The Ethernet Connection: Motivating Virtual Teams

The Ethernet Connection: Motivating Virtual Teams down the hall to her home office, reviews her e-mail over coffee, checks in with her team via

instant messaging and accesses her employer’s online management systems to ensure her group’s operational and www.customercarenews.com

41

Spring 2011

L

iz wakes up very early in the morning, walks

financial resources are on track. Although Liz’s routine is most

motivate her team (located in three different cities across the

reality is that the majority of her peers share at least some of

physical distance from the corporate infrastructure.

likely the pinnacle of a “virtual” work environment, today’s the virtual elements of her day-to-day experience.

world) to provide outstanding customer care in spite of their Luckily, Liz is ever-vigilant against knowledge compla-

This is a very different scenario from 25 years ago when

cency. She has discovered and uses several tools that may be

building, greeted the team,

are the result of research and analysis by respected human

the average customer service manager commuted to an office

. According to the National Training Laboratories, learners who engage with games as part of their educational process retain 75 percent of the knowledge they acquire.

gave them a morning pep talk and then sent them

totally unknown to many of her managerial peers. These tools resource authorities and include:

on their way to happily

Low Virtual Distance

greeted customers in per-

Sobel Lojeskii, Liz knows that distance is much more than

phone. The manager then

studies show that while physical distance can influence virtual

work side-by-side as they son or, at the very least, by

retreated to a small office where he/she sat at a large wooden

desk and spent a good part of the day manually flipping

through status reports and signing checks to ensure his or her employees got paid.

Interestingly, as a manager of people, Liz’s world is heav-

ily comprised of a set of carefully orchestrated technological interactions — from the money she uses, to the customers

she greets, to the teams she manages. Yet with technological complexities constantly on the rise and online relationship management tools struggling to keep up, Liz still faces one

problem common to all managers past and present: how to

First, based on the research she has read from Dr. Karen

the blocks and oceans that separate her team. In fact, Lojeski’s

distance, it is not totally responsible for creating it. Operational distance (the ability to communicate face-to-face and use vir-

tual communication tools, etc.) and Affinity distance (cultural, relationship and social distance) often have a greater impact on team success than physical distance alone. Liz knows that

ensuring her team functions in a “low virtual distance” environment means that her effectiveness as a leader grows by 30 per-

cent, her team’s satisfaction jumps by 80 percent and her team’s project success rates (including customer satisfaction) increase by 50 percent over high virtual distance environments. Liz got a jump start on creating a low virtual distance environment by

The Performance Improvement by Incentives (PIBI) model is comprised of eight important events including: 1. Assessing the differences between the company’s goals and employee performance;

how the rewards are distinguished from compensation or (for resellers) pricing issues and the fairness with which awards get

2. Selecting the most appropriate program (most

disbursed;

often a quota-based program); 6. Providing incentive awards should have a 3. Ensuring the program boosts the value people assign to work goals by providing rewards,

positive impact on emotion and organizational spirit;

communication and support; 7. Measuring motivational outcomes; and 4. Training to make sure people do the right things that contribute to success;

8. Analyzing the program against the performance objectives and costs, with

Spring 2011

5. Supporting the program through careful attention to the ways rewards are given,

42

information recycled in order to adjust future programs.

Customer Care News

was found in the research, helped her team achieve a 44 percent increase in performanceii.

Games

Last but not least, and much to the

chagrin of some of her cohorts, Liz is an avid advocate of bringing the experience of the games that all of us enjoyed

as children into the modern workplace.

She is astutely aware that, regardless of the far-flung locales of her team, there is

a common, fundamental human enjoy-

ment of games. The primary reason is

that our brains seek the mental hook, clear goals, immediate feedback and

Photo courtesy of Melissa Van DYke

instant rewards that a good game offers.

Melissa Van Dyke, President Incentive Research Foundation

ensuring she budgeted for at least one face-to-face meeting a

According to the National Training Laboratories, learners who engage with

games as part of their educational process retain 75 percent of the knowledge

they acquireiii. This is why her team’s

incentive system maintains a game-like point scoreboard, why her online training module is set up as a vignette-based game and why her team’s annual face-to-

face meeting involves several games that benefit the hosting community.

Like all managers, Liz faces a myriad

year, created small teams, ensured every employee had excep-

of challenges when trying to motivate her team to higher lev-

and laid out a clear, common vision for the team — a vision for

only increases with the entrance of changing technologies,

tional technological understanding of virtual networking tools which she consistently seeks her team’s input.

Team Incentives

Second, as part of creating a common, shared purpose for

her team, Liz implemented a very succinct incentive plan using a common incentive platform that all employees can access

els of customer satisfaction. The velocity of these challenges

cultures and locations. By using a mixture of virtual distance, team incentives and gaming techniques, Liz stands a greater chance of creating a highly engaging environment for her employees — and ultimately her customers. CCN

regardless of their location. The platform allows all employees

Melissa Van Dyke is the president of the

and to learn about the most recent customer service initiatives.

reached via phone at 314-473-5601 or via

to receive instant feedback on where they and their team rank

Based on work done by the Incentive Research Foundation, she made sure that the program was at least a year long, that

Incentive Research Foundation. IRF can be e-mail at m.vandyke@theirf.org i

When Distance Matters. Karen Sobel Lojeski, Ph.D.

it set challenging, but achievable, quota-based goals and that

ii

followed the eight basic steps laid out in the Performance

iii

Improvement by Incentives (PIBI) model and, similar to what

www.customercarenews.com

and Best Practices

Spring 2011

is was in harmony with broader organizational goals. She

Incentives, Motivation and Workplace Performance: Research Companies use team-based business games to increase

productivity

43