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By April Forer

In an employee market it is difficult to hire and retain loyal employees. When there are labor shortages, you must up your game as an employer. Hiring and training contact center agents remotely creates new challenges but having the right processes and technology in place makes all the difference in creating a smooth experience.

Consider the following steps when hiring and training remote contact center agents:

Attract Relevant Candidates

It’s frustrating to receive incomplete applications or applicants that don’t meet the job requirements. You can attract new candidates by determining where best to post your job openings, providing detailed job and company information, asking for employee reviews, and using online applications.

There are various platforms available to recruit new candidates, so how do you decide which to advertise your open positions?

Decide what traits your ideal employee should have to help choose which platform (such as LinkedIn, Monster, or Indeed) is best. You’ll have a better chance of reaching your ideal employee by advertising your job posting where they’re likely to see it.

When completing your company profile page, post photos and images to give candidates a good perspective on your company culture. Being transparent will help recruit better qualified candidates and save you time and money.

Give potential employees reasons on why they might want to work there. Explain or show what the work is like.

Ask your current remote contact center agents to leave employee reviews online. Employee reviews are a helpful way for candidates to verify that your company is legit.

They also provide applicants a first-hand review of the pros and cons of working there. You’ll want to be prepared for any negative feedback. Many of these platforms allow the employer a chance to respond so you can address and react to any feedback you may receive.

If you’re still using paper applications, it’s time to evolve your technology. You can streamline the recruiting and hiring process by using an online application. Having an online application makes it easier for candidates to apply and speeds up the review process.

Filter Applicants

Reviewing job applications can take lots of time, but if you don’t filter them first, you’ll spend even more time interviewing unqualified candidates.

Automation is key to help make this step more efficient. Use simple yes and no questions in your online job application to see if candidates meet your requirements.

For example, you could use a basic script application with simple yes/no responses. If the applicant answered “no” to being available to work weekends, then they would automatically receive a decline email and filtered out of your pool of qualified applicants.

Using a multi-step application process will help filter your candidates even more, so you can find who your best candidates are. Starting with a short initial application, then advancing to a longer follow-up application for those who qualify, followed by a skills test will save time and qualify better candidates.

Another tip for filtering your candidates is to decide on dealbreakers. What are the must-have requirements for this role (availability, typing speed, bilingual, internet speed)? Any applicant not meeting these requirements should immediately be removed from consideration.

Also, ask another associate to be involved in the process. It’s good to have a second set of eyes to review things that you may not have noticed or that could be red flags.

When it comes to interviewing, using a video platform, instead of the telephone, will give you a better perspective on the applicant. Require the applicant to have their web cam on so you can see how they present themselves, view their work environment, and build a rapport.

Watch out for any lag in their connection that could present a problem in the future or any technical issues that could indicate a concern in working remotely and independently.

When you’ve filtered your applicants down, make a list of your top candidates and backups. Once you make your offers, you can move on to any backup candidates if any of your top candidates decline the offer.

Onboard New Hires

Do you have a documented onboarding process for new employees? The onboarding process is crucial to ensuring a pleasant new hire experience. Use paperless forms to speed up the process and avoid lost paperwork.

An employee handbook and policies help set employee expectations from the start.

Welcome your new hires and introduce them to the team to make them feel welcome and connected. Assigning a mentor is a smart way for new hires to build a rapport with a more senior employee and someone they may feel more comfortable directing questions to.

Schedule an orientation process to discuss day-to-day activities, communication tools, and other items. Make sure technology is properly setup and functional.

Train Staff

Simplify remote training with the right technology. Contact center software that is accessible through a web-browser makes working remotely easy, such as the Web Agent application which allows your contact center agents to work anywhere with an internet connection.

Record training videos for independent viewing. Use quizzes and exams to test the knowledge and effort of your new remote contact center agents.

Technology features like audit, barge, and coach are helpful during training. Supervisors or managers can listen to live calls and join the conversation when assistance is needed.

They can also speak to the agent to provide instructions or advice without the caller hearing them. Using a survey and scoring tool can help improve agent performance.

Engage and Retain Employees

Make your team a priority by scheduling regular meetings and follow-ups. Use this time to receive feedback on what is and isn’t working, re-train, and teach new skills to employees.

Offer incentives and awards to challenge and engage employees. Helping your employees grow and learn new skills also helps retain them.

A Better Experience

Hiring, training, and retaining new employees is a time-consuming process. Having procedures in place with technology to streamline the process creates a better experience for both the employer and employee.

You’ll not only save time and money, but you’ll have more success in finding employees that meet and exceed your requirements.

April Forer is the marketing specialist for Amtelco. Amtelco is a leading provider of innovative software solutions designed for call centers, contact centers, and enterprise businesses of all sizes. 

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By Tom Marsden

We all know it: call centers are a tricky place to work long term. Managing inbound customer complaints is no one’s favorite part of the job, and it contributes to the high stress levels often found in call center employees. This stress translates to high turnover; the average lifespan of a US call center worker is approximately three years, with a turnover of 33 percent. What’s wrong?

HR professionals would like to think they have employee attrition down to a science: measurements such as number of sick days taken, habitual lateness, and cohort analysis of average employee tenure can give managers a good view into exactly what is going wrong, but they don’t help explain why it’s happening or offer predictive insight for the future. The problem with these commonly collected data sets is that they rarely offer managers a real course of action and often actually make matters worse by confusing people with vast quantities of data.

Call center managers can use other information sources to get a better idea of how to prevent their employees from leaving so frequently. More and more business managers are waking up to the role social dynamics – often referred to as cultural fit – plays and how important it can be for achieving employee longevity.

Measuring Social Fit: When it comes to measuring the efficiency of workers, call centers have many data points readily available. Metrics such as number of issues resolved, customer satisfaction and average handling time (AHT) are widely used, but managers are much less familiar with the idea of measuring an employee’s social well-being in the workplace. This is a key mistake, as academics have noted that employees who fit in well with their job, team, and organization have greater job satisfaction, are more likely to remain in their organization, and show superior job performance.

Call centers have a reputation for being highly individualistic places to work. However, social connectivity is a fundamental and overlooked factor that can often lead to easily identifiable and desirable action. Social relationships formed in downtime underpin much of our mental well-being. Even in call centers – where employees are often alone while doing their work – if agents are socially satisfied with their surroundings, this is likely to influence their conversations with customers.

This is all fine, but how do hiring managers actually begin to measure social connectivity and fit? It starts by having open conversations with people from all levels of the organization about who is and isn’t successful at the company and why. From there you can start to build up a more thorough view of an ideal candidate. Practically speaking, it’s imperative that you take this information and use it to conduct cultural fit interviews with prospective candidates; a couple of minutes of chat on the phone is not enough.

You can make it more formal by bringing in social profiling surveys: data analysis of these results can form another “voice in the room,” aiding decisions over which candidate to hire. Surveys and algorithms have the benefit of being transparent; when a mistake is made, you can take a look at the process and find out what’s gone wrong. This is the opposite of the opaque, gut feel assessments that most hiring managers make when thinking about a candidate’s personal and social attributes.

Team Structure Shouldn’t Be Fixed: According to McKinsey, 40 percent of jobs in developed economies involve a high degree of collaboration. Teams give employees a motivational social foundation and an emotional support network for when situations get rough. It’s therefore important that call center managers put renewed emphasis on team dynamics – call centers aren’t as individualistic as people think.

Managers need to pay close attention to the day-to-day social functioning of their teams. This is easier than it sounds. It doesn’t require specialist qualifications or huge amounts of time. Managers can start by being socially observant, and they can use common sense to identify problem areas and potential socially acceptable solutions. Many companies are now choosing to take a more rigorous approach by incorporating data-driven personality testing into the mix, isolating potential problems before they appear.

Make the Most of Downtime: Your workers aren’t machines. They need some relaxation to get them through the day; otherwise their performance will suffer. Naturally this thought frustrates managers who would like their employees to be as productive as possible for as long as possible, so there is a growing number of companies that are now looking to utilize their employees’ downtime for good – or at least not let their employees’ inevitable breaks go completely to waste. One oft-cited example is Pixar. Steve Jobs insisted that all the office toilets would be located off the ground-floor lobby to increase the likelihood of chance interactions between employees in different teams and departments. Fast-forward a few years, and this thinking is present across much of the corporate world.

This same thinking applies to call centers: Managers should encourage teams of employees to take breaks together and socialize away from their desks. By doing this, employees will spend more time together, encouraging social bonding. A well-known MIT study recently tested this. By ensuring that everyone on the same call center team took a break at the same time, a bank’s call center AHT fell by more than 20 percent among low-performing teams, and fell by 8 percent overall. Canada and the EU have call center turnover rates of 25 percent and 15 percent respectively, lower than the 33 percent rate seen in the US. The work environment in Canada and the EU countries is more relaxed and flexible than in the US, which might be one reason behind the difference.

According to the Human Resource Institute, the average cost of replacing one frontline call center agent in the US can reach $15,000. There’s a clear business need to find the underlying cause of this problem. Attrition problems are unique to each organization; there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. However, with the right mix of innovations in HR, team structure, and more rigorous measurement, there’s nothing to stop call center managers from reversing the attrition trend and leading happier, more profitable teams.

Tom Marsden is the CEO of Saberr.

By Donna Fluss

Employee engagement is an important topic to me. Prior to becoming a consultant, I spent fourteen years building and managing contact centers, customer service groups, and other operating departments. I’ve seen firsthand the power of engaging my employees. The most successful and truly enjoyable departments I ran were those where my staff was actively engaged in all aspects of the business; they came in every day knowing they made a difference to our customers and the company. (In one credit card shop, this was reflected by an annual attrition rate of less than 7 percent.)

Employee engagement is frequently viewed as a soft topic. It is often overlooked because there is always something more important to do. I may be a contrarian, but I believe engaging employees is one of the most valuable and powerful investments managers can make. And when it’s done well, it can have an amazingly positive impact on the operating environment, employees, customers, and the bottom line.

Consider Zappos. There is a reason they are number one in customer service. Their job isn’t just to sell shoes and other retail products. Their job is to thrill their customers with outstanding everything: products, service, and anything else the representative feels is necessary to help customers, and management leaves it up to them to decide the meaning of help. These employees are empowered, and that is the key.

Here are some proven approaches for engaging employees:

• Listen to Your Employees: Invite employees to share their recommendations, and really listen to what they say. These are the people who are doing the job every day, and it’s likely that they’ll come up with ways to do it better. Create an environment that welcomes new ideas and demonstrates this by applying staff input and giving credit to the people who made the suggestions.
• Involve Them: Invite staff to get involved in activities that go beyond their primary job function. This encourages people to do more than just the basics, which is desirable in employees. Create an operating environment that welcomes innovative ideas and actions.
• Support Them: Be there for your employees, just as you want them to be there for you and your department. This means everything from just listening to them when they need a friend to supporting them when they come up with new business ideas. Help them succeed.
• Excite Them: Communicate your department’s direction and plans to your employees. Share what is happening and get them excited about the changes; help them see the opportunities that change and innovation can give them.
• Invest in Them: Give of your time, just as you want them to do for your department.
• Develop Them: Create a warm and welcoming operating environment that gives employees an opportunity to grow professionally and personally.
• Challenge Them: Give employees new opportunities; help them succeed and grow to the next level.
• Recognize Them: Recognize, thank, and reward employees for doing a great job; show your appreciation when your staff does outstanding work or comes up with a great idea.
• Celebrate Them: Celebrate every employee success, and create a positive and fun operating environment so that your staff enjoys coming to work.
• Respect Them: Show employees respect for the work they do.
• Compensate Them: Pay people for doing their jobs; use pay-for-performance to motivate and recognize staff for doing more than necessary.
• Promote Them: Whenever possible, promote from within the department; this goes a long way in demonstrating that your department and employees are appreciated by you and your senior management.

This is a partial list of proven best practices for engaging your employees. I invite you to send me ideas and suggestions you have used to engage your staff and create an outstanding work environment. Please email your suggestions to me at donna.fluss@dmgconsult.com.

[From Connection Magazine – Jul/Aug 2014]

By Robert Cowen

Two popular restaurants, Applebee’s and McDonald’s, both offer incentives to their customers. Applebee’s wants customers to complete a survey indicating how they enjoyed their meal. McDonald’s wants customers to eat at their restaurants more often. Speaking strictly from personal experience, the two restaurants take entirely different approaches to incentivize their customers, and I have two vastly different opinions based on my experiences. To me, one is definitely much more successful than the other. This can serve as a relevant lesson for contact centers and the incentives they offer their agents.

When your Applebee’s server brings your bill, it may include a request that you complete an online satisfaction survey. You will also be entered in a prize drawing as an incentive for participating. My recollection is a daily $1,000 prize or other items – an iPod, for instance. Often the Applebee’s manager visits your table to reinforce the request for you to complete the survey, almost pleading for your participation. I completed my first three survey requests (five to ten minutes each), didn’t win anything, and have not completed any more.

McDonald’s wants you to eat their food more often. They conduct an annual incentive program using the game Monopoly as the centerpiece. With orders of fries or other items, a peel-off tab may reveal a Monopoly property or an instant winning ticket for food or other items. It’s fun and a bit exciting to open the tab. McDonald’s claims that each player has a one in four chance of winning something. I have never received Vermont Avenue or the Short Line Railroad, but I have won fries and soft drinks.

Note the different approaches to incentives: Applebee’s uses a small number of large incentives. Based on my experience, I feel that my chances of winning are zero. There is no incentive for me to participate, regardless of the manager’s pleas. McDonald’s uses a large number of small incentives. I’ve won before; my chances of winning a small item are acceptable. I will continue to participate.

In the lobbies of call centers, I’ve seen displays of employee incentives that included a Jet Ski, a huge HDTV, a dirt bike, a Hawaiian vacation, an Xbox 360, and numerous expensive items. The next time you structure your agent incentive program, decide whether you should follow the Applebee’s or the McDonald’s model to elicit the maximum participation and KPI improvement from your agents.

Snowfly automated gamification and offered it as a cloud service in 1999. Snowfly improves KPIs by at least 20 percent (sales, availability, retention, adherence, attendance, call quality, turnover) and reduces administrative burden and costs. For more information, contact Snowfly president Tyler Mitchell at 307-745-7126 x707 (tmitchell@snowfly.com) or Robert Cowen at 248-324-1161 (rcowen@snowfly.com).

[From Connection Magazine – May/Jun 2014]

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By Abena Sanders

Harassment in the call center is disruptive to both employee morale and an employer’s bottom line. While sexual harassment has assumed a prominent position in the human resources lexicon – in part because of its overrepresentation in popular culture – keep in mind that illegal harassment may be based on any category protected by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, including race, national origin, disability, and age. At this point, nearly every employer has some version of a “no-harassment” policy or reporting procedure. However, merely featuring such policies prominently in an employee handbook is not sufficient protection under the law.

An employer may be held liable for harassment that is perpetrated by supervisors, co-employees or even by non-employees, such as customers and callers. According to the Supreme Court, general agency principles will determine whether an employer can be held liable for harassment, even by a non-supervisor. However, many courts have ruled that if an employer takes prompt and effective corrective action in the face of a harassment complaint, the employer will not be held liable. A thorough investigation is a key component of this process.

When an employee comes to a supervisor with a harassment complaint, it must be handled quickly, objectively, and effectively by the employer (typically by a human resources manager or office manager). While it would be impossible to address every fact pattern that could arise in a harassment investigation, an employer may be insulated from liability by adhering to five broad investigation guidelines.

Interview the Accuser

Above all, the investigation should begin almost immediately after notice of the complaint is provided to the employer. In a private place, a designated investigator should interview the complainant to obtain clear details about what occurred. He or she should determine the identity of the accused employee and ask objective “when, where, how, what” questions to flesh out the details of the incident. Whether the complaint involves offensive comments or physical contact, it’s important to obtain details about the nature and frequency of the occurrences, determine if there were any witnesses to the incidents, and find out whether the complainant has spoken to anyone else about it. The complainant should be assured that the matter will be investigated thoroughly and handled confidentially, without any retaliation (punishment or embarrassment) for coming forward.

Interview the Accused

Again, in a private place, the appointed investigator will conduct a similar interview with the employee accused of harassment, explaining the nature of the accusations against him or her and determining if the employee is familiar with the allegations. If so, the investigator should get specific details about the incident from the accused employee’s point of view and obtain specific admissions or denials of each allegation set forth by the accuser in the previous interview. If the accused employee asserts that the complainant is lying, the investigator will question him or her to find out if there is reason that the other party would make untruthful allegations. It may be useful to discover whether the parties had any romantic or social relationship outside of the employment setting. The employer might consider suspending the accused employee while the investigation is under way, particularly if the complainant feels threatened.

Review the Facts

In concluding the investigation, witnesses to the incident should be interviewed, as well as the supervisors for both the complainant and the accused. In particular, an employer should determine which supervisors, if any, have been alerted about the incidents. Once all of the relevant interviews have occurred, an employer should analyze the facts – including any investigation notes and documentary or physical evidence – for any inconsistencies or vague areas. The employer might consider visiting the physical site of the incident (if applicable) to see if there are any narrative points that do not “fit.” At this point, the employer will be in the best possible position to determine what actually happened, although this process can never be an exact science.

Determine the Appropriate Corrective Action

After the investigation, an employer must evaluate the facts with an eye toward effectively stopping any future harassment. Therefore, consider the severity and frequency of the conduct. For example, to a judge or a jury, any conduct involving physical touching will likely be seen as severe even if it only occurred on one occasion. Review the accused party’s file to see if he or she has engaged in any similar conduct in the past, which could be an indication it could happen again. In general – and in the eyes of the law – supervisors should be held to a more stringent standard than agents. In less serious cases, a brief suspension, demotion, re-assignment, or sensitivity training may be appropriate. However, if the conduct is serious and likely to reoccur, immediate discharge could be the only feasible remedy. Any corrective action taken should be thoroughly documented and include a summary of the investigation.

Follow Through

Employers sometimes believe the corrective action itself concludes the investigation along with the employer’s responsibility. This is not the case. Employers must also inform the complainant and the accused of the steps taken following the investigation. Furthermore, the investigator should periodically check in with the complainant to ensure the misconduct is not continuing. An employer should avoid any implication of being willfully blind in the face of potential future harassment.

Abena Sanders is with Fisher & Phillips LLP.

[From Connection Magazine – November 2012]

By Abena Sanders

In today’s overly litigious workplace, the act of terminating an employee has become a high-risk proposition. As the employment landscape grows bleaker – and the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) gets busier – employers must be careful to manage liability associated with a these stressful decisions by terminating employees the “right” way.

Discipline with Consistency: On a call center floor, the need for consistency in the application of policies can be amplified dramatically. Unlike organizations with mostly enclosed offices, on a call center floor every employee has a clear view of who does what, where, and when. For example, if your policies prohibit the use of mobile devices on the floor, employee X will likely have a keen sense of when employee Y is getting away with a rule violation.

Unfortunately, employees who observe favoritism or the inconsistent application of policies will consider the possibility of discrimination in the workplace. In a discrimination case, even if an employer’s reason for disciplining or terminating an employee was completely legitimate, the employer can still lose the case if he or she applied company policies unequally and in a manner perceived to disfavor members of protected categories (race, gender, religion, disability, age, etc.). When an employee violates a policy, investigate the alleged infraction, ensure that the employee is aware of the rule, and issue discipline consistent with previous similar situations. Training may be necessary for managers who are not familiar with the need for consistent application of company policies.

Document Your Decisions: Protect yourself in the context of an investigation or lawsuit by establishing a paper trail easily decipherable by a judge, jury, or investigator. While you may be convinced that your reason for terminating an employee is perfectly obvious and justified (“She committed time-card fraud seventeen times”), keep in mind that oral testimony after the fact is never as convincing as evidence of warnings and written documentation prepared at the time of the events. Prepare warnings, counseling records, evaluations, manager narratives, and unemployment benefit documents as if they will be attached to a brief as trial exhibits. Even oral warnings should be memorialized after the fact in a clear, concise narrative. During the course of your termination investigation, if you find that your documentation appears to be lacking, weigh the potential legal challenges against the documentation available.

Terminate with Respect: Kindness matters. Employees often approach the EEOC or an attorney less because they have identified actual discrimination in the workplace and more because they feel that their employer has treated them unfairly and ungraciously. The risk of further angering an employee in an already stressful position – thereby increasing the risk of an EEOC investigation or lawsuit – can be minimized by observing a few best practices. Choose a private time and place to meet with the employee and deliver the message with dignity (a termination on the call center floor or within earshot of other employees is almost never appropriate). Try to schedule the meeting during the last day shift at the end of the workweek, as this is often the quietest time. Have a manager or human resources department representative attend the meeting as well. When you meet, resist the urge to recite a “laundry list” of the employee’s shortcomings.

Many states require that an employer pay the departing employee all wages then due shortly after the termination. Determine how long you have to prepare the final paycheck under your state’s laws, and be prepared to deliver the payment on a timely basis. Communicate your intentions to the employee to minimize some of his or her anxiety. It is often advisable to have the final paycheck available on the final day, and most states require that accrued vacation pay be included in the final paycheck.

Particularly in the case of “problem” terminations, consider offering a severance package in exchange for the employee’s release of claims against you. While such waiver agreements cannot guarantee that that the former employee will not sue, they increase the probability that any such lawsuit will be dismissed expediently. Do not hesitate to consult legal counsel regarding your situation and any specific legal questions you might have.

The Aftermath: Post-termination, employees who have trouble obtaining other employment may blame you for hindering their job search by giving negative references to their prospective employers. Disputes related to negative references may turn into lawsuits under theories of discrimination, defamation, or intentional infliction of emotional distress, among others. At the same time, categorically refusing to say anything about the employee bears its own risks. Employers can protect themselves from future proceedings by writing a neutral reference policy to be uniformly applied. Where possible, management should consider designating one person within the organization, preferably in human resources, to handle all reference requests. In general, limit discussion of the termination to personnel with legitimate business interests in the information as opposed to gossip-seekers.

There are many factors to evaluate when deciding to terminate, executing the termination, and responding to inquiries post-termination. While it is impossible to create an inclusive list of everything an employer must consider, these tips should help you to execute and defend your termination decision with a measure of confidence.

Abena Sanders is an associate in the Atlanta office of Fisher & Phillips LLP. Her practice focuses on the representation of management in employment litigation and administrative proceedings arising under Title VII. Abena also counsels clients as to preventive measures aimed at reducing discrimination claims.

[From Connection Magazine – November 2011]

By Steve Michaels

Q: “If an employee signs a non-compete agreement and the company is purchased, is this agreement passed on to the new owner?”

A: The answer would really depend upon how the business was sold. If the business was sold as an asset purchase/sale (which is typical), the agreement would not automatically be assignable to the purchaser, even if the goodwill was sold as a part of the asset purchase/sale; the parties to the original agreement would change. (Please note that the seller could add language to the current agreement saying it was “assignable to a purchaser of substantially all the assets of employer’s business.”  That would generally allow such assignment to the new asset purchaser as part of the business sale.)

If the business sale was a stock/ownership interest sale (i.e., a stock purchase agreement or similar agreement where the ownership interest was being sold rather than the assets), the agreement would automatically follow through and be operative to the same lawful extent. In this case, the contracting parties do not change, and the agreement remains enforceable between the two parties (employer/company and employee).

A copy of an employee non-compete agreement is available free of charge from TAS Marketing.  This agreement was drafted by our attorney; however, you should consult with your legal counsel regarding any state law adjustments.  Just give us a call for your free copy.

Steve Michaels is a business broker with TAS Marketing and can be contacted at 800-369-6126 or tas@tasmarketing.com for questions.

[From Connection Magazine – May 2011]

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Learn more about the Telephone Answering Service Industry.

By Kelli Massaro

Retaining top performers is essential to call center success. The challenge is to create a positive work culture that sustains, nurtures, and engages employees – both as part of a team and individually. Retention is a multifaceted issue that is affected by both intrinsic factors (individual employee needs) and extrinsic factors (organizational or departmental systems that support employees). Retention strategies need to address both.

Intrinsic Factors

Individuals have several basic, intrinsic needs that must be met in the workplace to feel satisfied. As a manager, if you can meet these needs for your staff, you can positively influence retention. In many cases, nurturing good relationships with your employees can override the negative effects of extrinsic organizational factors.  Different things motivate different people, and you may need to use multiple strategies to achieve individual employee satisfaction and improve performance. In general, agents seek a mutually supportive relationship with their supervisor, a sense of belonging and security, a feeling of contribution, control over or input into decisions regarding their work, and appreciation.

Good Relationships with Supervisors: Employees desire good, fair supervision. After job fit, this is the second biggest factor in employee retention. Supervisors and managers who use a constructive “coaching” style when delivering feedback nurture growth and learning among their employees. Conversely, supervisors that “police” for infractions and shortfalls create fear and inhibit employees’ growth potential. Feedback should be timely and include both praise for things done well and suggestions for improvement.

Belonging to a Team is more than working together with a group of people. A sense of belonging is created when an individual feels a personal investment in the organization’s shared vision and works to better one’s self and the department. In a collaborative culture, team members participate in call center decision-making. Trust your employees enough to delegate projects and explore their ideas. Promote the feeling of “our” call center. Stay open-minded to new ways of looking at things, and take advantage of networking with other call centers to explore alternative solutions. This will push your program and your employees to new heights.

Contribution: Employees enjoy the opportunity to make a meaningful contribution to their workplace. Pooling the unique talents, gifts, and interests of team members creates an opportunity for each employee to excel and have unique ownership for a project or for the work itself. You should seek opportunities to specifically engage and recognize your employees in this regard.

Security is an individual perception regarding “safety,” whether it’s financial, physical, emotional, or a combination thereof. When security feels threatened due to lack of managerial support, lack of communication, or a number of other factors, employees begin to experience anxiety, stress, and dissatisfaction. Communicating regularly – and even more often during times of change – promotes trust and provides a sense that there is more within each team member’s control.

Control: Employees don’t like change when they feel it is “done to them.” Poor change management skills is a frequent cause of job dissatisfaction among call center staff. Change is much more palatable for employees if they have some input regarding decisions that affect those on the front line. Implementing change with staff suggestions in mind will achieve better staff support and results that are more positive.

Recognition and Appreciation: Recognizing a job well done and showing appreciation to employees on a regular basis goes a long way toward keeping employees satisfied. This can be done in small ways, such as a verbal “thank you” or a written note.

Although a powerful motivator, no incentive program can replace good leadership and management practices. The key to retention is attending to the basics: hire right, provide a fun and engaging “team” workplace, provide opportunities for employees to stay challenged and make a contribution, involve staff in decisions, communicate effectively, and coach with timely feedback. No amount of praise or rewards will keep and attract staff if the basic intrinsic needs of employees are not met.

Extrinsic Factors

To achieve a positive work environment, managers must purposely deploy a range of strategies that address retention’s multiple factors.

Hiring Right: Most call center turnover occurs with the first three months, so hiring well from the start is of utmost importance. Assessing job applicants for job fit and essential skills is crucial to help ensure that new employees are positioned to succeed. In addition, providing new hires with realistic job expectations, consistent training, ongoing mentoring, and social integration helps to support them through their development phase.

Addressing Extrinsic Retention Factors: A number of organizational and system factors influence your ability to affect employee satisfaction and retention. Considering how to maximize each element (as listed below) for your call center setting may increase overall satisfaction. Some items may not be within your control; however, many can be implemented without additional cost.

Compensation: Call center staff should be paid comparably to their counterparts in other departments. When call center staff are paid less, the workforce feels devalued. Also, perform marketplace surveys to insure that salaries are competitive with similar community organizations.

Opportunities for Professional Development: Encouraging staff to take advantage of continuing education can boost motivation. It can also help employees stay challenged at work. Positioning education and training as a privilege or benefit (not a mandatory obligation) will stimulate interest. If allowed to earn their way toward advanced training and awarded a chance to participate, staff will be more likely to attend and share what they’ve learned with their colleagues.

Career Ladders are useful for attracting new staff. The perception of advancement opportunities to positions such as team leader, senior agent, shift supervisor, trainer, or middle manager is important for retention. Rewarding top performers with a promotion, even if it’s not monetary, may be just as crucial to employee satisfaction as appropriate pay. In smaller call centers, the organization chart may be relatively flat. If advancement opportunities are limited, you may need to be creative in offering a lateral career path. Horizontal advancement that promotes employees to positions with new titles that offer new responsibilities, certification, or additional training (such as in computers, software, customer service, communication, or accounting) can be developed and used as part of an incentive and reward program.

Alternative Work Environments and Job Diversity: Telecommuting, or working from home, is an opportunity many call centers are eager to explore (or already have in place). The benefits are greater staffing flexibility and employee satisfaction, increased productivity, and decreased turnover. Another satisfier, as well as a burnout-prevention strategy, is exploring options for staff to work outside of the call center. Offering paid time for completing call center projects can unveil and highlight a staff’s individual talents. For example, a call center manager in Michigan stocks a drawer with one- to two-hour projects for staff to work on during lulls in call volume. The project materials and instructions are in a sealed envelope, along with a project “thank you” gift, such as gift certificate or movie tickets.

Schedule Flexibility: Call centers that help employees balance their personal and business lives with schedule flexibility positively influence staff satisfaction. Exploring alternative schedules – such as split shifts with telecommuting, creative weekend shifts, or working a “nine months on, three months off” schedule – can offer family-friendly choices to the employee. Customized schedule rotations and self-scheduling with a staff committee are other innovative ways to give employees input and promote positive morale.

Call Center Environments: The call center environment also affects staff satisfaction. Optimizing the physical environment based on employee feedback (noise level, workstations, ergonomics, lighting, and temperature) can help employees to be more productive and efficient, as well as preventing work-related injuries. (In one call center, the staff opted for “low-light days” for stress reduction. The center’s overhead lights are left off one day per week. Team members have individual desk lamps to use if they prefer a well-lit work area.)  Break rooms should be amenity-rich, convenient, and promote a “homey” feel. Many centers have quiet rooms (“No talking, please!”) for reading, thinking, or napping.

Promoting a relaxed work atmosphere also promotes positive morale. Do people have fun at work and enjoy being there, or is the stress and negativity palpable? Creating a fun atmosphere with perks like Pajama Day, Jeans Day, Ice Cream Sundae Day, potlucks, and birthday celebrations can contribute toward making the workplace environment a lot less stressful. And sharing humor on a daily basis reminds everyone to smile at work!

Recognition and Appreciation: Recognition for hard work is nearly as important to employees as receiving better pay. This illustrates that recognition can be a powerful motivator, and employees like to work for organizations that appreciate their contributions.

Incentive and award programs may be organization-wide, departmentally created, or a combination of both. Acknowledgment for an individual’s contribution can range from verbal recognition and small gifts (including nonmonetary awards and gift certificates), to pay-for-performance incentives or bonuses. Rewards can be tied to meeting individual, team, and/or organizational performance targets.

Call center manager Belynda Delgado describes her company’s incentive program that was started several years ago. The incentives tie into both individual and team performance goals. Monthly, she presents a gift certificate to the individual who best meets a specific performance goal, and she rewards the team for meeting team objectives. She sees the reward program as offering three main benefits: 1) a healthy competition between individual staff members, 2) a report card for team and individual performance, and 3) a means to improve teamwork and promote the team mentality. Each year, she also offers an employee bonus that is proportional to meeting both individual and call center goals.

She believes in showing her staff that she values them; she says “thank you” to everyone at the end of the day for the work they’ve done. This simple gesture shows that she is grateful for the many small acts that her staff performs every day. Sometimes the most valuable things in life are free!

Conclusion: Call centers should employ a range of strategies to create positive, fun, and stable workplaces. To foster optimal retention, the organizational culture should recognize employees as its greatest asset. By using tools such as employee-satisfaction surveys, exit interviews, and organizational culture assessment surveys, call centers can glean valuable insight into factors influencing employee retention. Implementing creative methodologies that address both system and individual factors involved in retention yield positive results and result in a more engaged staff. In turn, your staff will treat callers and patients in ways that positively influence customer service.

Kelli Massaro works as a triage nurse and is the communications director with LVM Systems; she may be reached at kelli@lvmsystems.com.

[From Connection Magazine – May 2010]