Can HR Change the Infamous Reputation of Call Centre Employee Turnover?
April 24, 2016
When an entire sector shares a costly problem, why is it proving so difficult to find the solution?
A recent survey, ‘Counting the Cost of Staff Turnover’ found that call centre agent attrition is costing the industry over £1 billion a year. So what is the industry doing about it?
The trend has been to claw back some of this unacceptable expense by further improving call centre agent performance and efficiency. But this isn’t addressing the root of the problem.
Perhaps the answer lies right in front of us – in the hands of HR.
As recently as 2012 we knew that an average of one in four frontline workers were being continually replaced (Skills CFA’s Contact Centre Operations, Labour Market Report 2012). And the latest statistics are no better. Yet all efforts go on improving efficiency rather than reducing this figure. Furthermore, this comes with an additional sacrifice – quality; and at a time when call centres universally recognise the need to put customer experience at the top of their agendas.
When trying to find a solution to such an entrenched and cultural problem, it’s easy to fall back on clichés – to see the answer we have to step back, see the bigger picture and do some lateral thinking, join up the dots, etc. But we can confidently state that there is nothing clichéd about the remedy itself.
It’s simple:
Happy staff work harder, achieve better results, and create happy customers – and they don’t keep quitting their jobs either.
And who best understands staff contentment? Human Resources. So why aren’t we involving HR in answering the all-important question, how do we improve call centre agent performance?
The problem has always been that even with enlightened attitudes on the call centre floor, we’re still asking people to behave like machines. And yes, we talk a lot about ‘motivation’ and ‘encouragement’ but in reality the demands for efficiency have always ultimately overruled this.
Call centres simply can’t function this way anymore. We have to do what we should have done years ago and involve HR in addressing call centre agent attrition. But we also need the right tools to do this.
Specifically, we need to help HR to translate their holistic and human values meaningfully into the language of measurable metrics used by the quality and efficiency teams. And now at last we have the tools – like call centre gamification – to convert business goals into rewarding human experience.
Imagine a call centre where, from the moment a newly recruited agent first steps onto the call centre floor, they feel motivated, excited, supported, enthusiastic, eager to get started and even more eager to get some feedback and begin developing new skills. Imagine that agent positively embracing the ethos of the firm, of the product, the service – and genuinely empathising with the customers they are trying to help. Imagine that agent actually wanting to improve the team’s performance – wanting, not being brow-beaten until unemployment becomes a better option.
Maybe there really is room for human beings on the front line of our call centres? Maybe it’s time to invite HR to the table?
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