Heroes in Business - Contact Center Cactus Chat Company Core Values: Teamwork Pac-Biz.com with Eric Mulvin

Episode Date: February 4, 2024

Contact Center Cactus Chat Company Core Values: Teamwork  with Eric Mulvin

Hi and welcome to our new episode for our podcast. I'm your host, Kezia. I am the Director of Company Culture here at Pacbiz. For the following episodes, we will be featuring our company's core values, which are family, respect, compassion, personal growth, and teamwork. So every year, we choose an awardee based on votes of our winner that display these core values. So here with me today is our awardee of our core... Our core? Teamwork. Yeah, teamwork, Geraldine.

Hi, everyone. My name is Geraldine. I'm married and have one kid. And yeah, that's all for me. So, Jo, how long have you been with PacBiz and what drew you to PacBiz? Actually, I've been with PacBiz for five years now and counting. And with that question, what chose me to PacBiz? with that question what chose me to pack this um for me it's actually a blessing in disguise because i'm having issues with my previous company because of the schedule since i'm a

working student at the same time a full-time worker so i decided to look for another opportunities which brings me to pack this i'm glad that I've heard from one of my colleagues before Mami Joanne and Gladys and then also Stephanie that PACBIS is hiring so I did apply luckily I was accepted and from there started a journey with PACBIS so grateful. Yeah, and it's been, I think you mentioned it has been great. Yes. Great journey earlier. Yeah, so you've been awarded the teamwork core value for embodying it in an exemplary way. So how do you define effective? exemplary way. So,

how do you define effective? By the way, what is your role at Pactives? Currently, I'm part of the training department as one of the trainers.

Right. So, my next question here is how do you define effective teamwork as a trainer?

Okay. For me, as a trainer? Okay. For me as a trainer, yeah, there were really a lot of challenges though. But one thing that I could say is that being a representation of teamwork, not only in the training department, but all throughout operations, one must foster open communication in terms of whatever.

We have new accounts, like communicating with other leaders to make sure that the trainees have been taken care of in terms of their schedule, in terms of everything that they need to make sure that the learning process is very successful. And then also, teamwork means respect also. It's mutual respect with one another within the team, respecting one's idea and then being receptive to coaching. respecting one's idea and then being receptive to coaching and then also within the team there should be an established open and clear expectation to what was being given so for example with me since i'm a trainer it expected that i would lead newbies and prepare them to become more productive once they're endorsed operation so we had to make sure that everything is set

before giving them the ops for them to be able to help. Right you mentioned a lot yeah I'm just wondering what what is of all the things you mentioned, what would be the most effective? So far with the experience, I've been with the training department for almost a year now. One thing that I see that really represents teamwork is just collaborating with one another, not only within the team within the team of the trading department but we need to collaborate with the operation teams we need to collaborate with the admin teams to make sure that everything goes smoothly especially if we do have especially in taking care of new accounts so we really need to collaborate with one another in order to make sure that there will be a

success like yeah just the recent successful accounts that we have right so do you have a process on collaborating like how um collaborate actually in in particular just communicating well um communicating the challenges communicating the success the highlights whatever we experience within the team we share it to the management to the operations so that we will be aligned and then from there of course if everyone is having the same path then of course success is there afterwards how do you like encourage every team member to be open since i know we have this fear right when we when we tell people that oh this is what's going on you know um there is like um one good example of that is that i'm actually a person i choose not to i'm not really open to anybody but since i was given the chance to become part of the training team I tried to reach out to my teammates like Miss Janet, Miss Filny. I've never, although I know Filny actually in the floor, but we're not really like close.

But along the way, we're able to work it out. I reach out to them. So it would work actually if within the team there is someone who will reach out and someone who's going willing to accept the reach i mean somebody who will reach out because again if you're going to reach out and then nobody would mind you then of course it would be successful but um so far luckily within the training department everyone everyone is being, if we have, for example, we have issues, we have to talk it out. We have to sit down and talk about it and then plans what needs to be done in order to address that matter. And eventually, we'll be able to find something that would really help out and then solve the issue or the problem that we're facing.

Right. Was there a specific challenge I remember where you used teamwork? If there is actually there is a lot if you're um if you will be with training department there will be a lot of scenarios like that so one good example of that is every time we have this new account um first we need to talk it out within the team so that means we have to share ideas what needs to be done what are the plans um what should be our next step to make this account successful and then after that once the plan is well well once the plan is already solid then we would reach out to say um account manager we will reach out who's the person designated for this account who's the right person to talk to and then from there we will meet we will schedule a meeting with them like reach out if we have any questions that we think they can answer or if they have

questions that we can help with. And it's like collaborating. And then it's really more on collaborating and then communicating very well with what should be done and what should be the next plan. And then just like that, that sort of really communicating in like overall communicating to each and everyone who are

who will be participating in that certain account right so yeah since I think you've been talking about this a theme right yes

so I think this is an individual award so I'm interested to know what's in you i mean they actually i was not really expecting that i'll be chosen to be yeah an awardee for this particular award but yeah I'm grateful for for having those person they're thinking that I deserve to to win this award but me myself I'm sort of a person who's not really what do you call that introvert or extrovert but something like that I'm not the person who's not really what do you call that introvert or extrovert but something like that I'm not the person who's really good in social extrovert extrovert yeah but with my previous account probably they see me as representation

of teamwork because with my previous accounts before I was be I was promoted to become part of the training department I was with different taxi accounts like really a few accounts not the most but it's really a lot and then Maybe they see me as a representation of teamwork because I usually reach out to my teammates, lead them, advise them if they committed something like, for example, if we have escalations. I try to open, discuss everything and how could we improve and how not to commit that again because I'm seeing my, like, it's within me that once I'm working on that certain account, I would love it totally with all of my heart. I would give everything for that certain account because I know that this is my bread and butter

and I have to take care of it. Because without it, what will I... I need not only the money, but it's your bread and butter, so you really have to take care of it something like that so whenever or whatever account I'm with I'm always like that so probably that's the reason why this evening as a representation of teamwork right yeah that's what you like it's not only here so they said or your supervisor nominated you because you like to offer

offer help for recovering and also monitoring trainings and accounts right and one interesting word here is an energizer bunny what is that what does it mean i believe phil meant that way because maybe she said that way because i'm always up to overtime so every time anybody needs so long as i learn or so long as i know how to um call do call taking on that certain account so long as I know how to do call taking in that certain account, so long as I know the process, I would be willing to do overtime and then help the account as well. Because I don't want missing any shift for any of my accounts. So as much as possible, if nobody can cover it, then yeah, I'm here.

Why not? Just like that so how does that you know being someone who's willing to cover um what if they see you they have that mindset oh I'm going to be absent today because Geraldine will be covering for me anyway so So doesn't that affect the team more? Actually, there were times that that does happen because maybe they're expecting that someone will be able to come and cover the shift. But after that, I've requested a team meeting, I asked my supervisor.

One good example of that is Ms. Malot. She was my previous supervisor when I was with operations. I asked her that maybe we can sit down and talk about it, talk about the challenges. Because I told my teammates that, yes, I am up to OTs, I'm up to working overtime, but it doesn't mean that I'll be always around. So we need to be responsible in every shift that we have. Unless it's emergency, then I'll be there. But if it's not really important, we need to make sure that that should be taken care of. Because again, at the end of the day, it all goes back to us.

So if we miss this shift, then we miss the reliability. It's negative to our clients. And so they might took some of the hours and it would affect us. So in case of emergency i'll be there but if it's not really important then be at least on your shift because again we need to be responsible for our duties right and it's good that you tell them you know the you know the consequences right what the consequences to your team and so they won't do that if ever somebody is and go to work they will also uh do what you're embodying into cup yeah hopefully that's uh you really like embody like um teamwork um

so yeah really commendable thank you and yeah it's true and and your supervisor said here that you're comfortable to talk too and you don't you do not hesitate to share your thoughts and feelings about situations concerning work yes i agree because although before i don't want to like offend someone else but being part of PACBIS allow me to grow actually personally I grow in terms of in terms of professional what do you call that professionally I grow with PACBIS so I in my mind so we need to practice that as well, because again, at the end of the day, whatever we do in this, for example, if we venture to another opportunities, whatever we do here, it would reflect to the next opportunity that we have. So if you're doing great here, of course, I believe you will do great more if you're getting more opportunities in the future. So why not practice it now and then apply it later on? So Joy, can you share a memorable moment when the spirit of teamwork was particularly evident?

There were a lot actually, but I can cite some. First is when I'm with one of my taxi account there were times where the client decided to take some of the hours so we're i'm really quite worried why did it do this um it it would mean less hours for us so eventually i'm afraid that there were times and days that each day they're taking out an hour or like an eight hour shift so that would be a deduction to the working hours of the agent so i talked to my tl can we have an account meeting miss because i'm thinking that we're losing hours on this account so what are the challenges that we have done or that we've committed for them to decide like this we chat down set out and then we've talked about it and then eventually we work hard um we made a plan that we need to do our best we need to follow what was being told to us to like follow the process correctly do the process correctly eventually the client decided to give us back the hours so we're grateful and

doing that i believe that we've been giving them a very good outcome therefore they've decided to give us back the hours and right now i'm so happy that they've been giving us more more hours well yeah it was amazing yes um another example of this is when i'm already with the training department so we have this new account um clients right now are very you know now have this very high expectation from us. And then since we're hiring newbies, they don't have certain experiences with taxi accounts. And it works differently from this previous account. So they're really having troubles or challenges. and I've seen how QA department, supervisors, AMs, and then training department work together just to make this account successful.

So yeah, saying that, we can really work as a team. And that being said, it's a representation of a great teamwork yeah awesome um thanks for sharing that yeah it was such a a good example of a actually memorable right because we were able to to bring the client back yeah it was really memorable so thank you for sharing you're welcome so uh yeah as we come to the end of this podcast what guidance would you give to our audience on promoting effective teamwork within their organization um actually for everyone just have a few a few notes keynotes to remember in order for the like the team to work properly we just need to have clear first is clear communications that is very significant in every member of the team

because again without proper communication it would mislead one information to another so proper communication is the best uh the best key to like success and then second is every member should be receptive to coaching because that will help us improve ourselves in case we've made some challenges And then eventually we can work it out and then be more, you know, proficient in what we're doing. And then we also need to recognize each of the members' ideas

and contribution to the team because that would also boost their, you know, their inner attitude of doing their best in the things that they're doing in the past that had been assigned to them. And then lastly, collaboration to other team members, not only within your team, but to other members. So that would also result to collaboration and cooperation. And then eventually that would make everyone be at the same goal. If they have the same goal, then automatically they'll be able to conquer what is the goal of the company or the team.

Wow, those are great advice and you did give an example earlier around those tips that you gave. So, thank you so much for being our guest today, Jo. I've learned a lot from you. Teamwork and even the processes on how to make an effective team to reach your goal. So again, thank you. And this is Jay.

She's our awardee for our core teamwork. Thank you, everyone. Thank you for having me.