Agent attrition is a persisting issue in the call center industry. Not only is it costly, but, it’s also damaging to employee morale, productivity, and company growth.
When taking into account how expensive it is for a company to replace employees, it goes to show that employee retention should be a priority in an organization’s overall business strategy.
As a business owner, you need to come up with sound strategies geared towards making your best call center agents stay.
But before you can do that, you need to know first the top reasons why agents quit in the first place.
Let’s proceed, shall we?
1. Lack of career development opportunities
When a call center agent feels that he isn’t provided enough opportunities for career growth, disillusionment and fatigue will set in sooner or later.
Employees who are made to feel that they are “standing still” within an organization despite their hard work are more likely to feel unmotivated, resulting in poor performance and eventually resignation.
2. Work overload
A call center that requires agents to exert a huge amount of effort to successfully perform a job is a breeding ground for burnout.
Work overload in the call center happens when there’s high-frequency customer contact, overambitious performance targets, infrequent breaks, and overbearing work schedules.
Agents who feel that they are overworked to exhaustion on a regular basis eventually lose their enthusiasm for the job, causing them to quit and seek other organizations who recognize their need for work-life balance.
3. Rigid management practices
When a call center’s management team imposes rigid rules and monitors employees excessively, employee turnover tends to increase.
That’s not in the least surprising. According to a research conducted by the University of Birmingham, autonomy in the workplace can positively impact well-being and job satisfaction.
If you keep your agents on a short leash, they will eventually feel that the company doesn’t respect and care for them.
So relax and give agent enough room to breathe. Allow your employees to act like normal human beings (within reasonable limits, of course) and they will be grateful for it, thus motivating them to stay with the company.
4. Monotonous tasks
Employees tend to seek greener pastures if they are made to do repetitive tasks.
People crave variety, even at work, and they are more likely to feel engaged with their job when they are assigned to handle different tasks every once in a while.
Besides, ambitious employees crave challenges. By giving them more opportunities to hone their talents and make the most of their skills, chances are they’ll feel more satisfied with their work.
5. Misalignment of employee skills to job needs
Some employees eventually quit when they realize that they don’t have the skill-set or the inclination to do the tasks the job requires of them.
To reduce such incidences, the recruitment team should properly orient potential candidates about the scope of their responsibilities and define the skills required for the job.
Poor recruitment processes not only reduces employee turnover, but they also reduce the costs involved in recruitment and training. The result? A better bottom line, of course.
Key Takeaway
Employee retention has become a significant concern among businesses, even more so in the call center industry. As a business owner, you’d do well to implement and adopt business practices that can alleviate the problems that were discussed in this article.
By taking proactive steps that minimize stressors within the call center, your employees are more likely to stay and to do their best work every single day they’re on the job.
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