Starting From Scratch | Arlyne Pardo

Get ready for a truly inspiring conversation as we sit down with Arlyne Pardo, an exceptional leader in the world of Workforce Management (WFM). Arlyne's journey started in Panama, where she quickly rose through the ranks at Dash, all while embracing the challenges of being a young leader in a fast-paced industry. In this special episode of WFM Unfiltered, Arlyne shares her experiences of starting as a technical support agent and rising to the role of Workforce Manager in just a few years.

One of the key lessons you'll learn from Arlyne is how to empower your team, even when you're still finding your own feet. From being thrown in at the deep end with no guidance to managing the complexities of COVID-19, Arlyne's resourcefulness and adaptability shine through. Her story is not just about overcoming obstacles but also about thriving under pressure and turning challenges into opportunities for growth.

In this episode, you'll discover how to balance being a compassionate leader while driving results. Arlyne's approach to mentorship and positivity in leadership provides invaluable insight into how to create a culture of trust and growth. Whether you're new to WFM or an industry veteran, Arlyne's advice on continuous learning, embracing change, and empowering others will resonate with you.

Don't miss this chance to hear from a leader who's not afraid to break the mold, challenge conventions, and build an inclusive and thriving workforce. Tune in to this episode for a wealth of knowledge and inspiration, and make sure to follow Arlyne's journey as she continues to make her mark in WFM.

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Show Links:

• RightWFM website: www.rightwfm.com
• Email: Irina@rightwfm.com
• Podcast email: WFMUnfiltered@gmail.com
• Podcast Directory listings: www.wfmunfiltered.buzzsprout.com/share
• YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/@WFMUnfiltered?sub_confirmation=1
• Arlyne’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/arlynepardo

Thanks for listening.

If you'd like to contact me about the show, you can email me HERE.

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Transcript

Irina: 0:18

Happy, happy Tuesday. Hi, everyone. I'm your host, Irina, and welcome to WFM Unfiltered. Today, we're traveling all the way to Panama, and I'm speaking to an amazing young leader that, honestly, I feel so passionate about her journey. And I really would like you to meet Arlene. Arlene, welcome to the show. How have you been?

Arlyne: 0:45

Hey, everyone. Thank you for having me here. My name is Arlene. I'm based in Panama. I have been working on Dash for eight years, so it has been a long, long journey. Actually, this is my first job.

Irina: 1:02

Oh, okay.

Arlyne: 1:04

And in a sort of way, I ended here in the workforce. So It has been tremendous ups and downs, but more ups than downs. I'm very passionate about, having others to learn, like to grow, to see them moving over to other roles I really, really like that. Um, I think I'm not the usual manager. Not sure if that's related to my age, but I think that sometimes I don't fit the mold, honestly. But, I don't care, honestly. If my team is okay I'm okay with that.

Irina: 1:45

Can I just, before we go into a little bit more details, what Dash is to give us a little bit more information on the company and to start from your journey, which WFM or you're an agent before? I want to make one introduction here that you and I first spoke, I believe it was probably last year when you reach out to organize something for your team members that I was in a state of shock because it's so rare that leaders are proactively looking for sources and information to contribute. Kind of empower their team leads, but to also give them that boost that, okay, if you want to have a career, you can have a career. And I was So impressed of you and so proud of you that we might skip mentioning your age. I'm just going to say that you're brilliant and you're so mature about your age. That for me, it honestly feels like you're a born leader. And I've always said a leader doesn't come with age. Of course we learn along the way, but you don't have to be 75 years old to become a leader or to say that you're one. So I'm just so proud of you, Arylne.

Arlyne: 3:01

Oh, thank you so much. I really appreciate that. Nope, I actually started here at Dash when I was 19. So you can do the math. I don't mind. I started as an agent. technical support agent, actually. So it was a lot at that time. I was not looking for a career in the contact center but I got the job. So I started like having the, the conversations with the clients. I like to help others. Yes, sometimes you can have like very frustrated customers, but. You need to understand that they are mad with because they don't have a service or something is not with you. So it's like a type of change of mind that you have to do when you start at a position as an agent and also trying to have empathy with the client. So after I started as an agent, I, I had the opportunity to be leader as well, so to lead the team after that, moving over to a position that was in a survey, like a tier two. So we collect a lot of report from a specific area, and then we send over the technicians. To fix the problem because it was a major a major issue, right? And I had the opportunity to jump into workforce. Like I saw the job vacancy for real time analysts. And I always saw this because like they were in a high stage and, and the contact center, so I Olympus guys.

Irina: 4:40

Oh my god, okay.

Arlyne: 4:44

And I say Oh, I want to, I want to become part of that team. And then I apply I was chosen and I started as a real time analyst. Unfortunately, the person that was mentoring me like the first day that I was supposed to go on solo,

Irina: 5:03

Okay.

Arlyne: 5:03

she didn't show up and she was bringing like her resignation letter. So I was alone and. It's a little scary, honestly, but, Sometimes you have to fake it until you make it.

Irina: 5:20

And that's how you learn, to be honest, when you're throwing the deep, you either swim or you drown.

Arlyne: 5:27

But we have the client in house. So the client saw me and it was like, he, he smelled like fresh meat. And he go over the stage and asked me about service levels. And I was like, Feeling very empowered, man. Yes, mister the service level is looking at that, that, that, that, that we have absenteeism here, but we collected over time, I fake it until I make it and then he go out and, and I was oof, now I can breathe.

Irina: 5:57

Honestly, this is such an amazing story because I remember the first times when I was asked these questions. I was drawing blank, like people were asking me service level, where's the service level like that? And I was like, I don't even know what the heck service level do you want from me. So being quick on your feet is also very, very good in real time. So proud of you once again.

Arlyne: 6:23

Thank you. Then we have other opportunities. Um, COVID hit. Before COVID hit I got the chance to move. I was in a Spanish account. I had the chance to move over to an English account my coordinator back on those, those days was saying like, apply, apply, you are good, you are good, you speak English, go, go there, you, you know how to use Excel. And then, I decided to apply, I was a little bit scared, honestly because I'm here in Panama, Panama, usually everybody speaks Spanish. Making that change over to English, I was like, oh my god, this is happening. So I got the position. We started with this new account, a US account we started with a small group of agents, of 17 agents something around March, and then by the 8th of March, COVID was a reality. We started hiring a lot of people actually, we had almost 200 agents. And it was crazy because a lot of business were closed and we have to create like batch for the agents. Like we had like a sort of DIY machine for the badges because the business that provide us with the badges was closed. we have our creativity. I feel that like the, one of the gasoline. For you to become a creative person is necessity. You

Irina: 7:56

Tip of the day.

Arlyne: 7:57

need to figure out how to resolve things, so You have to do it. It was an amazing time. Also, like here at Dash, we got like transportation we were wearing like protection, they created like these cubicles for us it was a lot, like they were really, really involved. In terms of workforce, it was crazy. Like I was the first RTA for that US account. And it was a time that we had like almost 500 calls in queue.

Irina: 8:32

Oh, wow. Okay. Wow. So, so walk me through the journey from COVID to now being completely out of COVID, what changed in operations? How did you COVID to now being normal as usual, as it was before that?

Arlyne: 8:52

Yes after COVID the business started to open to be more regular. A lot of people Clients prefer now to be on chat, honestly, rather than calling. Maybe it's due to that because during COVID, there was like a lot of waiting. Also, with all of this AI and automatizations they can call and get a ticket without speaking to a representative. On terms of efficiency for the business, that has been a pro. On terms of the agents, I feel that they are more relaxed because I have to worry having a lot of calls back to back. It was a lot of stress from the workforce perspective, like trying to keep things normal and they were not normal. So some days you can be hitting service level the next day. It was not like that. So now it's like we go back to the basis, but. I think we have a more open mind on terms of, like, when people are reporting that they are sick or something we try to get things turned around getting overtime having supervisors it's not like the end of the world. I feel that Workforce has become more resilient due to that they have more creativity as well, because Like the worst already happened. So I think we are prepared for anything.

Irina: 10:19

You know what I'm hearing from you and I actually love it because traditionally we think about WFM is it's maybe just connecting the dots and doing things in the sequential way of I'm looking at my forecast and I'm doing that and then I'm scheduling my people and then I'm checking what my people are doing and then I'm doing that and it's like a loop. But when you're giving me your examples, it just highlights how resourceful you should be to be able to navigate through situations that Honestly, we never thought it's gonna occur. If you have asked me a couple of years ago, nobody's gonna be allowed to go to the office to travel. I would honestly think that you're going crazy, because I couldn't even imagine this being A reality on this earth. And when I'm hearing you speak like, you know what, we had such a limited amount of time. We didn't know what's going on. It was the stress. It was the panic. Customers stressing, businesses closing, health wise, everyone is panicking. You have to be so also resilient to be able to handle everything and to maintain operations that I think people outside of WFM Not always pay attention to the qualities and what we're bringing into the business. Thank you so much for being able to articulate that side of our journey and that it's not some boring process of A plus B plus C, close the the whole alphabet and so on.

Arlyne: 11:53

I think that was the old workforce. Like it has evolved. I think. At some point I will be that senior person that will hear new voices, like people younger than me, bringing something fresh, something new. And it's, it's something that you usually embrace because when I started, like the person that, that was mentoring me, she mentioned something like, okay, I already explained you everything. You see those three empty seats? Now those are your chances or your opportunities to ask if you have a question. And I was like,

Irina: 12:36

Mm

Arlyne: 12:37

But culture has changed a lot culture has changed a lot, and, for instance, that's not my WFM anymore. Like, whenever we have someone new and needs help, they are here to jump in, to assist, to explain. They can make some jokes I already explained you that this is the thousandth time that I've explained you how to do a billy cup, for example. Ha ha ha! But they do it again, like With the jokes and everything, but they are willing to help to assist others. And I really like that, like that type of environment that we have created. And WFM sometimes it's been seen like the geek guys, the nerds, the ones that handle all the data, but. Don't even know how to maintain a conversation. And that's sad,

Irina: 13:36

It is. It is very sad.

Arlyne: 13:38

that's sad because and usually there is like a sort of rivality because with operations and WFM, like there are cats and dogs. We are not in a soccer field. We are playing for the same company and we don't have that anymore. It's so amazing how we are supporting each other. It's a diff it's a different culture, a different mindset also here at Dash, we have an NPS on workforce.

Irina: 14:06

Oh, show me more.

Arlyne: 14:10

yes, we have a monthly score, evaluation, I'm sorry the supervisors, the managers, coordinators, coordinators, they have the opportunity to evaluate how satisfied they are with the direction of, with workforce. All workforces have that until their performance is structured. So it's something very nice. At this point, there has been some months where we have promoters, but usually we are on the neutrals. So it's not that, that bad, but at least we don't have detractors

Irina: 14:45

of all, it's amazing that you have that in the company. And in my experience, every single time when I have done those kind of evaluations, you have the people that are rather vocal and would like to complain. And then the workforce team are getting very offended because their efforts are not seen. So actually to have neutrals or promoters, but even the neutrals, it's such a positive thing because trust me, if people are to complain, they complain. They're not silent. So this is amazing achievement already, actually.

Arlyne: 15:24

yes. There, Sometimes there are complaints. I'm not gonna say that. No. But also there are suggestions and I like that because they find a way to, to speak to us. And now like you hear the analyst speaking about the, the survey and they say Hey, you need to respond that email, that will affect our our NPS And you don't usually see that on, on that type of role. Like usually you see that just for an agent level, but I think customer experience is, it's everywhere.

Irina: 16:02

Absolutely. Absolutely. I, what I really like and appreciate about you is that desire to, to create and to explore new areas and new ways of doing WFM or new ways to lead your WFM team. And actually, while I was listening to your journey, I wanted to ask you two things because of our previous conversation, I mentioned to you that I also became a manager at 25. Which, considering the age of the other managers around me, were considered a little bit more young. So I was often getting the looking down on, what does she know about managing a team? And it was very difficult for me, because I didn't have that much experience to navigate through those relationships. And I was often entering into conversations with someone who Just age wise was much older than me and they were like, Oh, I know things much better than you just because of my age, not necessarily for how long I've been doing that or what's my experience, tips and tricks, just I'm older. So I need to know better. And you mentioned something about being open to new voices. That really made my ears perk. So why do we have to be open to new voices if we assume that they haven't been through as much challenges as the rest of us have been?

Arlyne: 17:34

I, I think sometimes you have a different perspective. And also I had the opportunity to become manager very young. You can do the math as I say but also I have the bless to have older people, like senior people, support in that way. Like here, even though we are a company that has operations in Panama and South Africa, like the CEO and the COO of the company can talk to you. Like, it's amazing the COO of this company has recommended a lot of books, so when I started as a manager some of those books were about that, about emotional intelligence, about, like, how to become, I think it was called Linchpin, it was amazing, that, that's a great book, and also, The way they approach, it was like as advisors, rather than this is how I have been doing this for 20 or whatever years. That's usually something I hear a lot, but not from my mentors. And I like that. So I think I always try to, to take the positive things from every single situation and it's hard to be positive like all the time. But. If my mentors that were older than me, like almost double age are willing to hear me, right? Why I'm not, I'm not going to be open to hear other people that is coming along the way probably we'll know more about all of this, or we'll, be growing with all of this AI on all this amazing, like technology is. It's changing quickly, compared to previous years, like it takes three to five years to get a new phone, like now, like every single year there is a new phone coming up. So I think I'm going to be open for hearing others and not necessarily like I have to wait five years to hear others, maybe there's people within my team that has seen things in another way. That are doing the role at this time and they have ideas to make it better. Because I honestly hate that phrase when you ask, Oh, why you're doing things like that? And the response is we always have done it like that. And I, it's like, Oh my God, I can't, I can't.

Irina: 20:10

I, I've always said it. I'm getting the absolute exact allergic reaction. I'm starting to choke. I noticed that my blood pressure goes up because I'm getting so frustrated, but I also understand that it's part of being comfortable because this is what has been handled for you. If you go wrong with this I've been taught the wrong way. So I, it's not my fault for not discovering a better way, but you know what? I'm very curious from your journey because I'm honestly such a fan and I'm so happy. Now I'm a fan of Dash as well for being able to foster such a healthy environment where people can grow in their career. Where people can grow even as. People as humans, just because of seeing those positive examples. And the other thing that's very painful for me is looking at people in WFM in planning that are brilliant. They have the knowledge, they have the skills, but they're looked down on because they've only been doing that for seven years or eight years, and they need to be a certain age, or they need to have done that a certain number of years before being. Promoted to workforce manager or planning manager, or sometimes it's a matter of budget, don't get me wrong, but sometimes it's a matter of conservative thinking, Oh you've only done that couple of years. How much do you actually know? And I think you're the exact example that how much do you know and what's your potential and what's your capacity to, to learn, to implement, or to drive change. It really isn't age related. It, it, everything is in our resource as professionals and people to handle that. So what's your advice to, to people that are listening to that episode and are thinking, Oh my God, I've, I've always wanted that, but I don't know what to do. I feel like I'm. I'm stuck in my job. I cannot move forward. This isn't a career. I'm going to forever be at the same level. What can they do?

Arlyne: 22:16

For me it has been a yearning, a change over roles. Sometimes whenever we hire or have someone new in that role as real time analyst or a scheduler or planner I make jokes I know what you are doing, so do not try to lie to me. So my advice to them is to invest on their, Personal development do not wait until a manager or someone from leadership will give you the course or will recommend you a book or something try to research by your own and sometimes you need to do the job without the title and at some point that title will be a reality. Again, fake it until you make it.

Irina: 23:10

I love that. And I actually think this is often the journey. If you are in a company, most of the time you need to do the job before you're given the title. And I think it's a double edged sword in which, okay, but if somebody comes externally, you'll be giving the title. You've been giving the promotion directly. I feel like some companies might be abusing that, but that's not my experience. I have also been lucky in proving myself, and maybe this was my journey, people were handling that in a different way. But what I would say that has really helped me throughout my career is being proactive. Even in my communication with my manager. So the first year of my career, I was very I'm sure that my boss will see what I'm doing and they're going to come to me and they're going to say, you're doing amazing. You're going to be promoted directly. And that's rarely the case, to be honest. But when you sit down often enough with your manager and say, listen, I want to come from here to there. What can I do? How can I get there? Tell me what are the expectations and you drive that conversations proactively. There are not many situations unless it's strictly budget related in which a manager will tell you, nah, I just, nah, don't do anything. Just sit there and wait, wait for things to happen. So I really love your feedback on just read these books, try these things and it will happen. You just have to believe in yourself.

Arlyne: 24:44

Yes. I, I like that you mentioned like being proactive with the communications, like sometimes you can be an analyst, right? And if you have a desire to learn some programming, like Python or Java or something like that, unfortunately, like your leader does not have cannot read minds. So maybe having that conversation in a one on one or something casual, like mentioning that you decided to learn something else or that you will like to become at some point a scheduler that you are interested on that, that, that will, plant a seed in your leadership team and then maybe they can take that and grow that seed and take advantage of that and you can grow with that as well. And also if you are on a leadership position, do not be afraid to learn, to teach others. Allow others to learn. It's not that they are coming to you. To to, to steal your job is that sometimes they want to learn new things and that will help you as a leader that will take workload out of you that could make a real time analyst your next planner, your next forecaster, right? If you allow them to learn, but if not, and you stuck without, oh, they are looking for my job and you do not allow them to explore more, You will be exhausted as well because you cannot rely on anybody. You don't trust your team.

Irina: 26:25

That honestly speaks to me so much and it goes straight because I have been in situations to, to observe that not only happening to me, but to observe it in teams when people are so protective of their job and their function that they're trying to remain the smartest one in the team, the only ones who retain a certain knowledge or skill. And. Literally trying to stupefy their people so they become irreplaceable. New York City Lawyer, nobody is irreplaceable there isn't such a person, so I'm sorry to bring it to everyone. But second of all, you cannot grow and do anything else. If there's no one to substitute you. So if you're looking at your own individual growth and career progression, please allow that to your team members as well. And honestly, that's the absolute first time when someone I have heard and spoken to is brave enough to bring that publicly. So I'm such a fan of you, Arlene. I can't believe I'm doing the math and I can't believe that. Are you sure that you're that age?

Arlyne: 27:36

Yes, I'm sure. And it was a surprise, When I was doing the role as coordinator the CEO of the company asked like, why she's not a manager? Is she ready? And then my two mentors say yes, she's ready. Okay. So make her a manager.

Irina: 27:56

There you

Arlyne: 27:57

But if you ask me I didn't feel that I was ready. I was doing the job without the title. But when the title becomes a reality, it was like, okay, now I'm a manager. What should I do?

Irina: 28:12

just got the title, to be honest, you've already been doing the show.

Arlyne: 28:16

So I, I keep, doing like the same I was doing in a, in a sort of way I had to delegate a lot and it's not easy. But the only way you can actually delegate is by trust. You need to trust that your people is smart, that they are capable of doing things. and and not act as the crazy lady looking for the mail. Is that formula is okay? Is that requirement has been calculated correctly? No. You need to allow them and obviously they will make mistakes. Personal. Yeah, personal. When I made a mistake is, it's like the end of the word. I don't like it. Like I'm, I'm, I'm being so hard on me with that. I try to not be like that with my team, which is like the, the opposite side. But I tried to stick to one of the phrases One of my mentors has said if you are not working, you will not make mistakes. If you are working, that's something that will happen. And that's as well trying to empower people, like trying to empower them to do the job, to become the next managers, to become the next coordinators, and your team will grow. So when I started in WFM, WFM was very small. It was like, Like six RTAs only. Six or five RTAs. And one coordinator. So today, we are more than 30 people. Different roles, we have the manager, we have the coordinator, we have the supervisors. Now we have a new team within WFM, since last time we spoke. Which is called Time Keepers, you can imagine this is expanding, this is growing, this is, and this allow others to explore other opportunities. And that's why as well, I reached out to you. I remember that I reached out to you and Dan and SWPP as well to give some have a meeting. Like it was not too formal actually, but. To have them to have them like the opportunity to see that there is other WFM, that there, this is actually a career. And And you can grow and become like you, like them, like there is a society, like there is a community, there is support, and I, I found this type of support proactively by searching and, and, and that type of stuff, like attending to webinars, but maybe they're not curious, so I, I, I wanted to bring that perspective to them.

Irina: 31:11

I'm so happy you did that. And honestly, to wrap this conversation up, it was such a brilliant episode and you gave me so much energy. And as you mentioned, those new voices that are able to, to motivate everyone, then to speak. Spark that passion again. And I can't repeat enough how proud I am of you and how impressed I am of the leader you are, of the professional that you are. So my, my wish is just everyone to listen to you and to this episode, and please feel Follow Arlene on LinkedIn because she's absolutely brilliant and you need to follow her because she's gonna do stuff in that career or whatever she chooses. So thank you so much Arlene for being with me on this episode. I'm

Arlyne: 32:01

for having me here, Irina. I admire you a lot and it's a surprise that our careers has like a lot of in common. So at some point it's Oh, I'm not alone. So this is amazing. And I was so excited for this. And I still am. So I think this, this type of emotion will keep with me for the rest of the week.

Irina: 32:25

so happy to hear that from me as well. Sending you tons of hugs and thank you for being here with me today. Bye.

Arlyne: 32:36

Bye.