By: Steve Wyatt, Practice Principal | eCommerce Consultant, The Fraud Practice
Time is up, the 4th quarter is here and eCommerce fraud shops are most likely fortifying operations with seasonal hires to help fight the increased transaction volumes. The fraud teams now face support requirements of a much larger team for the duration of the 4th quarter. Managers are now expected to support the larger staff and maintain/lower losses during the peak sales season. The blunt force of added resources stretches team bandwidth and impacts fraud team overall engagement. If not properly treated, results could lead to costly employee performance issues and negative impact to the business this season.
It is critical for senior management to be prepared with a strategy to keep the fraud team engaged as the team grows along with the transaction volumes. Consider and compare the organization against some of the following signals:
Excessive absences and consistent late arrivals
Good performers presenting negativity among each other and management
Team productivity is down and team consistently behind in workflow
Front line managers off task and working in the fraud workflow queue
Turnover spike – regrettable turnover amplifies concern
These signals inclusively point to an organization with diminishing team engagement. Consider a few of the following simple tasks managers can focus on today while fraud teams endure the transaction peak season.
Take time to coach and train. Make sure your front line management provides ongoing coaching and development for their entire team. Sr. management might be tempted to leverage the front-line management into fraud workflow queues to help keep pace or fill staffing gaps. The collateral impact results in less time for management to coach and develop their staff.
All managers need to be visible. Managers need to maintain a transparent posture with the fraud team. Schedule time on the calendar for time to visit the operations team. Get to know your seasonal staff and include them on your regular walk through. Try to keep the conversations with each individual energetic and short. The team will appreciate the effort and consideration of their time.
Celebrate the wins publicly. Managers who master this concept tend to have highly engaged teams. Deliver positive messages and praise publicly. This effort is best conducted during team meetings and during the planned walk-throughs. This is a critical element as managers during the busy season are inclined to focus and address teams only with constructive or mandatory messages. Instead find ways to infuse positive support in all interactions with the team.
Communicate expectations and team performance. Both seasonal and regular employee staff need to understand how they are performing. This is a good time to set regular written and verbal communication intervals designed to share team performance against company targets. Keep the team apprised on how their hard work supports the business and be sure to include the seasonal staff members. This drives better team unity and clarity around the goals set to reach the target.
Empower the team and listen. Some of the best leaders have learned the benefit of empowering the team and taking the time to listen. Fraud teams face the front line and have exceptional insights to share. Take time to listen and digest feedback and find ways to respond to their ideas with action. Empowering the team is equally important. Let the team make decisions and then make them accountable of the decisions made.
Many managers may find the engagement features shared to be common management sense. However, even seasoned professionals are working with taxed bandwidth, and can forget to focus on basic team engagement elements simply due to their own time constraints. The good news is there is time now to quickly assess your team’s engagement. Plan and take action with your leadership team and avoid placing your critical people manager resources on tasks that fall outside of people management. Invest in actions that improve team engagement and reap the benefits of operating with a highly engaged team.
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