Alexandre recently joined The Nest Team, an outsourcing program, as our Global Operations Manager, in charge of organizing our operations to deliver the best services for our The Nest clients in all our sites around the world.
Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
I was born and raised in Sao Paulo, Brazil and moved to Barcelona when I was 18 to start a Spanish course in an international school. After 6 months studying, I called my family and informed them I would not be coming back to Brazil and wanted to try something in Barcelona. I had all the support from my family and started working in several different jobs until I was hired as a Service Desk Agent in an IT project at Webhelp, 10 years ago.
From that point on, I developed professionally following the company´s career path, mainly in Operations and Team Management, to finally get to this point of my professional life as the Global Operations Manager for The Nest by Webhelp.
Life in Barcelona is very “outdoorsy”, so my hobbies follow the same rules. I often skateboard in different places in the city (skateparks, plazas, forum, etc.). I also am very involved in the Barcelona music scene where I organize and DJ in historical venues in town together with a group of people with a great musical background in the city.
I consider myself to be a person who is constantly looking for entrepreneurial opportunities, but I always push myself to continue exploring my artistic and creative side.
What is your job at The Nest?
I´m in charge of aligning and developing the Operations for The Nest, globally.
The biggest part of my work is ensuring the design & implementation of an Operating Model in all The Nest locations, tailored to the client´s needs with simplicity but also high levels of efficiency. The aim is to guarantee the overachievement of the client´s needs but also, our own success story.
How do I do that?
By closely analyzing all the best practices going on in the different Nest teams and deploying them where we see a need, by finding the most talented profiles that will have the right “fit” for each startup in all locations, by creating talented, responsive teams equipped with the best tools and processes to meet their customers’ needs.
On top of that I also challenge the current Operating model, always trying to find gaps that need improvement or changes in the operating processes. To do this, we closely monitor reports from all operations and develop advanced training, nesting and refresher sessions to ensure the team is always engaged and up to date. Part of my job is also to work closely with the Business Developers and Project Managers to design the best solutions for any potential new client. Designing solutions involves choosing the best location, shift planning simulations, innovation design, etc.
As an operations expert, which are the key steps to ensure that our advisors’ team and the client can reach as soon as possible the objectives defined and even outperform them in the mid/long-term?
After 10 years of working and developing operations, I see that there are a few things that can help build top-notch consultants and thus a highly competent team.
There is no alternative to solid recruitment, which should be done considering the services to be delivered for each client in order to select and test the candidates in the most efficient way, leveraging how the person would perform, but also thinking about how the position fits the candidate.
We tend to look for profiles with a start-up mindset, high levels of organization, autonomy and communication skills. These are often profiles that are interested in the business world, technology and innovation. They are generally curious and proactively suggest improvements.
Training and Nesting project phases must be adapted to each type of client and company. In my opinion, when training is developed jointly by the customer and Webhelp, the results are better and faster in developing employee performance.
The Nesting phase is a critical one where management must pay extra attention to ensure that newly trained consultants receive the right support at the beginning of their production. Advisors develop much more quickly if they feel that their initial work is carefully reviewed with their team lead and that making a mistake is not a reason for punishment, but rather for learning.
Finally, a strong system of self-development continuity needs to be in place, so that teams continue to learn new tasks and responsibilities, creating a high-performing, top-skilled team. A reward system is also highly recommended.
What is the key thing you learn to new agents during their training?
Besides the actual content of the training, I find it extremely important to create a bond between the whole team, defining the main objective of “why we are here” and reminding everyone that each team member plays a very important role in the master plan.
I also believe that there should be “no walls” between team members, supervisors, managers, etc. That’s why I always train my teams to be able to approach each of them when they want and need to. This creates a sense of community and collaboration that can help teams maintain high levels of performance.
In addition, we like to create a mindset in which the team understands the core needs of the customer contact, creating a personal sense of motivation to help/engage with customers. This is made possible by high levels of empathy, strong personal communication skills and the ability to adapt to each client.
Why do you enjoy being part of The Nest team?
What I enjoy most about being part of The Nest team is working with emerging, super interesting companies, and being able to provide them with a sense of calm so they can focus on growing their business. While we generate time for them to focus on their growth, we take care of their customers and provide them with the best support they deserve (or help their sales team, content moderation one etc.).
Another great aspect of working at The Nest is the opportunity to get to know so many talented, highly motivated, and business-driven people with so much expertise that I am still learning new things every day.
