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Many companies find they need to resort to disparate systems from multiple vendors to achieve a holistic approach for workforce engagement management (WEM). While this best-of-breed approach might have been commonplace in previous years, studies indicate that companies prefer an integrated solution from a single vendor.
Workforce optimization solutions are made of several integrated applications, designed to capture, analyze and optimize performance to achieve higher levels of customer engagement, satisfaction and retention. Workforce engagement management expands on these capabilities by incorporating features that address employee well-being, such as Voice of the Employee and agent-assistance tools. But delivering an outstanding employee experience requires more than just add-ons.
Besides delivering the most sought-after capabilities — performance management, workforce management and learning management systems — WEM solutions need to incorporate functionalities like virtual assistants and robotic process automation (RPA) to create and encourage high performance and engagement from employees. However, companies find that ticking these boxes with disparate systems doesn’t just imply costly integrations, it can leave employees feeling burned out from having to learn and constantly access several products. In this sense, a single vendor solution is the best choice, as expressed by 57% of organizations in a recent Frost & Sullivan study.
Following are four reasons you should move to an integrated WEM solution.
- Keeping It Simple
A full workforce optimization suite usually includes up to 13 modules to cover everything from performance management, quality assurance, employee surveys, interaction recording, knowledge management and more — not to mention the additional features you might need to include to tackle other employee-focused capabilities. With disparate systems from multiple vendors, you might have to deploy these modules through five delivery models and rely on eight or more vendors, which, ultimately, equals a complicated process. Add in the need to deploy, learn and sometimes manage each module and you have data spread across multiple systems. This requires additional resources to pull and standardize the data so it can be useful to your business — now you’re looking at something like a behemoth.
Instead, moving to a single vendor solution simplifies the user experience and helps leaders drive both results and employee satisfaction from a single, common platform that covers capabilities, such as interaction recording, quality management, workforce and training management, gamification, and avoiding fractured agent information.
- Finding Everything You Need in One Place
Leveraging disparate systems for your workforce engagement management means your data is spread out across multiple point solutions. As vital information, such as agent data, is processed between systems, valuable opportunities to gain actionable insights and take timely actions could be lost during the process. Having information such as an agent’s performance and service levels in real time enables supervisors and management to detect skill or knowledge gaps and offer valuable guidance and training. This makes employees feel supported and empowered to do their best at their jobs.
- Reducing the Cost of Multiple Integrations
Just like pulling your data from different vendor solutions means investing time and resources, it also means you have to invest dollars. To effectively leverage solutions from different vendors, you undoubtedly will face costs of implementation, training and individual application maintenance. By moving to an integrated WEM suite, companies can lower the TCO of their contact center infrastructure and reduce their internal technology footprint.
- Defeating Digital Fatigue and Powering Collaboration
Multiple systems are complex, not just for those who are implementing them. An employee can find himself confused and overwhelmed when required to learn and leverage efficiently numerous digital tools concurrently. Not only does it affect the employee’s productivity, it can also lead to frustration, disengagement and lower performance. An integrated suite, on the other hand, allows employees to access all the information they need without having to navigate away to several tabs and windows. It also gives employees the power to get quick assistance from their peers and supervisors — or reach out to a subject matter expert — to deliver better customer service.
Drive Great Customer Experiences
The importance of delivering a satisfying employee experience and its effects on customer experience is evident. Ensuring employees feel supported and empowered is no longer just about lowering attrition levels. It’s about driving great customer experiences that serve as brand differentiators and contribute to better results and profits.
Check out the full Frost & Sullivan report on how to engage your team for the best customer experience. And read more to find out why Gartner recently named Genesys as a Visionary in Workforce Engagement Management.
