Thursday, January 23, 2014

Agent Engagement is the Best Call Center Investment You Can Make- Part 1

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By: Colin Taylor


Labor is the single largest cost in any call or contact center operating budget. We know that in any group of agents there are those who are engaged and those whose lack of engagement becomes a burden to those around them. But what have you done to increase the engagement of your agents?


Gallop reports that disengagement costs the US economy $28 Billion dollars annually, that a really big number, perhaps too large fore most of us us to understand what this means for our centers. So look at it this way, Gallop also found that only 30% of the workforce is engaged. The other 70%, more than 2/3 of your center, well 50% just does their job and goes home…nothing more, nothing less. The balance 20%, these are the people who are actively dis-engaged. They sit in your center and actively complain about the center, the management, the clients,and the job to anyone who will listen. This 20% is actively sowing discontent in your center. These are the ‘rotten’ apples that will spoil the bunch. So what can you do about this situation and how can you improve the engagement level in your call center?


This post is the first in a series of posts that looks at employee engagement and how center operators can improve the engagement and gain the benefits that accrue to organizations with a highly engaged workforce. These benefits seem to line up almost perfectly with the three most common call center operational issues of:

* Attendance/Absenteeism,

* Sick Days,

* Turnover,

Engaged workers take 43% fewer sick days, and are absent 50% less than the average worker. They also have a 56% lower turnover rate than the non-engaged counterparts.


So what are you doing to improve agents engagement in your call center?


Let us know the steps you have taken to improve engagement and watch for part 2 of this series to gain actionable ideas that ca help you improve your agent engagement.






via The Taylor Reach Group - Call Center Consultants http://ift.tt/1atcxER