Workforce Management Featured Article
Reversing the Call Center Turnover Trend
The call center agent is pretty much an anomaly in the workforce management space. The performance of agents is directly linked to call center success and productivity levels. And yet call center agents have one of the highest turnover rates of all U.S. occupations, more than double the national average. Battling this statistic requires an innovative approach to workforce management and employee engagement, one that takes into consideration the unique and varied needs of the call center agent.
Research from The Quality Assurance & Training Connection shows that U.S. contact center agents have a turnover rate between 30 and 45 percent, a pretty massive churn rate. And that steady turnover creates turmoil in the workplace, negatively impacting productivity, efficiency and morale – the benchmarks of successful workforce management. To combat this disturbing statistic, call centers need to recognize that call center agents do not fit into a conventional work mold, and therefore require different tools and incentives to remain happy and focused at work.
To understand what type of workforce management approach might work best for a specific call center, managers might do well to look at changes happening in the outsourced call center sector. Research firm Contact Babel discovered outsourced contact centers had a turnover rate of a whopping 73 percent in 2016. Yet by 2017, the rate had dropped to 49 percent. The difference may very well be attributed to changes in workforce management, with an increased emphasis on employee engagement, rewards and satisfaction.
It’s no secret that keeping employees happy will reduce churn and turnover rates. But when it comes to call center agents, this can be a challenging task. Too often, agents are assigned a job within the call center, are trained to perform that specific task, and are scheduled to repeat it, day after day and month after month. Very few employees can flourish when they aren’t given challenges and variety within their jobs, and yet traditionally, call center agents are expected to perform repetitive, monotonous tasks. This is easily addressed through changes within the call center itself, like the advent of omni-channel communications, which offer agents different ways to interact with customers. Managers can also task agents with jobs outside of customer service, like recording, logging and analyzing interactions and other administrative tasks. Variety goes a long way toward breaking up the monotony of any job.
By offering opportunities for training and advancement, managers can encourage agents to surpass the status quo and motivate them to seek new opportunities. Incentives and rewards programs are especially useful here, recognizing and compensating agents for excelling at their particular endeavors.
Managers can also offer flexibility with scheduling, since most call center agents do not adhere to a typical 9-to-5 schedule. By allowing agents to have input into scheduling and even make changes themselves, like swapping shifts, managers can empower agents while also ensuring they promote quality of life and peace of mind. Software can be a valuable tool for scheduling as well as giving agents remote access to schedules and the ability to adjust those schedules on the fly.
Turnover and churn do not have to be acceptable losses within the call center. As the industry is changing and evolving to adapt to new technologies and globalization, workforce management is also evolving. Implementing some simple practices centered on employee engagement, happiness and retention can reverse those turnover numbers and lead to productivity and operational improvements in the call center.
Edited by Maurice Nagle
