Pete Plum, the manager of A Call Centre, is concerned about high staff turnover, particularly on Mike Mustard's team. Over the past 3 months, Mike's team of 50 people has lost 13 staff. The document outlines a week that a consultant spends at A Call Centre, observing team meetings and interactions. It becomes clear through discussions with various staff that issues include a lack of training, unclear career paths, poor communication from management, and unengaging meetings.

1. Learning as the force to drive individual & business development | www.thelearningeye.com
Background:
“A Call Centre” provides outgoing calls for telemarketing, clientele, product
services, and debt collection. It is a fast paced, stressful environment where
every team member is given carefully monitored targets to reach each week.
“A Call Centre” employs over 500 staff, and has an average staff turnover rate
of 36%, almost double the industry average and steadily rising. Over the last
three months, Pete Plum the manager of A Call Centre has become increasingly
concerned with the high turnover, particularly in the team led by Mike Mustard.
Mike’s team, which consists of 50 staff members, has lost 13 people alone during
this short period. Pete Plum is under strict instructions from the board to
decrease turnover, improve staff motivation and in turn profits. He is now
looking at just what did kill the motivation at A Call Centre, a once thriving and
happy workplace?
To help Pete uncover the likely cause(s) of the
demotivation of Mike’s team and increase in turnover, you
will spend a week as a consultant in A Call Centre,
spending time with different team members, Mike, and Pete
before submitting your results and possible solutions.
Suspects
WANTED
suspect # 1
lack of training
suspect # 4
No defined career
path
suspect # 2
erratic moods
suspect # 5
Lack of
recognition
suspect # 7
Dull meetings with
no clear purpose or
outcomeoutcome
suspect # 6
Uncommunicated
business goals, not
aligned to staff’s
personal goals
suspect # 3
Little or no
communication
WHAT KILLED THE MOTIVATION?
background & suspectsPorfolio
Sam
pler

2. Learning as the force to drive individual & business development | www.thelearningeye.com
Monday is the official day
set aside for a team meeting,
with Mike running the agenda.
He uses the 30 minutes
allocated for the meeting to
run through how each team
member went the previous
week; how many calls were
made, products sold and
targets achieved/not
achieved.
Mid morning, one team member
approaches you. They know
you are here to uncover the
mysterious disappearance of
motivation and wants to chat
privately. They inform you they
have spoken with Mike many
times with no luck. According
to team member Wendy,
quarterly profits are down,
market share is shrinking, and
turnover is high. Wendy is
scared for hers and her team
members jobs and is looking for
some form of reassurance.
While you are chatting with Mike in
his office, Tom a relatively new team
member approaches. Tom brings a
problem to Mike’s attention that he
wants help with immediately. Mike
informs him he is in the middle of an
important meeting and can’t get to
it at the moment but is happy to
come back to him later in the day.
WHAT KILLED THE MOTIVATION?
MondayPorfolio
Sam
pler

3. Learning as the force to drive individual & business development | www.thelearningeye.com
This morning you reconvene with
Mike in his office to debrief your
first day. Throughout the
conversation, Mike laments his
frustrations at particular staff
members always questioning his
judgements and decisions. He
just doesn’t have the time to
justify his every action as a
leader.
WHAT KILLED THE MOTIVATION?
TUESdayPorfolio
Sam
pler

4. Learning as the force to drive individual & business development | www.thelearningeye.com
You spend some time with Pete to get his
insight into the issues facing A Call
Centre. According to Pete the board
have set some exciting yet realistic goals
for the organisation and he is keen to see
them achieved. He just can’t understand
why no one seems to be on the same page
in regards to where the company is going
and the amazing opportunities available
for staff who get on board with their
vision. He is unsure of how team leaders
chose to communicate these goals to
their team, but is confident they have.
During your quick lunch break a team
member approaches you. You recognise
them as someone Mike pointed out
yesterday as being one of his more
proactive employees, and a
self-delegated spokesperson for the
team. Dave gives you his perception of
what could be going wrong; he thinks the
team are just worn out, not encouraged
to think outside the box and quite simply
bored with the sameness of the their
day. This leads to little or no new ideas
coming from the team, which means lack
of ownership.
He wants to get the team reinvigorated
but doesn’t know how to go about it
WHAT KILLED THE MOTIVATION?
TUESdayPorfolio
Sam
pler

5. Learning as the force to drive individual & business development | www.thelearningeye.com
During this morning’s debrief with
Pete and Mike, you happen to be
privy to an email that comes through
from Sue, the chairman of the board.
The email details big plans to
restructure the bonus system for
employees in the hopes this will put to
rest any staff dissatisfaction and
improve their productivity. Pete and
Mike are excited and start to think
things are finally looking up.
Everybody loves more money don’t
they?
You start to notice a pattern of the same
staff who gather each morning in the kitchen
for coffee; they seem to be abuzz with
discussion. Mike has mentioned his concern for
this “time wasting” and wants to come down
hard but unsure of the best approach.
WHAT KILLED THE MOTIVATION?
WeDnesdayPorfolio
Sam
pler

6. Learning as the force to drive individual & business development | www.thelearningeye.com
After casual discussions with many
people in the team, you develop a
strong sense of uncertainty and oblivion
as to the down stream repercussions of
their actions in the team. There is low
level accountability, which is beginning
to build distrust between Mike’s team
and the other teams within A Call
Centre. As usual, it is always someone
else’s fault.
WHAT KILLED THE MOTIVATION?
thursdayPorfolio
Sam
pler

7. Learning as the force to drive individual & business development | www.thelearningeye.com
You catch up with Sue this
afternoon to gain an
insight into the Reward
and Recognition program
at A Call Centre. Sue
proudly goes through this
with you explaining that
each month the most
deserving team member is
rewarded with a double
movie pass, and a
certificate of
appreciation. This is
presented at the weekly
team meeting by the team
leader of the recipient.
You feel this issue is
worth investigating
further, and spend
some one on one
time again with
Dave. Dave
acknowledges the
issue, and would
like to improve the
situation but simply
shrugs his
shoulders and
responds “What
can I do? I’m just
another team
member”.
WHAT KILLED THE MOTIVATION?
thursdayPorfolio
Sam
pler

8. Learning as the force to drive individual & business development | www.thelearningeye.com
Today is the weekly management meeting to
discuss the results of the week, any issues and
refocus on business goals. Pete heads up the
meeting which is attended by each team leader
and occasionally a board member will pop in. This
meeting focus’s heavily on the lack of motivation
and high turnover, with each team leader giving
their insights.
Mike runs straight from the meeting to one of his
team to thank them for staying back last week
one night. He has been caught up in meeting after
meeting this week and didn’t get a chance to
catch them before now. Discussing motivation in
the management meeting reminded him. The team
member, although pleased at the impromptu
feedback, had forgotten all about it.
WHAT KILLED THE MOTIVATION?
fridayPorfolio
Sam
pler