Many call centres struggle to find staff — it doesn't have to be that way
Companies are relying more and more on professional call centres as their first line of contact with current and potential customers. While the representatives at these centres are usually customer-focused or technologically proficient, many centre managers are struggling to find and retain qualified staff.
A survey of 424 call centres across North America, sponsored by the Olsten Forum on Human Resources, found the average annual turnover to be one in three within the first year of employment. That compares with 18 per cent in other business units.
“There are instances where the turnover is as high as 100 per cent a year,” said Jo’Ann Alderson, president of Progressive Communications, Inc., a firm consulting in the hiring and training of call centre employees. “And some companies, like Disney, have very, very low rates of attrition.”
Despite the high turnover rate, retention levels in the sector appear to be improving. In the Olsten study, 30 per cent said their turnover is decreasing and only 20 per cent reported increases.
Most of the managers attributed the decrease to better recruiting, screening and testing.
Kelly Haggarty, the owner of Partners Telecom Resources Inc., a firm specializing in providing qualified call centre employees to industry, found the best call centre employees come via referral.
He also said ads in computer magazines, such as We Compute and Toronto Computes, bring in high quality applicants with key-boarding skills. However, he cautioned against general ads.
“I once put an ad in the Toronto Sun and got 2,000 replies for 20 positions. I had to weed them out and most were not remotely capable.”
Alderson said the biggest reason for turnover is companies hire people that don’t fit.
“Often people go into the call centres thinking they are going to get some experience in the industry, then find out they are on the phone all day,” she said.
It is essential to determine what the job is and what kind of person is required to fit the job. Alderson suggested getting input from current employees or those resigning, as well as managers.
Jack Green, president of Entretel Inc., a call centre consulting firm, said extensive screening is essential to limiting turnover.
In fact, Olsten’s research found few call centre managers look beyond a customer service background. Less than one-third seek previous inbound or outbound call centre experience and only one-quarter require product knowledge.
Instead, the survey found, managers look for a positive attitude, strong work ethic, command of the English language, the ability to get along with others and a commitment to scheduled hours.
Green suggested establishing benchmarks, by determining best practices, individual characteristics required and which skills can be trained versus those necessary coming in, as well as analysing the environment, culture, managerial styles and degree of selling required.
With this information, Green develops a interactive voice response screening process.
“Candidates screen themselves as they are given more information than a newspaper allows and suitable applicants can be ranked on the information they provide electronically,” said Green. This electronic interview is followed by a personal telephone-based interview where skills such as listening, questioning and other factors, including voice quality and a second language, if applicable, can be monitored.
The next stage of the hiring process is a hands-on test of basic skills — typing, software knowledge and talk/type capabilities.
Then, before hiring, a personality profile is developed analysing the desirable personal qualities as described during the benchmarking stage.
Once the right individual is hired the next challenge faced by call centre managers is keeping them. The Olsten study found most employees stay only a year or two, often going to another field altogether and only 22 per cent accept jobs at other call centres.
“Some call centres grew so fast there is only one job level,” said Green.
Only one-third of respondents in the Olsten study have formal career paths established for their employees. Even though call centres offer entry level positions, employees often have to leave the organization in order to advance.
Green recommended establishing internal job-tiering with at least a five-year career advancement plan.
Alderson agreed. “Establishing the path, from entry level, past two or three categories of caller, to monitor then coach, to trainer, to a manager then, ultimately, a director encourages good people to stay.”
In order to encourage this upward mobility training is required. And, the Olsten study linked the amount of training given to call centre employees to longevity.
The average length of training programs in the study was about 21 days. However, companies with minimal levels of training (three days or less) tended to report annual turnover rates averaging 55 per cent, whereas for companies with training periods extending over one month, the rate dropped to 20 per cent.
Alderson found most call centre training is “home grown” and limited to technical skills. Call centre employees need to know intangibles, such as handling irate customers, inquiring processes that leave the customer feeling special, and how to close and ask for the order.
“If a person is expected to learn the softskills from the person next to them, who may not be that good at it either, the job becomes more stressful and frustrating.”
The study found more than one-third of people leaving call centre jobs do so because of stress and burnout.
Green agreed most training in softskills is “don’t take it personally.” But, he added, companies, like the Royal Bank, are starting to teach their people how to deal with irate customers by developing their own attitudes and an understanding of the customers’ problems.
Further, he said “you can’t change habits from a two-day course.” Most call centers in the survey paid more attention to attendance and telephone skills as measures of performance rather than to customer satisfaction surveys.
Green recommended using monitoring as a developmental tool — how the individual listens and empathizes. For example, rather than measuring how much time is spent on each call, the monitor/trainer could help the employee develop a system of acceptable “wedges” to stop customers who ramble on.
“This promotes learning new skills as well as helping the worker feel good,” said Green.
Olsten research found evaluations at most centres were ongoing processes. Half the companies reported performance measured daily, 10 per cent measured it weekly and 18 per cent conducted monthly reviews.
In addition to upgrading both technical and soft skills, promoting a sense of family, and fun can lead to an exciting environment and stimulate a traditionally stressful, perhaps boring, job.
Sprint Canada, a company with one of the lowest rates of turnover in its large call centre, held an internal Olympics, with prizes, contests and morale building activities.
Call centre tips for execs
Jack Green, president of Entretel Incorporated, which specializes in call centre performance optimization has these suggestions for meeting the unique needs of call centre staff.
Respect staff members as individuals
•create opportunities for individual recognition;
•involve staff in affecting change in their workplace through projects, committees and communication; and
•let workers know they are appreciated as individuals — spend time with them.
Identify the benefits of growing skill sets
•create the linkage in training;
•constantly reinforce the image of professionalism and excellence; and
•consistently re-assure staff that they fit the image.
Provide career paths
•create tiers within the call centre so the only career growth opportunity is not out;
•empower staff by providing the tools for growth — meaningful and intense training, objective testing for job progression and opportunities for self-directed study; and
•provide a road map for growth — the opportunity to know where they are, where they can go and what they have to do to get there.
Make the work environment stimulating
•allow personalization of work spaces;
•have theme days and celebrations;
•incorporate a hands-on, up-beat supervisory/leading style; and
•reward individual as well as team projects.
A survey of 424 call centres across North America, sponsored by the Olsten Forum on Human Resources, found the average annual turnover to be one in three within the first year of employment. That compares with 18 per cent in other business units.
“There are instances where the turnover is as high as 100 per cent a year,” said Jo’Ann Alderson, president of Progressive Communications, Inc., a firm consulting in the hiring and training of call centre employees. “And some companies, like Disney, have very, very low rates of attrition.”
Despite the high turnover rate, retention levels in the sector appear to be improving. In the Olsten study, 30 per cent said their turnover is decreasing and only 20 per cent reported increases.
Most of the managers attributed the decrease to better recruiting, screening and testing.
Kelly Haggarty, the owner of Partners Telecom Resources Inc., a firm specializing in providing qualified call centre employees to industry, found the best call centre employees come via referral.
He also said ads in computer magazines, such as We Compute and Toronto Computes, bring in high quality applicants with key-boarding skills. However, he cautioned against general ads.
“I once put an ad in the Toronto Sun and got 2,000 replies for 20 positions. I had to weed them out and most were not remotely capable.”
Alderson said the biggest reason for turnover is companies hire people that don’t fit.
“Often people go into the call centres thinking they are going to get some experience in the industry, then find out they are on the phone all day,” she said.
It is essential to determine what the job is and what kind of person is required to fit the job. Alderson suggested getting input from current employees or those resigning, as well as managers.
Jack Green, president of Entretel Inc., a call centre consulting firm, said extensive screening is essential to limiting turnover.
In fact, Olsten’s research found few call centre managers look beyond a customer service background. Less than one-third seek previous inbound or outbound call centre experience and only one-quarter require product knowledge.
Instead, the survey found, managers look for a positive attitude, strong work ethic, command of the English language, the ability to get along with others and a commitment to scheduled hours.
Green suggested establishing benchmarks, by determining best practices, individual characteristics required and which skills can be trained versus those necessary coming in, as well as analysing the environment, culture, managerial styles and degree of selling required.
With this information, Green develops a interactive voice response screening process.
“Candidates screen themselves as they are given more information than a newspaper allows and suitable applicants can be ranked on the information they provide electronically,” said Green. This electronic interview is followed by a personal telephone-based interview where skills such as listening, questioning and other factors, including voice quality and a second language, if applicable, can be monitored.
The next stage of the hiring process is a hands-on test of basic skills — typing, software knowledge and talk/type capabilities.
Then, before hiring, a personality profile is developed analysing the desirable personal qualities as described during the benchmarking stage.
Once the right individual is hired the next challenge faced by call centre managers is keeping them. The Olsten study found most employees stay only a year or two, often going to another field altogether and only 22 per cent accept jobs at other call centres.
“Some call centres grew so fast there is only one job level,” said Green.
Only one-third of respondents in the Olsten study have formal career paths established for their employees. Even though call centres offer entry level positions, employees often have to leave the organization in order to advance.
Green recommended establishing internal job-tiering with at least a five-year career advancement plan.
Alderson agreed. “Establishing the path, from entry level, past two or three categories of caller, to monitor then coach, to trainer, to a manager then, ultimately, a director encourages good people to stay.”
In order to encourage this upward mobility training is required. And, the Olsten study linked the amount of training given to call centre employees to longevity.
The average length of training programs in the study was about 21 days. However, companies with minimal levels of training (three days or less) tended to report annual turnover rates averaging 55 per cent, whereas for companies with training periods extending over one month, the rate dropped to 20 per cent.
Alderson found most call centre training is “home grown” and limited to technical skills. Call centre employees need to know intangibles, such as handling irate customers, inquiring processes that leave the customer feeling special, and how to close and ask for the order.
“If a person is expected to learn the softskills from the person next to them, who may not be that good at it either, the job becomes more stressful and frustrating.”
The study found more than one-third of people leaving call centre jobs do so because of stress and burnout.
Green agreed most training in softskills is “don’t take it personally.” But, he added, companies, like the Royal Bank, are starting to teach their people how to deal with irate customers by developing their own attitudes and an understanding of the customers’ problems.
Further, he said “you can’t change habits from a two-day course.” Most call centers in the survey paid more attention to attendance and telephone skills as measures of performance rather than to customer satisfaction surveys.
Green recommended using monitoring as a developmental tool — how the individual listens and empathizes. For example, rather than measuring how much time is spent on each call, the monitor/trainer could help the employee develop a system of acceptable “wedges” to stop customers who ramble on.
“This promotes learning new skills as well as helping the worker feel good,” said Green.
Olsten research found evaluations at most centres were ongoing processes. Half the companies reported performance measured daily, 10 per cent measured it weekly and 18 per cent conducted monthly reviews.
In addition to upgrading both technical and soft skills, promoting a sense of family, and fun can lead to an exciting environment and stimulate a traditionally stressful, perhaps boring, job.
Sprint Canada, a company with one of the lowest rates of turnover in its large call centre, held an internal Olympics, with prizes, contests and morale building activities.
Call centre tips for execs
Jack Green, president of Entretel Incorporated, which specializes in call centre performance optimization has these suggestions for meeting the unique needs of call centre staff.
Respect staff members as individuals
•create opportunities for individual recognition;
•involve staff in affecting change in their workplace through projects, committees and communication; and
•let workers know they are appreciated as individuals — spend time with them.
Identify the benefits of growing skill sets
•create the linkage in training;
•constantly reinforce the image of professionalism and excellence; and
•consistently re-assure staff that they fit the image.
Provide career paths
•create tiers within the call centre so the only career growth opportunity is not out;
•empower staff by providing the tools for growth — meaningful and intense training, objective testing for job progression and opportunities for self-directed study; and
•provide a road map for growth — the opportunity to know where they are, where they can go and what they have to do to get there.
Make the work environment stimulating
•allow personalization of work spaces;
•have theme days and celebrations;
•incorporate a hands-on, up-beat supervisory/leading style; and
•reward individual as well as team projects.
