The Benefits of Switching Up Your Agents’ Day

In many contact centres, answering calls all day with little change can lead to low morale and poor retention.

One effective way to improve agent engagement and reduce attrition is by increasing task variety.

Thanks to advanced analytics, contact centres now have more tools than ever to redesign workloads and create more dynamic, fulfilling roles for their teams.

To find out more, we asked Andrea Matsuda, Manager, Product Marketing at NICE, to explain how task variety, powered by analytics, can help tackle attrition, agent burnout, and absence.

Video: Tackle the 3A’s: Switch Up Your Agents’ Day

Watch the video below to hear Andrea explain how switching up your agents’ day can help tackle attrition, agent burnout, and absence:

With thanks to Andrea Matsuda, Manager, Product Marketing at NICE, for contributing to this video.

This video was originally published in our article ‘Tackle the 3 A’s – Absence, Agent Burnout, and Attrition’

Why Repetitive Work Reduces Engagement

Doing the same task repeatedly, especially in high volumes, can quickly become demotivating.

This is particularly true in voice-only roles, where the structure of the work rarely changes. Without variation, even the most capable agents may start to feel disengaged or burnt out.

Introducing different types of tasks into the working day can help agents stay focused and motivated.

It breaks up the routine and offers opportunities to develop new skills, which is key for long-term retention.

How to Use Advanced Analytics

Advanced analytics has expanded what’s possible in workforce engagement management. It allows managers to assign work more intelligently by considering not just call volume, but the nature and complexity of each interaction.

This is especially relevant for digital interactions, which are often asynchronous. Messages and chats may pause and resume over time, requiring a different type of time management than live calls.

With better insight into these patterns, managers can schedule work more effectively and ensure workloads remain balanced.

Blending Voice, Digital and Back-Office Tasks

In the past, front-office (customer-facing), back-office, and digital work were often managed separately. This made it difficult to give employees a mix of task types.

Now, with more integrated analytics tools, managers can bring these areas together and allocate work across channels based on time requirements and business need.

This means agents can move between voice and digital channels during the day, or even support back-office tasks when appropriate.

The result is a more varied schedule that not only supports productivity but also helps agents feel more involved and valued.

If you are looking for more great insights from the experts, check out these next:

• How Gamification Can Improve Scheduling
• How to Get Calls to the Right Agent, First Time
• 3 Common Problems With Data Handling
• How to Improve Adherence Without Adding Pressure

Author: Robyn Coppell
Reviewed by: Xander Freeman