Drive employee engagement by building value beyond wages

Ahead of her session at CXN Live: Future CX & Contact Center Trends & Technology APAC 2021, Sandra de Zoysa, group chief customer officer at Dialog Axiata, gives insight into her career journey and her top tips for employee engagement

CX Network: What has your career journey looked like so far?

Sandra de Zoysa: I was fortunate enough to find my purpose in life when I started working in the customer experience management arena 33 years ago. I felt and still feel that this is my true calling and my decision to join the telecommunications field in 1989 was the enabler and stepping stone towards my long and [rewarding] career.

I have been fortunate to work in organizations that have been [industry] frontrunners in driving customer excellence within the Sri Lankan market, and I feel privileged to have been part of this exciting change journey over the past three decades.

I believe in self-development where an individual can thrive to learn and develop new skills to constantly reinvent themselves in order to remain relevant in this ever changing world. This thirst for self-improvement has been my mantra and, as a result, my career journey has been nothing short of exciting. I consider myself fortunate to have a job that I love and wake up each day excited at the new challenges and opportunities that await me.

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CX: What is your golden rule for employee engagement?

SZ: I strongly believe that whatever the job you do, you [should] have fun and enjoy it. Build a culture where people are treated with respect and choose a team that are self-motivated to discover their true potential and path in life. The ability to engage with employees where they appreciate their contribution to attaining a higher purpose or goal for the organization and where they see value beyond money as a reward is the key to driving employee engagement and loyalty.

Employees need to be constantly challenged by encouraging personal and professional development while holding them to very high ethical standards is mandatory.

In an engaged employee organization culture, it is important to break down hierarchical and communication barriers, build trust at all levels and encourage employees to challenge the status quo.

The technique of driving employee engagement needs to be dynamic as there is no one size fits all formula. Therefore, the tools used to inculcate an engaged culture in an organization needs to be multi-faceted with a multi-pronged approach to accommodate the motivational drivers of different segments of employees.