It’s no secret how difficult it can be to keep a full staff in many call centers. Historically, many call center employees don’t stick around for the long haul.
But call centers don’t have to be this way. At JobFinders, we’re recruiting talent for a different kind of call center. Our goal is to create a workforce of call center employees who are better equipped, have better technical resources, training, and support to make the most of their work.
We imagine a call center that is a happy, and fun place to work. With lower turnover and a better, more profitable environment for employees and employers alike.
Addressing the Typical High Turnover of Call Centers
To create a better employee experience, we need to begin by acknowledging the difficulties call center employees can face.
Many of the jobs in this space are riddled with menial, repetitive work that often goes unnoticed. Beyond that, there is often little room for professional growth. These factors can all lead to low job satisfaction, low morale, and non-existent team culture.
But just because call centers have experienced high turnover and low morale, doesn’t mean that’s how it is across the board. There are many call centers that have lower turnover and high worker engagement.
So, just because you’re a hiring manager at a call center doesn’t mean you’re fighting a losing battle. Together, we have the opportunity to create a better workplace.
Looking at the Call Center Turnover Numbers
Research from the Quality Assurance and Training Connection (QATC) shows call center turnover in the US at 30% to 45%, whereas the global average is 22%,
Many call center operators see numbers like these and accept them as “the cost of doing business” at call centers.
While working in a call center can be difficult, we don’t believe in simply accepting these numbers. To accept the high turnover rate of call centers is particularly short-sighted considering how – according to The Center for American Progress – it could cost 20% of a frontline worker’s entire salary to replace them.
That means a call center of 50 employees could end up wasting around $100,000 in yearly turnover costs! That plainly isn’t something organizations should accept as “the norm.”
To learn more about how to avoid these costs, we look to the many call centers in the industry that are able to successfully retain talent and create a better work environment. How do they do it?
Watch For Signs of Disengagement
The most proactive defense call center operators can take against high turnover is recognizing the signs that indicate employee disengagement:
- Withdrawn employees who aren’t interacting professionally/socially with peers/managers
- Frequently missed shifts – disengaged talent will actively choose unpaid time over going into work
- A decline, or drop off in participation in team meetings
- Poor quality work
- Apathy or complacency
Call center leadership needs to be on top of these signs. You can’t remedy the problem without knowing what to look for. Recognizing these issues in your team can provide you and your team the opportunity to get to the root cause of employee dissatisfaction.
Nurturing Employee Engagement
Once you’ve spotted the signs of employee disengagement, you might find there isn’t a simple solution to make improvements. Often this is why high turnover remains unchanged – the solutions to curbing dissatisfaction seem too complex to resolve.
Because it is so important to resolve these issues, it helps to keep the solutions simple:
- We found investing in employee well-being is a great first step to take. It could be a simple solution from creating some schedule flexibility or adding a wellness program.
- You can also demonstrate you’re invested in your employee’s future by offering professional development opportunities.
- Focusing on team recognition and peer feedback can help people feel less isolated and help build a positive, inviting workplace culture. In fact, 89% of HR leaders believe peer feedback and recognition are crucial to employee engagement.
The most important step you can take to address employee dissatisfaction is to avoid getting lost in the details. Many managers can end up tying themselves in knots trying to address the specific issues. But more often than not, the smaller problems are symptomatic of larger issues.
Creating simple solutions to nurture employee engagement can have the best effect in resolving many problems that previously seemed insurmountable.
The Real Secret to Decreasing Call Center Turnover
There may not be a magic solution for increasing employee engagement and decreasing high call center turnover. But one of the best steps you can take is partnering with a call center recruiter like JobFinders to help source and hire the right employees.
At JobFinders, we don’t accept that managing a call center goes hand in hand with high turnover. Instead, when staffing call centers across Missouri, we are committed to finding our client’s long-term staffing solutions by:
- A knack for matching candidates to their ideal position
- Helping to ensure a good cultural fit
- Frequent check-ins with employees
- Help employers recognize signs of disengagement
- Serving as an advocate for our call center employees and mediator for problems in the workplace
We are a call center staffing agency committed to changing the status quo. We want to save you money, and create a better environment for you and your employees. Let’s work together to hire for your future; contact JobFinders today.
