The role of team leaders in employee retention in shared services centres - Part 1.

One of the problems faced by shared services centre is high employee turnover, which averages between 15-20% per year (ABSL report) and can reach 30% in some companies. The sector is developing dynamically and competition for employees – particularly in Krakow – is fierce. Today, I will focus on the role of team leaders in employee retention. SSC team leaders are, most often, individuals who were formerly specialists and have been promoted internally. They only occasionally performed managerial functions. Such people do not cope well in their new position as specific skills linked with team management are required.

What is the role of the team leaders in an organisation? What skills should they have? What can HR do to make leaders become a source of strength, improve organisational culture and positively affect employee retention by providing them with an opportunity for development?

The role and responsibilities of SSC team leaders

1. Formulating and communicating vision and objectives

I can still recall the reaction of one of the managers of a company that was a client of mine. On one occasion, an employee approached him and asked about what they were supposed to achieve as a team. He replied: “focus on your work - I don’t have time to explain that to you now”. Due to the fact that similar situations had happened regularly, the employee did focus... on writing his CV.

Employees who cannot see the broader context or sense of their actions will never be fully involved. Vision should be inspiring. Each team member should know what his/her role and contribution is in the implementation of common goals.

Your organisation:

Do the team leaders have a high level of communication competence?

Is communication a constant part of training for new managers?

2. Building a strong and harmonious team

I once had a fantastic boss – he was the marketing manager in my company. He could listen like no one else. We knew that the voice of every employee was important and would always be taken into account. Not only did he tolerate a different point of view but he encouraged us to think outside the box. Consequently, even if the decisions made were not always to everyone’s satisfaction, we all stood by and defended them. It has been obvious for a long time that a team of people with moderate competences, who can cooperate with one another, will be more successful than a team of stars who do not work together.

A team leader’s objective is to make people resign by forcing through their individual interests if they conflict with the interests of the team. It all comes down to building confidence, open communication, encouraging debate and healthy conflict as well as resolving problems together.

Your organisation:

Do the team leaders devote enough time to the activities that build a team and encourage cooperation?

Do they demonstrate a high level of personal effectiveness which allows them to plan a week properly and allocate time for the team regularly?

3. Creating the culture of responsibility for results

Many years ago, I worked in a team with the following unwritten rule: if one person had a problem with the execution of his/her objectives, the remaining team members supported him/her to make it work. And it did work! When people feel jointly responsible for the results of their team, they start to see beyond the end of their noses.

If employees feel that each of them has an impact on the results of the team, they will take responsibility for that and will identify more with the team. In order to achieve that, the results obtained by individuals in the team should be transparent, with potential bonuses or awards depending on the performance of the entire team.

Your organisation:

Do the team leaders know how to build a culture of responsibility for results?

Do they have the required tools and are they supported by HR?

Author: Paweł Chabros - Pawel is an experienced manager, trainer, coach and consultant with over 24 years of professional experience. A graduate of Foreign Trade at the Warsaw School of Economics, he worked, among others, as Group Account Director in McCann-Erickson and as a partner, trainer and senior consultant in Kalkstein Sp. z o.o between 1998 & 2017. Since May 2017, he has been the owner of training company Training Excellence and a trainer at BSS Partners. He provides training in Polish and English. In his private life, he is an enthusiast of racket sports.

Sources:

2016 ABSL report
Salary Tracker, Autumn 2016 edition, implemented based on the partnership between AG TEST HR and ASPIRE. https://raportplacowy.pl/pl/article,show,86,pieklo-rotacji-dlaczego.html
Study by ManpowerGroup “HR trends in the BPO/SSC sector”

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