Echo Managed Services, a leading provider of customer contact and software services for the water industry, has bolstered its employee offering through a range of new learning and development programmes, including a dedicated customer service apprenticeship scheme.
Spearheaded by Hannah Cook, Echo’s Lead HR Business Partner, the global business with its HQ in Walsall, UK has developed the initiatives to provide continuous learning and development opportunities for its people and help them progress in their customer contact careers.
Underpinning the new learning and development programmes is the structured career pathways framework. It defines the roles and responsibilities team members can expect at Echo including the skills and behaviours required to advance in their careers.
One of the new initiatives is a global mentoring scheme, whereby 12-month partnerships are created across Echo’s offices in England, Northern Ireland, Australia and India to connect employees with different skill sets to support career development and shared learning.
Nishant Sharma
Nishant Sharma, team manager at Echo Managed Services and mentee on the programme, said: “In the first conversation I had with my mentor he said, ‘let’s go for it’. From this point onwards, we had a strong connection, and it was clear that I had been presented with a great opportunity. Now a few months on, not only has the programme provided me with valuable knowledge and expertise, but it has also connected me to a supportive global community that shares a passion for continuous learning and development.”
The new Boost programme has also been launched to accelerate personal growth and career development. Based on Echo’s leadership behaviours framework built on the company values, the framework helps everyone understand what the attitudes and behaviours that help to make Echo a productive, positive and collaborative place to work and provide everyone the opportunity to be the best they can be. Boost champions career confidence. It combines a series of learning modules aimed at empowering team members to own their success and develop skills such as networking, resilience, acting on feedback and self-reflection.
Apprenticeships are also becoming increasingly crucial to Echo’s business model with six apprentices set to join Echo in July. This is the first time the business has welcomed a group of customer service apprentices. Under the new Echoship apprentice scheme, the recruits will complete a customer service level 2 apprenticeship and gain experience within the South Staffs Water contact centre, to introduce them to a career in customer service.
Hannah Cook, lead HR Business Partner at Echo Managed Services, said: “It’s high time we changed the perception of customer service as just a summer job or a ‘stop gap’. It’s time we started discussing how it can be a rewarding and exciting career that offers opportunities for development and long-term job satisfaction.
“We already had some great processes in place including ACE, our management development programme, to Advance Capability in Echo. This programme is designed to give middle managers, and aspiring leaders the skills and confidence to become Echo’s senior leaders of the future. But supporting employees is a continuous process and we need to regularly review our offering to ensure we continue to build employee engagement, particularly as we prepare to welcome more apprentices.
“With these new initiatives, I am confident we are in a better position to create an environment where people, regardless of experience and background can thrive. In the contact centre industry, we have battled with the misconception that it’s not a long-term career option. However, through all of our ongoing initiatives, we want to develop leaders of the future within the industry. With greater support, learning opportunities and peer-to-peer knowledge sharing, I look forward to seeing some real success stories.”
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