Companies can survive from an onslaught of business disasters—sluggish sales, lack of clients, and even public relations crises. But once employees quit in droves, it can be difficult to recover.
Employees will always be the most important asset of any firm, especially call centers. Their passion and skills drive good customer service performance, helping brands keep their customers happy. Without them, it’s impossible to adhere to today’s high standards of excellent support.
Relying on insufficient manpower, brands will be unable to accommodate incoming transactions or deploy an omnichannel strategy.
It’s quite odd, therefore, that too many customer support providers don’t work hard enough to increase employee retention. But there’s a way to reverse this.
The first step to lower employee attrition in the contact center is to investigate why employees are leaving. Although low pay remains one of the most common reasons why agents choose to leave, it’s not always just about the salary. Aside from this, however, here are the top five issues that can force them to quit for good.
-
Lack of Career Development
Managers may think this is one of those recycled reasons employees use when they can’t wait to get out of their jobs, but it’s not always the case. When employees aren’t given enough chances to grow and expand their career, they can sink into a long period of burnout and fatigue. This leads to constantly poor performance, and later on, resignation.Keep in mind that every employee yearns to learn more and acquire new skills. Sometimes, agents aren’t even looking to be promoted. They may just want to be given more complex tasks or to engage in new training programs.
-
Workload Mismatch
Orienting new agents about the scope of their responsibilities is part of the employee onboarding process. This levels off their expectations and lets them assess whether they’re a good fit for the position. But when the work they’re asked to do doesn’t match their skills, they’ll either find the job monotonous or exhausting. Once this happens, call center agents are more likely to quit and find a career that lets them exercise their talents.
-
Rigid Team Management
Being too strict with your customer support reps is a sign that you don’t trust them enough. If employees feel they’re being monitored excessively or that they can’t freely move within the office, they may start to feel unhappy over time.The key is to give your agents some room to breathe. Avoid needlessly rigid policies such as limited bathroom breaks or not allowing them to personalize their work stations. You may think these are small things, but they can add up over time and make employees feel you don’t care about them.
-
Poor Working Conditions
To drive up engagement, you need to optimize employees’ work conditions. Make sure they have everything they need—from office equipment to basic facilities in the office pantry. Remember they’ll be staying for at least eight hours in the workplace, so make it as comfortable for them as you can. By investing in their work environment, you’re also taking care of their mental and physical well-being. -
Repetitive Tasks
You’ll observe that employee attrition is particularly high among departments that handle monotonous tasks. Call center agents who feel that they’re not being challenged or that they’re not fully using their talents are bound to feel dissatisfied with the work they do.To increase employee retention, try mixing up your agents’ tasks every once in a while. Give them duties of varying nature and difficulty levels so they can make the most of their skills.
When outsourcing your business needs, find a BPO partner with great culture and work-life integration. A partnership works best when both parties are driven towards similar goals and values. Look no further than Open Access BPO. Contact us today to improve your CX or back office team s attrition rate and more.