How Do You Reduce Attrition Rates in Your Contact Centre?

How do you reduce attrition rates is a question that seems to be fairly frequently asked.

So we asked the question of our readers and here are all the answers that you need to know….

• Focus on the Following

  Attrition rate, also referred to as churn rate, is the rate at which employees leave the company.

  We can focus on the following to reduce attrition rates in the call centre: foster a pleasant work environment, appoint the right leadership, give employees creative freedom, prioritize professional growth, and offer competitive compensation and benefits.

  Thanks to Aoron

• Why Are Employees Leaving?

  My first question would be why are employees leaving?

  Is it positive attrition (promotions, moves to other teams to gain experience) or are staff leaving the organization?

  Exit interviews would be a place to start. Also anonymous employee surveys.

  I do not like book answers. You need to ask the staff, they will tell you where improvements need to be made.

  Thanks to Katherine

• Understand What Your Problem Is

  The first mistake is looking at how other companies tackle their problems, rather than understanding what your problem is.

  Ask leavers why they are leaving. Ask everyone else how they feel, if they plan to stick around, what’s working well and what’s not.

  Then listen to everything you’re being told and do something about it. It’s not an opportunity for staff to moan, it’s an opportunity for you to learn and improve.

  You can only solve your problem by understanding it, not by trying somebody else’s solution to a different problem.

  Thanks to Tony

• Analyse the Exit Interviews

  I think you start with analysing the exit interview feedback to get familiar with the shared comments and development areas on the process and the management practices as well.

  Making the right induction plan with space for the employee to get to know the real work environment in depth will reduce the attrition a little bit in the first months.

  Thanks to Mohammed

• Agent Empowerment

  I think the key to this has to be around agent empowerment, great quality ‘outcome focused’ coaching, and fully understanding the root causes of the pressure within the teams directly.

  Thanks to Paul

• The Right Leaders

  Qualified upper management, a good work environment, keeping the right leadership. People follow leaders. If you don’t have leaders there are no visionary leaders to follow. Show real professional growth, and conduct exit interviews

  Thanks to Walter

• Listen to Staff, Engage With Them

  Listen to staff, engage with them, get to understand their issues and whether there’s something that you can do as an employer.

  I initiated a forum where staff were elected onto a team that represented the employees. We met monthly, discussed issues and ideas, and when we could, we’d implement some proposals that proved to be a solution to having unsettled staff. We still had attrition, but we collectively addressed underlying issues.

Thanks to Jim

• Listen to the Staff from the Bottom Up

  Listen to the staff from the bottom up and not top to bottom. If they don’t give good care surveys there are reasons. Listen to the reasons and work with your staff to improve stats and morale. Also pay them their worth.

Thanks to lylia

• Understand the Needs of the Role

  Understanding the needs of the role and ensuring that the pay matches the work that they are completing. The first thing I convinced my new employer to do was to join the Living Wage Foundation, which was very well received – Attrition has reduced significantly and the team are more engaged.

  Listening – a very underrated skill – take interest in your staff – what are their likes and dislikes?
  Set up a development plan from day 1 and have honest and open conversations about performance. Ensure they know where they fit in the company “jigsaw”.

  Mental health awareness – Ensure that they know that they can talk about this in an open and honest forum.
  Remember it is well known that people leave managers and not jobs.

Thanks to Jo

• What (De)Motivates and Truly Engages Your People

  There is no substitute for learning what (de)motivates and truly engages your people then introducing meaningful changes. Great work/life balance seems to be on everyone’s mind at the moment so start with getting that right and go from there.

Thanks to Stephen

• Engage Earlier and Listen to Concerns

  All too often, I have seen companies wait for exit interviews to find out what went wrong. Engage earlier and listen to concerns and act on them or feed back why something can’t be fixed and try to find an alternative solution if possible (that’s on the basis you have “issues” causing your attrition).

  If it’s good attrition, i.e. promotions, progression or you’re the local company of choice for first/early career jobs, then embrace it and build it into your strategy as a positive PR story – just make sure you have a rock-solid onboarding programme, induction, and training strategy and most importantly, resource and leadership to allow this.

Thanks to Dean

• A Balance of Ongoing Training

  There needs to be a balance of ongoing training, both job and personal development, with opportunity for growth over time with a specific roadmap. Additionally, PTO needs to be easy to take without denials. These are just a couple of things that come to mind, so many more but these are two of the big ones!

Thanks to Jaron

• People Leave Their Job Due to Lack of Growth Opportunities

  The biggest reason by far that people leave their job is lack of growth opportunities. You may get people in the door by offering growth opportunities, but if you drag out the time until they get there or never provide the tools for them, that is the biggest way to lose people.

  To answer your question, positive leadership that reinforces their desire to want to encourage each and every rep and continues to work with the rep to help them meet their goals and get where they need to go is the best tool for attrition rates. If you are meeting your goals, then you are able to have personal growth and opportunities for advancement.

Thanks to Alison

• Do the Basics Right

  Do the basics right. Focus on people aspects.

  Provide them avenues and opportunities to learn and grow organically.

  Providing user/advisor-friendly CRM applications. You can’t expect results when they are struggling to find info and advise callers.

  Strive to make the customer journey simpler and this will indirectly help advisors due to simplicity of the process.

  Above all – treat advisors as humans and not machines.

Thanks to Alok

• Allow Opportunities for Growth

  Allow opportunities for growth. Create career pathing within the agent role. Provide stretch assignments, ask for and value their input and opinions. Give praise and recognition often. Allow for some flexibility in schedules to create space for work/life balance. Finally, revisit your salary structure and benefits.

Thanks to Aprile

• Without My Agents, I Am Nothing

  You train them well. Set expectations from the outset. Be grateful for the opportunity to lead. Treat colleagues with respect, always trust until they give you a reason not to. Give them the right tools to do their job, and always make their contribution feel valued. Without my agents, I am nothing.

Thanks to Mark

• Make Your Agents Feel Part of the Bigger Picture

  Make your agents feel part of the bigger picture, let them know they’re valued, listen to their ideas and always make time for them. The biggest asset of any business is its people, so make sure they are treated this way.

Thanks to Andrea

• Don’t Give Them Reason to Leave

  Don’t give them reason to leave; pay them what they are worth in the market, flexibility, good supportive & fun working environment/culture, development route & guidance….. the leader to give them what they themselves would like if in their shoes 👍🏼

  Thanks to Tanveer

Extra articles on attrition rates:

• How to Calculate Attrition Rate – The Formula
• Top 20 Ways to Reduce Attrition Rates in Your Contact Centre
• 10 Ways to Control Contact Centre Attrition