Things that make me go HMMMMMM

As anyone who is in the contact center business knows, there are things that happen every day that are sometimes almost impossible to understand.  A management blunder, an agent misbehaving, strange but true miscommunications between management and front line staff.  I am amazed each and every day that no matter how hard I try it is virtually impossible to avoid these annoying but sometimes funny situations.  One such instance came up today and it had to do with one of my main competitors... Convergys.

Convergys is one of the largest contact center outsourcers in the world.  They operate on a scale that few in the industry can compete with.  Unfortunately, although in many ways it is a strength, their size works against them as well.  One of the chief areas is in employee communications.  By no means an easy task as it is one we consistently struggle with but have only a few hundred employees.  Nonetheless, what I saw today was one of the most insane things I have seen in this business during my entire career.  I was searching Convergys on Google and the third listing in the organic results was a website called www.convergyssucks.com!  To be clear, this is not a Convergys sponsored website but a employee founded messageboard for past and current convergys employees to complain about working there.  Everything from there not being enough stations to clients leaving to agents committing vulgar acts in the washrooms is discussed at length....UNBELIEVABLE!  As an outsourcer, I really cant imagine having a client come across this site only to discover Convergys employees discussing their account and often disclosing confidential information.

Here is my question, if you hate working at convergys so badly why dont you just quit?  There are lots of places to have a job where with any luck you will enjoy your work.  I know its not that simple, and I know that convergys employees most likely have several legitimate issues, but I would hope that the people responsible for convergyssucks.com are putting as much energy into their work as they are into the website!

My take on this is that the blame rests on both sides of the fence.  Clearly, based on the posts I read, management has a major communication issue with their staff.  Fairly typical of large corporations like Convergys but also incredibly damaging to staff morale and the quality of work performed at the contact center site.  At the same time, again based on the posts I read, the employees are taking a very one sided view and often coming across as complaining with no real purpose in mind.  The solution, you ask?  A company sponsored message board, hopefully not located on the URL www.convergyssucks.com that encourages open and honest communication that allows the management to post back with solutions or comments.  All agent posts could be kept confidential while management posts would be signed by the author.  All agents would be encouraged to post entries with fixing the problem in mind as opposed to just complaining.  This way, hopefully some good will come out of all the energy spent on the website!

I am interested to hear your feedback!

Comments

[avie erdile]

well i dont work with convergys. i work with 24-7 intouch and i love this place im not sure why any one would work for a place they dont respect. in touch takes great care of there employees and makes sure that team spirt is through the roof. im proud and more then happy to work here