Contact center turnover has always been a thorny issue for the industry but as customer expectations rise, companies are being urged to take a long term view. Quick fix cost cutting measures such as shortening the selection process and skimping on training are now being viewed as tactics to ditch in favor of encouraging good agents to stick around.
Attrition of course is unlikely to completely disappear but no-one wants to lose agents within a few months of training. Figures vary as to actual levels although recent research by recruiter CallMe! reveals an annual turnover rate of 40% for call centers with 100 employees with the figure estimated to be higher for larger operations. As the recession begins to lose its grip and technology advances employers’ increasingly need better skilled staff.
IT Skills In High Demand
Connect First’s Chief Executive Officer Geoff Mina Call center software provider Connect First’s Chief Executive Officer Geoff Mina points to the fact the under 30s have become a more demanding workforce. “Millennials, they aren’t willing to stay at a job very long if they don’t feel they are getting something out of it.” He adds as customer interaction has become increasingly sophisticated with company products, more complex the need to recruit tech savvy staff has intensified, “They can’t get away with hiring people who are unemployable elsewhere.”
“Technology has created a bit of a monster,” said HireIQ Solutions Vice President of Marketing Kevin Hegebarth, “Customers have more at their disposal and are very well informed about what their choices are and the nature of a contact center job is different – now they must have excellent communication abilities backed by critical thinking skills.”
Hegebarth is skeptical of traditional metric testing where agents are evaluated on the length of their first call resolutions. “It’s an extremely stressful job. People working for a BPO may be working one program with a set of particular rules and then on another with a different set of rules.” He believes emotional empathy and how agents project themselves to the caller are far more important qualities.
Get it Right from the Outset
HireIQ Solutions Vice President of Marketing Kevin Hegebarth
Hegebarth argues the key to keeping attrition under control is to invest time and money in recruiting and training. “There’s a significant up-skill on behalf of the call center agent which companies are having difficulty investing in because it takes time and money to source, recruit, hire and train agents.” Hegebarth estimates the whole process costs around US$65,000 as there’s usually a 45 day on-boarding period, which can be as high as 10 weeks for complex services. Another important factor is for employers to act quickly following the recruitment process. “A lot of people are looking for jobs elsewhere, for example in retail and other customer service industries. The psychology of the candidate is that the faster you give me an offer the more likely I am to accept it.”
Although, attrition has some benefits in terms of attracting new blood and shedding dead wood it’s important not to exhaust the local labor force, claims CallMe! Vice President Mark Cook. “If you have a large call center in one locality and you have high attrition rates you will burn through your labor market very quickly.” Ideally employers need their agents to stick around for between 90 to 180 days to recoup their investment, according to Hegebarth.
Feedback Fuels Motivation
Ken King Chief Operating Officer of CliniCallRN
The more specialized the service the more important it is for employers to keep their agents as healthcare and pharmaceutical specialist PatientStar can testify. Chief Operating Officer Ken King says his contact center CliniCallRN offers support to patients on clinical trials taking complex drugs and recruits agents who are registered nurses. “For our more complex projects agents need eight weeks of training before they can take their first call. It’s very important they stay with us, it’s very destructive to lose a nurse.” King says his company puts vast amounts of energy into recruiting the right staff to keep attrition rates to the minimum. “We have an automated recruitment process where we can take in application forms and go through the work force process before they talk to someone.” Following this they work directly with a supervisor to ensure they are fully prepared for patient calls. “The nurses really appreciate that they are learning new things and that it contributes to their continuing education and maintaining their licence.” King says his company performs regular scorecard audits which involve listening to live conversations and mystery shopping exercises, which have proved popular. “The number one thing they like to hear is when they get good feedback from the patients.”
Good Software Support
Alongside this agents need to have the right tools to do their job properly maintains Mina. “Providing a simple and elegant solution to the agent which makes it easier to find information and allows them to solve someone’s problem is one of the components of a retention policy. As a consumer when I look at my interaction with contact centers, if they have the information up in a couple of seconds that person seems more competent.”
The key to keeping agents seems a mix of things from recruitment to training, the chance to develop skills, positive customer feedback, a decent wage and flexible hours. “Today’s generation want more flexibility, they want to work from home and they don´t want a set schedule. There’s a sea change which will have to come in as more of these people come into the workforce. This will be a big challenge for the industry in general,” emphasizes Hegebarth.