Hong Kong Call Centre Association Blog

HKCCA Awards 2009 - Assessment Highlights and Observations

2009-09-09T14:12:00.004+08:00

by Rayland Chan

Executive Committee Member

Professional Development and Training

Upon the completion of the assessment process of the HKCCA Awards 2009, we have been approached from different participants. Some asked for the results of their entries, others asked for advice on their performance during the assessment so that they could improve in the next awards. While the finalists of respective categories will be notified shortly, I would like to share with you the following highlights of this year’s entry submissions and the observations collected from the panel judges.

Short-listed Entries

This year, we have more banking and financial institution entries. The HKCCA Awards values participation and the learning experienced from the preparation process as much as the final result. Entries were “screened in” rather than “screened out”. There were no quotas for the finalists. Written submissions meeting the prescribed requirements would be short-listed for the second round of assessment.

Written Submissions

As the written submission carried 30% of the overall score, most participants made good effort to prepare for it. You could tell from their submissions that whether the participants were serious about the Awards, passionate about providing quality service and care about their customers and staff. A good number of those submissions consist of over 70 pages covering a lot of information. Long submissions did not necessarily score high marks. It depends on whether they had answered all the questions included on the template; the information provided was relevant to the specific questions; and there were illustrations or evidence provided to support the statements or claims. For example, simply say “We provide excellent career development opportunities for our agents,” will get no marks unless it gives details of how it is implemented and the effectiveness of the initiative.

There were entries that the participants simply used the same submissions of 2008 as their entries for the 2009 Awards. It is possible that some processes and information are still valid after 12 months - but not all, particularly on KPI and the actual achievement, staff churn, mechanism for continuous improvement. It raises questions that if the things mentioned in those submissions hold truth at all.

Many submissions used acronyms e.g. STAR, CARE, PERFECT, FAST etc to spell out an initiative or an approach to address certain issues. The acronym itself does not get marks unless the context relates to the issue presented and is supported with action items or illustrations.

Client or customer testimonials are solid evidence to justify the contact centre or the individual’s good work. One contact centre was able to provide 10 of its clients’ testimonials supporting its entry. And one other invited its clients to be interviewed by the judges to give reference during on-site assessment.

Mystery Caller Assessment

Hong Kong Quality Assurance Agency (HKQAA) conducted the Mystery Caller Assessment in August for the short-listed entries serving inbound callers. The short-listed contact centers were from Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Macau. The assessed areas included opening interaction, consistency and accuracy of the information provided, courtesy and knowledge of the agents, agents’ ability to offer solutions / alternatives to callers and closing of interaction.

The data shows the Hong Kong based contact centers relatively ranked higher than those in Mainland China. The Mystery Callers commented that while the product knowledge of agents in Hong Kong and the Mainland and their ability to understand callers’ needs were equally good, the agents in the Mainland were reactive to callers’ requests and enquiries, seldom use callers’ name to address callers and made little effort to see if callers had other needs that they could help before closing.

On-site Assessment

Good contact centres do what they promised to do. On-site assessment is a way to verify the information presented in the written submission. It is also a good opportunity for the judges to feel the ambience of the centre, interact with participants on contact centre issues and share the industry best practices.

A number of the assessed contact centers had their high level person in charge of the contact centre present during the assessment. That showed their support and commitment to the contact centre in participating in the Awards.

Happy staff makes happy customers. Almost every submission claims to be a caring contact centre that keeps its staff happy and healthy. That was not always reflected during on-site assessment. Observations from the judges reported that a contact centre receptionist was caught sleeping while they entered into the contact centre. Another contact centre had an agent laid down sleeping on her position during the assessment. And in one other contact centre, there were pictures of damaged furniture and facilities displayed reminding the staff to protect the company’s properties.

Panel Interview

Short-listed Individual Awards candidates were invited for the panel interview to present their performance, achievements and giving them the opportunity to excel why they should be the winner of the category.

There were cases that the candidates entered into the category that did not match with their core role and responsibility in the contact centre. e.g. a manager competing in the supervisor category. It is not necessarily an advantage for a higher rank professional competing in a lower level category. The judges will assess the core competence of the candidates against the set of criteria prescribed for that particular category.

Most of the candidates were well prepared for the interview. Their presentation style was different and interesting. The candidates from one particular contact centre used a recital style to present their entries. Some used a story telling approach. Others used aids such as pictures, poster to support their presentation. The judges had no preferred style as long as the candidates were clear to their role and responsibility and were able to demonstrate their competence in the position and other outstanding achievements.

Awards

The HKCCA Awards is about hard work, learning, recognition and celebration.
There was a lot of hard work put in to achieving different KPIs and various successes in respective participants’ contact centers. There was a lot of learning for them to prepare and undergo the assessment process. The Awards recognizes achievements and give credits where credits are due. And the level of Awards given will be according to the level of attainment of respective submissions towards the prescribed standards. HKCCA is grateful for all the participants that have come forward, showcase their good work and benchmark themselves with the industry best. They are winners already.

As the Awards enters its 10 Anniversary along with the Association’s services to its members, we encourage all our members and past winners to come to the Gala Dinner on 13 Oct 2009 to recognize the achievement of the 2009 Awards winners, support the industry practitioners and celebrate “A decade of Excellence” of the contact centre industry and the Hong Kong Call Centre Association.

The Pressures & Challenges Facing Asia's Call Centres in 2009

2009-06-19T15:38:00.006+08:00

Mr Sidney Yuen is an Executive Committee Member and Awards Chairman for the HKCCA. He is also Head of Global Consulting Services, Asia Pacific at Convergys.

In this exclusive interview, Sidney shares his insights about the pressures and challenges facing Asia's call centres in 2009.

To watch the interview click here.

Executive Insights - April 2009

2009-04-07T20:25:00.013+08:00

Chris Knop

Executive Committee Member

Marketing & Corporate Social Responsiblity

Healthy Staff Healthy Profits

The HKCCA is committed to keeping you, our members up to date with corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices in the contact centre industry.

Let’s firstly review what the concept of CSR encompasses (for full details refer to our white paper “Answering the Call for Corporate Social Responsibility”).

CSR encourages organisations to be accountable for their social and environmental impact beyond profit or legal obligations. It suggests that organisations consider their “stakeholders” in all aspects of conducting business.

Stakeholders are all those who are influenced (directly or indirectly) by an organisation. They can generally be grouped into the categories of:

Employees
Customers
Suppliers (supply chain management)
Community (including environmental impact)
Shareholders (and other investors)
Media
Government and regulators

In this article we will focus on the stakeholder employees, specifically related to the area of occupational health and safety and the use of display screen equipment.

Contact centre work involves sitting in a somewhat fixed position for many hours on end. It also involves restricted movements to access and use the computer, paperwork and answering phones. All of this brings with it considerable stress on the body and mind if ergonomics are not properly addressed.

It is extremely important to have display screen equipment guidelines in place. This is so that workstation best practices can be followed which minimize risk of injury and stress on your employees.

Not only should guidelines be in place, they need to be reviewed periodically to ensure they are being followed on an ongoing basis.

Some benefits of this are:

Happier healthier staff
Reduced sick leave due to stress or injury in the workplace
Higher productivity
Increased profit resulting from higher productivity and a healthy available workforce

The Hong Kong Labour Department has an enforceable regulation as well as code of practice in place relating to Display Screen Equipment. It is an excellent reference for all types of call centres.

Click here to view the CAP 509B OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH (DISPLAY SCREEN EQUIPMENT) REGULATION

The HKCCA suggests:

If you already have display screen equipment guidelines in place – review them against the Labour Department’s guidelines for best practice benchmarking
If you don’t have formal guidelines in place – use the Labour Department’s material

There are two main documents to refer to which are available on the department’s website. Click on the following to download:

There are practical diagrams for your reference and even a workstation risk assessment checklist.

The regulation not only covers call centre employees. Chances are that your company has many display screen equipment “users” who are affected by the regulation. Consider making sure your human resources department is aware of the regulation and actively promotes its guidelines amongst all departments.

It is possible and advisable to go on step further and have certified DSE staff in your contact centre or company. This will then provide you with a DSE “champion” who can conduct audits on all DSE users. Courses are run by the Occupational Safety & Health Council and could be found by clicking here.

So go on don’t just sit there! Make DSE guidelines an integral part of your occupational health and safety commitment to your employees – one of your most valuable stakeholders.

Executive Insights - January 2009

2009-01-14T07:23:00.010+08:00

Effectiveness Vs Efficiency
By Chris Knop

Executive Committee Member

Marketing and Corporate Social Responsibility

Effectiveness and efficiency, what’s the difference?

The difference could be costing your company money and adversely effecting your daily operation.

Being efficient in your contact centre is easy. Follow your policies and procedures, hit your KPI’s and voila, you’re efficient! Maybe so in your mind, but it’s very possible your customers are experiencing quite the opposite. Remember, most customers don’t give feedback, they just don’t come back.

To explain what I’m getting at, think about “first contact resolution.” The term is widely thrown around and espoused by many in the industry, but what are we really doing about achieving it? It’s possible to be efficient in a customer transaction yet not provide the customer with first contact resolution. This results in further contacts, disgruntled customers and staff, and adds cost to your bottom line. All this equals a lack of effectiveness.

To be effective, a transaction should ensure that we in the industry get it right the first time and the customer’s needs are fulfilled.

So at this point you’re thinking, great Chris, tell me something I don’t already know, how do I become effective?

There are many ways and these are just some:

Your staff are the best source of providing effectiveness in your operation. Take a key group of your frontline staff and brainstorm with them. Ask them where the operation is doubling up on work or where things could be done better. Don’t wait for your next team meeting, do this randomly in the next few days, you’ll be surprised what improvements can be made immediately. Make this a regular session or even consider incentivizing for such ideas, kind of an “intrepreneur award.”

Revise all of your policies and procedures. All of us have them let’s face it, those policies and procedures that have been around for years, maybe even over a decade? It’s time they’re reviewed for their effectiveness. Go through them step by step and think outside the box as to where things can be improved. Sometimes it’s better not to reinvent the wheel, just make sure the tires are at the correct pressure!

Take your customer feedback onboard. Sounds obvious? Then why aren’t you doing it? Take a look at some of your most common complaints (oops did I call them complaints and not feedback?) Change the way you do things so these complaints are alleviated. You’ll save your staff time which will improve your service levels, save your operation money and make your customers happy resulting in more business.

So, there are three things you can do to become more effective and you can do them immediately! Come on, try it, it’s a new year and time to bring in new approaches to how we do business. Let’s face it, in these trying times any edge that improves your bottom line or brings in more business is “cutting edge.”

Write to me if you have feedback on this article or if you’ve done the above and it worked. I’d really like to hear from you! chrisknop@hkcca.com

Are you running an effective contact centre?

Executive Insights - April 2008

2008-05-08T15:40:00.003+08:00

The era of Broadband Telephony
By Albert Chan, HKCCA Exeo Member – Technology Deployment

I always have been amused by the eye-catching advertisements made by the HK Broadband, the recent one with Alexander Graham Bell (little known that he was the inventor of modern day telephone, a Canadian) clearly states that the Era of Broadband Telephony is here. TDM (Time Division Multiplexing) or the simple term Analogue Telephony has been in life for more than 80 years and while we are talking about Mega, or even Giga Bit per second transmission rate, traditional voice band communication is still the main course of telecom application. No wonder why we have such a demand and query on why we are still using that Super IT Highway to carry that the small 3K Hertz bandwidth wagon that natural human can hear or speak. It is high time we should think about the convergence of technologies, how we can make use of this broad and wide IT network to make life much easier and faster. I mean, of course, that is painful for the people that demand a slow life, but inevitably we cannot decline that the pace of Internet is growing so quickly that we are in a direction of no turning back.

The recent propaganda fight between PCCW and SmarTone has also emphasized the varieties and choices people can choose on their basic communication needs nowadays.

Telephone is not just a telephone in the modern broadband world and people are now more demanding than ever for information and instant messages. The monopoly Blackberry has been so popular 5 years ago, now it is under threat and challenge with people making use of PDA Phones Push-Mail technology to synchronize their emails, diary and contacts. It is not a surprise that nowadays, finger repetitive syndrome would be the most common sickness amongst managers.

All of the IT giants are so involved in capturing the traditional voice market with new and innovative idea and the result is encouraging but again conflicting. Voice is still the basic need, we are using different devices such as computer, laptop, mobile phones, IP phones, PDA or even a simple two-wired phone…to communicate and, in most cases, you can be reached easily by a dedicated mobile number or an email address. That’s why nowadays, people would demand their mobile number or email address to be kept as personal asset. I have been using my mobile number for over 12 years and my hotmail accounts for some 15 years; they are perhaps even more used identities than my own born and given name.

The speed of hand held devices has been boosted by the development of new electronic technology and just the right time to use up the surplus of bandwidth generated by the gigantic under-ocean fibers and the satellites. In the year 2006, over 78% of people are using broadband to access the internet ( IPSOS 2007 Web Study Report ) and are using different applications available such as VPN, VoIP, Skype, Netmeeting, MSN, QQ etc to communicate face to face with their peer partners. In HK, the choices are more eminent, in 2008, OFTA did a survey and report on WIFI AP (Access Point) and found that HK is one of the most accessible cities in the world having some 6400 public APs serving the community. Without any survey, we would know that the penetration of broadband in HK with such a dense population has made HK one of the leading cities in the world in terms of Internet usage.

With PCCW pushing the new “EYE” Phone, (as a matter of fact, the first IP Phone provider in HK is HK Broadband) we would see the battlefield is now in a multimedia world. We would expect other carriers would follow suit and in a year time, we would see that the Telephony world will no longer be the same and in order to cope with this voice only environment, 3G or even 4G mobile will be able to merge with this multimedia contact communication means. To cope with this changes, the Call Centre Industry will hence need to do a major face lift and we would expect that a lot of services would be more sophisticated with more face to face feeling, through still be a virtual touch but this would impose a lot of bandwidth, a lot of integration and a lot of more localized demand. Some of the new development is predictable like the IT equipment uplift, bandwidth etc, but what cannot be predictable is whether the service depot might need to be swift back to HK as the customer will prefer to have locals to offer service while face to face personal service would be bundled.

One thing that we can be certain is that in the new era of broadband telephony, everybody needs to be well prepared, not only the service provider but also the end-users. Don’t be left behind with all the others enjoying the speed, the convenience, and the rich and informative and personal services that you and your customers can share.

Let us have your view on what you can deliver or demand from and for your service provider and customers over this new super information highway.

Executive Insights - March 2008

2008-03-11T10:16:00.008+08:00

By Rayland Chan
Executive Committee Member
Training and Education
2007 Review – Professional Development and Training

As 2007 HKCCA AGM draws near, I'd like to share with you the work undertaken by the Professional Development & Training Committee over the last 12 months.

Training Services to Members

At the start of the year, we launched the training service to members whereby CCA directly run and conducted the training courses. From time to time, we receive enquiries from members and “would be” members requesting CCA to organize training programmes to cater for the training needs of their call centre staff. Their training needs range from Sales techniques to Customer Services to Complaint Handling for their front line agents; and Coaching skills, Team Management, Operation Management, Stress Management etc for their supervisors and team leaders. Most of them are from small to medium size call centers, unlike those sizable call centres, they do not have in-house trainers to deliver the training.

2 Training Series have been developed for Supervisor and Agent levels.

“Core Competence Training Series for Supervisors and Team Leaders”;
“Service Excellence Training Series for Front line Agents”

The details of respective courses in the Training Series are available from the CCA website.

Open Courses

Since the launch of the training service, 3 open courses had been organized with 16 member companies/organizations sending people to attend the training. The response and the course evaluation have been positive and encouraging. The courses organized and the participating companies/organizations are listed below:
Course
“Getting Results through Telemarketing”

Participating Companies
Autotoll Limited
CSL
Macau Telecom
Ricoh Hong Kong Limited
Teledirect HK Ltd.

Course
“Complaint Handling”

Participating Companies
Wharf T & T
Chow Sang Sang Co Ltd
Cigna Worldwide Life Insurance Co Ltd
DHL Express HK Ltd
Ricoh Hong Kong Limited
Sharp-Roxy HK Limited
Sony Corporation of HK Ltd
Teledirect HK Ltd
TNS HK Ltd

Course
“Situational Selling”

Participating Companies
Hong Kong Trade Development Council
Senior Citizen Home Safety Association
Teledirect HK Ltd
Avaya

In-house Programmes

A number of Corporate Members prefer that CCA to tailor-make in-house training programmes so as to achieve better effectiveness and results. So far, in-house programmes had been delivered for 5 organizations with several others are in the pipeline.

The below is the list of information of those in-house programmes:

Hong Kong Electric Group
- Effective ways to deliver Superior Customer Service over the phone

Essilor Hong Kong Limited
- Service Culture – You make the difference
- Quality Customer Call Handling
- Service Empathy
- Complaint Handling

Healthy Household (Guangzhou)
- Service Excellence – the Brilliant Basics
- Quality Customer Call Handling
- Effective Coaching
- Improving Agents’ performance through Monitoring
- Team Management and Motivation
- Effective Communications

Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority
- Service Excellence through Call Centre
- Quality Customer Contact Handling

1823 Citizens’ Easy Link
- Problem Solving and Decision Making

Certification Programmes

Last May, CCA organized a Training Symposium to present 2 CCA endorsed Certification Programmes to members. The Call Center Industry Advisory Council (CIAC) Certification Programmes and the London Chamber and Commerce Industry Body (LCCI) accredited programmes. Representatives from OmniTouch International and CCS International provided participants with a better understanding on how CIAC and LCCI certification work and how they could enhance call centre professionals’ leadership and management skills, as well as improving operation efficiency and productivity to a higher level. Details of these certification programmes can be accessed through the CCA website.

Call Centre Training for Inmates

Earlier last year, Efficiency Unit of HKSAR Government initiated a study to explore the feasibility of organizing a call centre vocational training programme for adult prisoners so as to help them easing back into the society with related call centre skills upon their release. CCA actively participated and helped pulling together related industry information to facilitate the study and offered to conduct the training. CCA vice chairman John Chiu and myself held meeting with the Government officials from Correctional services Department and Efficiency Unit to share with them information on the entry requirements of the call centre jobs, the training contents and the employment prospect of well trained call centre professionals.

After consideration, Correctional Services Department concluded that the initiative was not feasibility. They would have operational difficulty in managing that and recruiting sufficient inmates who meet the entry requirements to join the training. And that those who attain the standard may not have such vocational training needs.
We were disappointed with the decision and that CCA could not help further in the rehabilitation of local offenders. Elsewhere in Singapore, they not only train inmates the call handling skills, they actually established a call centre within the Changi Women’s Prison to equip them with real call centre job experience so as to achieve a higher success rate in the re-integration and rehabilitation opportunities for offenders. That call centre won the first Asia Pacific Customer Service Recognition of Excellence in the Outsource Call Centre Category 2007.

Hopefully the Correctional Services Department would re-visit the initiative in the near future and equip the “would be release” offenders with more useful vocational skills thereby helping them to ease back into the society and live a productive and meaningful life.

The way forward

CCA is committed to continue providing our members and the call centre industry practitioners the training and development support to enhance their professional competence and status. Apart from enriching the training modules and the contents of respective courses, plans are in place to launch “Call Centre Putonghua” and to register the current Training Series for the Government’s Continuing Education Fund (CEF) so that the training can further benefit our individual members who could reimburse up to HKD 10000 after completing the courses.

Executive Insights - November 2007

2007-11-20T17:10:00.000+08:00

Is your outbound business focused enough?

By Michael Cowell

Executive Committee Member

Marketing and Membership Development

Hong Kong businesses dodged a bullet earlier this year when the Hong Kong Legislative Council decided not to include Person to Person (P2P) telemarketing within the Unsolicited Electronic Mail Bill. The Call Centre Association worked tirelessly to lobby legislative councilors and government officials on the negative impact this would have on very legitimate, consumer friendly businesses, large and small.

The key arguments used to win the support of the legislators dealt mostly with the negative impact on SMEs, the backbone of Hong Kong’s vibrant economy. The Call Centre Association estimated that as many as 33K jobs in Hong Kong are linked to the use of P2P telemarketing as a means of developing business. That’s a substantial figure and given that Hong Kong is a service economy, where would those affected individuals or businesses go in the event their main channel of acquisition were to close – the manufacturing sector? More importantly, P2P telemarketing forms a vital role in delivering products and services at prices consumers and businesses can afford.

However, as proponents of P2P telemarketing we cannot sit idly by, we need to do more to ensure the long-term viability of this important channel. Public concern is likely to resume as early as December 2007, when the government launches the opportunity for consumers to register their mobile and fax numbers along with email addresses, in an effort to stop unsolicited SMS, MMS, e-mail and faxes being sent. Media outlets are likely to query why consumers can’t register their mobile numbers so as not to receive unsolicited voice communication as well. This may well cause some resentment and reignite calls for legislation to also include P2P telemarketing.

What can we do about it?

There are two areas that you can help influence:

1. As an industry, we need to remain ahead of the curve.

For the most part, Hong Kong outbound telemarketing operations are very responsible, however, there’s a small minority (non CCA members) that put the rest of us in jeopardy. These organisations pay little or no attention to the wishes of consumers in terms of calling times, data privacy issues or acceptable business practices.

The HK Call Centre Association recognizes the need and will organise a sub-committee on which you can participate, to review best practice or self-regulating practices developed for P2P telemarketing by other national associations. The results of which will lead to:

*Development of a Code of Conduct that will be adhered to by members of the HK CCA.
*Education of the government, legislators, Consumer Council and public on the measures we have taken to further protect the rights of consumers.

2. Become the data specialist within your organisation.

Though declining, you are probably familiar with examples of Hong Kong businesses still using simplistic, high volume data approaches to acquiring new customers using voice, SMS, fax and email. The one product fits all, low cost, get’em in the door approach is dead. It’s dead because, as the famous adman David Ogilvy once noted, ‘the consumer isn't a moron; she is your wife.’ While the use of wife in isolation is no longer PC, it underscores a point that is as relevant today as it was 40 years ago, consumers are unwilling to accept products and services that are not relevant to them, their families or businesses.

Those businesses that subscribe to this approach will have noticed that response rates are declining. Maybe this isn’t a bad thing after all, as those that continue down this unproductive path will quickly run out of patience and resources. In any event, it must stop as it’s wasting consumer time and heightening the need by consumers to complain.

As responsible call centre users we need to further improve our approach to one that provides variable solutions to consumers, delivering products and services in a timely and relevant fashion rather than the one size fits all. Using analytics to be more selective about who we communicate with, understanding their profiles and knowing when and what to communicate will have a significant and positive impact.

In a P2P call centre environment, this means:

*Using analytics to reduce call volumes without impacting the required outcome.
*Be demanding of management in terms of product selection and list segments.
*Producing suites of products with variation and different price points to allow agents a more consultative approach to dealing with consumers.
*Testing and retesting these products against different customer segments in order to pinpoint those with a high propensity to accept.
*Respecting and advocating consumer rights both internally and externally.

Focusing attention on these matters will have numerous benefits including:

*Lower cost per acquisition.
*A workforce that moves from having little input to one where they feel empowered to provide solutions. This in turn will increase both rates of retention and job satisfaction.
*Market differentiation, improved customer satisfaction and loyalty towards the brand will follow from this approach and significantly enhance the bottom line.

In closing, response rates and research indicate that Hong Kong consumers are receptive to the use of P2P. Let us all do our part to keep it this way by treating consumers with the respect they deserve – remember, they’re not morons, they are your wives, husbands, family and friends.

Jabra Headsets offer to HKCCA members

2007-11-06T19:25:00.000+08:00

Go wireless with 25 % off for a selected range of Jabra headset solutions

Overview

As a member of the Hong Kong Call Centre Association, you can receive a 25 percent discount and one year free onsite maintenance when purchasing from a selected range of Jabra wireless headsets. Choose from the Jabra GN9120NC, Jabra GN9330 or the Jabra GN2120NC with Jabra GN8000MPA and experience complete wireless freedom, robust talk time and best sound quality. In addition, GN is offering a free demonstration of the solutions and visits to your site to evaluate your needs.

Please click the below flyer to view this exciting offer!

Executive Insights - October 2007

2007-10-26T20:14:00.000+08:00

Ambrose Linn
Treasurer
HKCCA

Work-Life Balance Initiative -

Minimising the Need for Overtime

OVERVIEW
Ok, here’s the deal. Obliterate overtime for 90 per cent of your workforce, reduce them to a 48-hour week, ensure those employees are earning about the same for fewer hours, and come out smiling as a business. It’s feasible. One year ago the Hong Kong wing of express firm TNT Hong Kong achieved SA8000 certification, a global social accountability standard for decent working conditions, developed and overseen by Social Accountability International. In this city, fewer than 20 firms have SA8000 certification, which is seen as a quality standard by clients but has stringent standards for its members including a set number of working hours for employees. TNT Hong Kong committed itself to minimising the need for overtime by increasing efficiency and producing incentive schemes for its staff. It wasn’t cheap to implement but the
payoff is that when bidding for contracts, clients value the SA8000 standard.

“The sound corporate spirit, company health and staff productivity all start with the right work-life balance.”

Ambrose Linn
Managing Director

ACTION
The Programme Features:
*Maintaining SA8000 certification.

*Computer hardware and software to implement programme to minimise overtime, implement roster and monitor staff.
*Effective allocation of resources.
*Incentive scheme for employees to achieve maximum efficiency and compensate for loss of *overtime pay.

Work-Life Balance in Hong Kong
Reducing Working Time
Case Study
Critical Success Factors

The programme was driven by first and second line management who showed a commitment to pursue the target within the general guideline of 48 hours per week. Logistics staff also going for the incentive scheme to make up for no longer getting paid for overtime.

CHALLENGES & LEARNINGS
A hindsight factor in terms of learnings is that senior management at TNT Hong Kong would have spent more time on planning and ensuring resources were more cost-efficient. Having to revise a budget involving part-timers, resources for the incentive scheme and software and hardware acquisition has been challenging for the bosses. In Hong Kong, fewer than 10 operations personnel made adverse comments about the new working conditions. Concerns about a negative impact on earnings were alleviated once the new incentive scheme was up and running.

IMPACT
*Clients value SA8000 when TNT Hong Kong bids for business.
*Better work-life balance for employees and more time for training and outside activities.
*Employees take it as enhanced benefit and feel that management is taking better care of them. *Sick leave and absenteeism reduced by half as a result of this initiative.

TNT Hong Kong has more than 400 employees in Hong Kong, two thirds of whom work on the operations side. In 2006, TNT Hong Kong decided to standardise normal working hours within the general guideline of 48 hours per week. This programme took six months to implement. It involved purchasing computer hardware and software, including a monitoring system for operations staff on shifts, to ensure that they worked within their hours. The hardware and software bill came to just under HK$1 million. The long-term cost impact is significant and for this year was estimated at just under three per cent of EBIT.

Costs also include part-time staff to ensure the full-timers get to go home. The average working day for office staff is now 9am to 6pm with the office largely empty by 6.30pm. Office workers are issued with staff cards to log them in and out. If a worker feels there is a need to do overtime to finish a task, it needs to be discussed in advance with a supervisor and in if the circumstances require it, the overtime is allowed.

On the operations side, it has been more difficult. It’s a 24-hour operation, so managers have to assess how to make shift times more effective, with a lot of commitment from managers on how to ensure that the work could be done with maximum efficiency in a shorter time. So that operations staff would not feel the pinch of lost overtime earnings a series of incentive schemes were introduced with target incentives to push for high productivity. The net result has been that the incomes of operations staff members are largely the same as they were, but for fewer hours.

At the end of the 6 month implementation process, TNT Hong Kong then held a launch event inviting all customers, to ensure that they knew that the firm was SA8000 compliant.

Executive Insights - September 2007

2007-09-21T16:49:00.000+08:00

Chris Knop
Executive Committee Member
Corporate Social Responsiblity

CSR Calling

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a concept that encourages companies to be responsible for their social and environmental impact when conducting business.

CSR is not compulsory and generally there are no legislated guidelines enforcing its practice, however some countries are moving towards this approach. For various reasons, CSR makes good business sense:

o From a social aspect, this is evidenced by the worldwide focus being put on topics such as global warming and the role of corporations taking a sustainable approach in society. Companies practicing CSR are likely to be seen in a positive manner by the community for their efforts.

o From a financial aspect, in the fund management field there is now concentrated investing by institutions in socially responsible investment (SRI) funds. These funds only invest in companies that have a focus on being socially responsible and sustainable. Companies not practicing CSR risk being financially disadvantaged.

It has become evident that CSR is now an area which many global companies are not only participating in themselves, but also expecting as a standard from their partners and suppliers.

With respect to social and environmental impact, CSR suggests that companies consider their “stakeholders” in business decisions. Stakeholders are individuals or groups that are directly or indirectly impacted by a corporation. Examples of stakeholders are: employees, customers, suppliers, community organizations, subsidiaries and affiliates, joint venture partners, local neighborhoods, investors, and shareholders.

The below article was published in the August edition of Best Practice Management Magazine. Please click the images to read the article and find out how CSR can become an integral part of your contact centre operation.

Executive Insights - August 2007

2007-08-22T15:41:00.000+08:00

Sidney Yuen
Chairman, HKCCA

Driving growth through innovation, simplicity and collaboration

Having interviewed a large number of senior executives in Hong Kong and Asia, I have come to a conclusion that there are three key enablers to drive sustainable growth and productivity: innovation, simplicity and collaboration.

Over 90% of what you need to know to grow your business is outside of your industry! To what degree can you really grow your business by focusing on the three enablers? The answers to the following questions will hold the keys.

Innovation
More than one third of 3M’s total revenue comes from products that didn’t exist five years ago – a pattern that 3M has sustained for 45 years and will carry them well into the next millennium. Innovation is the only growth strategy at 3M. Are you innovating faster than your competitors? What percentage of your revenue comes from products and services that you introduced within the past12 months? What innovations would you have to introduce to double that percentage over the same period of time? What steps must you take to foster an innovative culture? When was the last time you achieved a process innovation? By what percent have you reduced your cycle time within the past 12 months?

Simplicity
Less is more. Making things simple for your customers is the new competitive advantage. Google says it has the functionality of a complicated Swiss Army Knife, but the home page is their way of approaching it closed. It is simple and elegant, you can slip it in your pocket, but it’s got the doodad when you need it. That sums it all. What are your costs of confusion and the value of clarity? What if your next competitor -- the one stealing your customers and talent -- gets simple first? How do you clarify your goals quicker? How do you change the way you structure and communicate for building and keeping a team of champions? Are you doing enough to demonstrate that you respect your people?

Collaboration
No company grows alone. Collaborating with other partners, even competitors, enables companies to sustain growth. We have seen how banks collaborate with telecommunication operators, while software development companies work with consultancy firms -- the examples are endless. Increasingly, we expect to see how the dynamics of new partnerships come together, fall apart, deliver on their promise or fail. Can you grow faster through collaboration? What percent of your business relationships are interdependent? To what extent are you forming alliances with your suppliers, customers and employees? How do you know that lessons learned have been integrated into your existing process that lead to a new business relationship?

Final thoughts
Simplicity is innovation’s and collaboration’s biggest paradox. We want more -- more functions, more power, more features -- and yet we demand that it be easy to use. Where do we find the balance? But one thing is for sure: if you focus on innovation, simplicity and collaboration, your organization will achieve world-class quality.

The Hong Kong Call Centre Association Annual Contact Centre Awards 2007

2007-05-28T18:03:00.000+08:00

The Hong Kong Call Centre Association Annual Contact Centre Awards 2007 officially launched on 18th May 2007 The Hong Kong Call Centre Association (HKCCA) Annual Contact Awards 2007 was officially launched at an Awards Briefing Session cum Training Symposium on 18th May 2007 at Cliftons Centre in Quarry Bay. The briefing was kicked-off by Mr. Sidney Yuen, Chairman of HKCCA encouraging participation from all members and potential members in attendance. The briefing was well attended by Bank Consortium Trust Company Limited, CIGNA, Channelbeyond Customer Care, CLP, Convoy, Elitel Limited, Hong Kong Broadband Network Limited, Hong Kong Jockey Club, INVESCO Hong Kong Limited, Mangocity.com Limited, Manulife, PCCW, Sony Corporation of Hong Kong Limited and Teledirect Hong Kong Limited.

A briefing on application procedures, event schedule, guidelines and criteria for written submissions and tips on entrant’s videos and interviews was presented by Mr. Chapman Lam, Chairman of Contact Centre Awards. This year, a total of 52 awards under 18 award categories, including a Grand Award of the Year will be presented at the Awards Gala Dinner on 12th October at the Hong Kong Football Club.

The second part of the session was a Training Symposium facilitated by Mr. Rayland Chan, Training & Education Sub-committee Chair of HKCCA and training programs presentations by Mr. Albert Khoo, Director and Principal Consultant of OmniTouch (HKCCA endorsed training partner) and “Personal Development and Structured Career Pathing Through Global Certification of Your Front Line” by Ms. Lynda Janas, Senior Consultant of CCS International. Both CIAC and CSSI are HKCCA endorsed training partners and the presentations by Mr Khoo and Ms Janas have provided participants with a better understanding on how CIAC accreditation and CCSI certification enhance call centre professionals’ leadership and management skills, as well as to improve operation efficiency and productivity to a higher level.

The symposium ended in a joyful atmosphere with a lucky draw where four lucky winners each won a copy of the best selling call centre publications “Call Centre Fast Forward by Brad Cleaveland”, “The CIAC - Leadership and Business Management” and “The CIAC - Operations Management”, compliments of CIAC.

The Annual Contact Centre Awards 2007 Application Entry Form is now available from our HKCCA website. Please visit: www.hkcca.com/html/bepra.htm

Action now and send us your applications!! For any enquiries, please email us at kitty@hkcca.com or call on (852) 2577-2289.