Does employee engagement decrease conduct risk? You can bank on it
Doing the right thing is good for business. Showing your customers that your business complies with regulatory requirements builds trust in your brand. Showing that your business is acting ethically builds goodwill and loyalty. But you can’t succeed if your team isn’t on board.
Commitment to reducing risk requires the effort of the whole organisation but unfortunately employees sometimes see compliance as an annoying barrier to doing their jobs well. They can feel that compliance gets in the way of doing a great job or providing customers with the service they require. To combat this, your team needs to understand the context and outcomes of compliance to appreciate why it is important. Your team also need to be loyal and engaged. But does risk management software help?
Successful corporate risk management solutions require high employee satisfaction to improve compliance and decrease risk. Successful corporate management takes into account that some risk management solutions can conflict with providing quality customer service and can, in turn, negatively impact employee satisfaction.
Look first to the factors that drive employee engagement.
5 factors that drive employee engagement and reduce risk
1. Culture: A great coaching culture that supports strong governance processes and clear compliance management workflows can help to ensure your employees are aware of regulations and your business’s guidelines, but it’s key that leadership supports and holds people to account. A great coaching culture improves workplace transparency on expectations – which is one of the key foundations to fostering a positive compliance management environment.
2. Recognition: Noticing and recognising people for the behaviours and output you want to see shows them that they’re valued and appreciated. Find ways to tell your employees about the impacts their individual contributions have on customers, other team members and the organisation.
3. Work life balance: Ensure your people have the flexibility and balance that they’re looking for. Find ways of creating time for colleagues to connect, have a laugh and pursue wellness while they’re at work too.
4. Align goals and aspirations: Create meaningful ways to support your employees’ goals and career ambitions. Giving people opportunities to work on new projects, take on new responsibilities or undertake training shows that you take their aspirations seriously. Focusing only on organisational or team KPIs in performance meetings is a sure-fire way to get your employees to tune out.
5. Balance: Find a way to balance staff KPIs and measures with compliance and conduct risk activity. When compliance is perceived as a blocker to achieving sales or service expectations (and the ability to earn sales or service rewards) engagement can really take a hit.
How a risk management system can help
When compliance management systems are lacking, your business may be exposed to a range of risks. If you don’t have compliance systems in place relating to employee behaviour you can be at risk of staff breaching rules and procedure by error, through misinterpretation of guidelines, or through deliberate acts.
Risk management software like YakTrak can help by:
- Providing the system to manage a risk from when a risk first arises, through to coaching, goal setting and reporting.
- Engaging employees by providing clarity over conduct risk expectations and driving development activity around behaviour gaps.
- Improving employee engagement by providing consistent coaching and development activity with tracked outcomes.
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Putting theory into practice with Bankwest
A great example of applying this theory in action was a case study that YakTrak undertook with Bankwest’s contact centres and retail outlets.
Bankwest conducted a trial comparing YakTrak against a competing application and a control group not using either application. Each group had 50 participants per group and the trial ran for 3 months.
YakTrak created a solution that aligned with existing coaching and conversation frameworks. YakTrak’s solution focussed on best practice behaviours to drive revenue lift, and outlined and measured best practice “sales cadence” and leadership activity.
This contributed to a culture that provided recognition but also held team members and leaders to account. It provided the opportunity to focus on goals and aspirations while also balancing the importance of compliance and behaviour.
The proof is in the pudding
The YakTrak test group saw more goals being set and employees were clearer on expectations. The group achieved better results – overall they had lower attrition, higher revenue, and better performance:
- The YakTrak group achieved 30% higher revenue than the control group.
- Attrition in the control group was six times higher than the YakTrak group.
- The YakTrak group set double the goals than the control group.
- The YakTrak group achieved a high uptake with 80% operating rhythm completion rates.
Bankwest has now been using YakTrak since 2017 across their entire retail and contact centre business. They continue to receive high visibility of the quality and quantity of their risk, coaching and people development activity. An amazing customer success story.
If you want to learn more about how YakTrak can help your business explore risk management platforms and increase performance, get in touch today.
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