20 Mar 2009

16 Answers

1:15 is the recommended ratio (supervisor per agents) to get an effective performance and reach the results.

Comment by Firenze — 2 Apr 2009 @ 12:34 pm

Ask for a standard and you are most likely to get a range of answers. If you look at benchmark reports such as ContactBabel and Merchants you will find that practice will vary across countries and industry sectors. Nevertheless, in my experience, best practice is closer to 1:8 (and no more than 1:12), with allowances for the experience of both supervisors and team members and the organisations quality structure (i.e. is their a separate group for call quality recording and feedback and how does this interact with the team leader)?. If the ratio is too great the team is unlikely to be getting the coaching necessary for continuous improvement.

Comment by Mike Boyle — 3 Apr 2009 @ 8:59 am

I think in addition to Mikes point it should be said that if a TL has 100% of his time dedicated to leading the team you could probably do 1:15 but in my experience you get dragged into projects and other distractions. I think you need to factor those distracting factors in if you really want to set a base figure. Further there are other aspects (e.g. what’s your fluctuation, do you actually need to do IDPs?) .
There is a lot of stuff going into this so my guess is you’ll have to make individual decision rather than having a fixed number.

Comment by DocMors — 6 Apr 2009 @ 1:42 pm

Depends on the type of call centre and the parameters of the Team Manager, also on the structure of the business, call type/volume etc.

I’ve had a team of 25 and managed them all well, but in my current position I could only effectively have 18-20.
IMO, in large organisations that have quality teams, HR to hire, senior management for projects and WFM to run the centre, its alot easier to have a larger team.

Comment by Chris Roberts — 21 Apr 2009 @ 2:55 am

For call centers (ranging 50-75 agents), i think a team of 7-12 is always very effective. By effective i mean to give proper attention to them, solving their issues and simultaneously achieving KPIs of call center.

Comment by Nauman Cheema — 25 Apr 2009 @ 9:54 am

It’s dependant on the what the Team Leader role will entail. If you are in a contact centre which is very transactional based (i.e. directory enquiries) then the role may be more basic, general coaching, review of stats/KPI’s and attendance monitoring.
But if you are in a more customer experience, case management environment then coaching requirements are much more in depth, call handling, case handling, objective outcomes, impact on creating brand ambassadors. In this case I would recommend having a Lead Coach to support the team and the team leader but also a lesser team size.
As said in another answer you need to take into account, other projects, succession planning (both for the team and the team leader).

Comment by M Henderson — 27 Apr 2009 @ 1:25 pm

I agree that the number of agents will differ per team according to Call Centre size. Twelve agents is a good number to work with as team building can be done in a proper manner. Team leaders always get overloaded with other work and then they loose focus regarding targets to be reached.

Andries Venter

Comment by Andries Venter — 14 Oct 2009 @ 9:29 am

There are some interesting stats in an article that Mats Rennstam http://www.callcentrehelper.com/what-to-measure-and-manage-in-your-call-centre-6447.htm

This shows that the average is typically a ratio of 1:15. It also shows that The top performers all have between 8 and 15 agents per coach. This results in:

* 10% higher ready time
* 5% higher availability
* 5% higher FCR
* Lower absence
* More satisfied agents
* Higher competency

Comment by jonty pearce — 16 Oct 2009 @ 9:07 am

The standards any benchmarking exercise offers is purely what the majority companies do, or the average of all parties evaluated. The reality is that companies budgets determine the ratio – and in traditional customer service call centres where the area is seen primarily as a cost centre and not profit centre, scenarios such as 1:15 exist.

I was fortunate to recently manage a company call centre where the team leader to agent was 1:5 and what a big difference it made in morale, motivation and performance.

Mike B. most probably comes closest to given a balanced figure 1:8 and no more than 1:12 (although more than 10 is pushing it) – however it all comes down to the bean counters and how much you can push them – the less agents per manager the better the management and performance.

Observation – where I have seen 1:25 these have been where agents work shifts out of sync with each other and not simultaneously.

Comment by Darryn Havenga — 16 Oct 2009 @ 11:49 am

What do call center team leads do in details?

Comment by Gilbert — 3 Mar 2010 @ 7:15 am

Well I’m a supervisor who manages a team of 9 Advisors while we have one manager who oversees the 2 sets of teams and that works out great My manager only gets involved if need be.

The moral on my team is great we laugh and joke but they know the line and not to cross it which is the main thing

Comment by Brett — 30 Mar 2010 @ 9:24 pm

To answer the original question, after seeing what everyone else wrote, I just wish I had an opportunity to work in those situations. I started as a TL for Convergys corp and worked up to Operations Manager. For most clients, the ratio tends to hang around 1 TL for every 15 agents. What you will find, centers will push for more agents per TL, thus reducing costs. Effectively, 18 agents should be max. For a new TL, I would suggest 12, but we don’t live in Disney World.

Anyone that says less than 1:12 is not or has not really worked as a traditional team leader in leading outsourcing centers such as Convergys, Sitel, West, Teletech, Sykes, etc. Granted, KUDOS to those guys that got easy street with 5 or 8!

I managed effectively because of the relationship I built with my team, it boils down to just that. Anyone that says otherwise is a fool. You get more work out of your team if you assist them and help them when needed. TL’s that tend to hang out in the coffee/break room and sit and complain about the workload aren’t really doing their jobs. Been there, done that.

Now, what will you do as a TL one poster asked. I can’t say for every single call center out there, but expect a lot of call monitoring for quality, a lot of coaching and a lot of systems/reports. More than likely, you will run some sort of program/s that monitor efficiency on a day to day basis. You will also obtain reports regarding their efficiencies. Universally speaking, there is always things such as PTV (phone time variance), Schedule Adherence, AHT (average handle time) and probably most important, quality. Depending on what type of business it is, this is going to be the big thing there. Monitoring the calls, scoring the calls, coaching the agents for performance. Build a good relationship with your agents, let them know you care, and most of these fall in to place. Let them know what the metrics for your site are, show them where they are at, where they need to be and most importantly, HOW to get there. They will do it. Hope any of this helps…

Comment by Tim — 31 Mar 2010 @ 3:46 am

I was fortunate to recently manage a company call centre where the team leader to agent was 1:6 and what a big difference it made in morale, motivation and performance. If a TL has 100% of his time dedicated to leading the team you could probably do 1:15 but in my experience you get dragged into projects and other distractions. So, a team lead can easily manage a team of 8-10 agents with his/her full attention.

Comment by Yasser Altaf (Mark James) — 6 Apr 2010 @ 1:43 pm

I have project for call center 50 agents.
How many PSTN lines I need for them.
and what is the mechanism to know the requirements.

Is there any Mathematical Formula

Comment by Ezzat — 19 Jun 2010 @ 11:00 am

Yes the formula is called Erlang B. You can look it up on Google. A simple rule of thumb is 1.5 times the number of agents, so 75 lines.

Comment by jonty pearce — 22 Jun 2010 @ 5:26 pm

i am a new teamleader of 15 in a call centre the problem is i dont seen to have enough hours in the day to manage all my team,i am at the moment learning as i was a tele agent and was scounded, could anyone give me some tips on how to manage my time effectively and what makes a good teamleader the other teamleaders seem to resent me as i am into my 3rd week without help and have managed to increase my teams appointment and performace,we are at the moment for the 4rd week running the best team befor i took over as teamleaser we were the worse team can anyone give advise on how to stay at the top

Comment by wendy — 25 Aug 2010 @ 8:51 pm

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