identify them? Read on, we’ll tell you here!
Employee archetypes: the challenge of personalization in the employee experience
In order to offer a good employee experience in the Contact Center, you have to know that each one is unique and requires personalized attention. It is a challenge that must be addressed and that involves focusing on knowing what type of employees we have in the company. Among other reasons, is to ensure that they are motivated in their day-to-day work in the contact center.
In EX language (employee experience), each different employee profile is called an “archetype”. There are as many archetypes as employee models you want to work with. For example, if we want to attract young talent to our Contact Center, we must work on the archetype of people in a certain age range or if we want to promote female talent, etc.
For the definition of archetypes, the empathy map is usually used: a very visual tool designed by Dave Gray that will help us put ourselves in the shoes of employees and empathize more and better with them.
In all cases, the focus will be the employee as a person, and we will have to investigate their tastes, hobbies, their history, their life and their professional goals. The more information we get, the tighter the value proposition will be for that archetype.
Key points in the Employee Journey Map
As happens when we talk about the user experience and their customer journey, in order to create the employee’s journey through the Contact Center, it is necessary to collect a series of parameters and variables, such as:
- The touchpoints. All the points of contact of the employee in his/her interaction with the company are displayed here.
- The moments of truth. That is, those key points that people experience due to the subjective importance they give to that specific moment.
- Gains. Positive moments, those that the employee remembers as something good and that provide well-being. The gains represent great opportunities for the company to value what it does. The essential thing at this moment is to maintain and reinforce them.
- The pain points, which are the points of frustration, doubts and concerns that employees experience at that time. These are important points that are also being experienced as something negative. We must use the pains as an opportunity to improve. At this moment the employee feels that the company is not meeting his/her expectations. The pains will allow us to get to know our employees better and highlight the points to work on urgently.
- The needs and expectations, knowing what they need and what they want to achieve in their jobs.
- The backstage, all the organizational processes that affect each interaction.
- The stakeholders, all the actors involved in those moments.
- The channels, that are all forms of face-to-face and online communication used at each touchpoint.
Contact center: employee archetypes, essential for a valuable EX
In order to offer a valuable employee experience in a Contact Center, a series of decisions must be made that will accompany the employee not only at critical moments in their relationship with the company —such as joining, expatriating or leaving the company—, but also critical aspects of your professional life, such as performance evaluation, development interviews, salary reviews, etc., or your personal life (illnesses, births, deaths or transfers, among others).
Therefore, the employee archetypes allow us to discover those profiles of greatest interest to generate an employee journey map adjusted to said archetype and thus create a personalized value proposition that is useful and truly appreciated by the employee. Always keeping in mind that the employee and the company maintain a two-way relationship and each requires efforts from the other to help promote their personal, professional and organizational growth.
