Are your agents leaving and you don’t know why? With so many underlying factors, it can be a tricky one to work out!
That’s why our Editor – Megan Jones – spoke to our readers and consultants to pinpoint some of the key reasons why agents head for the door.
Are you seeing any of these trends in your contact centre?
10 Reasons Your Agents Are Quitting
1. Your ‘Accidental Managers’ Are Wearing Them Down
I’m sure we’ve all heard the phrase “people don’t leave organizations, they leave managers”.
Recent research conducted by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) highlighted that a third of UK workers have left their job because of bad management. Some research by Unmind also showed that 40% of employees do not believe their manager has the right skills to perform their role effectively.
These figures should not come as a surprise – with 82% of those entering a management position being classed as ‘accidental managers’ with no formal management and leadership training.
Contributed by: Gemma Carter-Morris, Managing Director at Next Steps Consulting
2. You’ve Set the Wrong Expectations During the Recruitment Process
Losing your agents, especially early on, can be a lot to do with the recruitment process.
We’ve learnt the hard way to be really clear with people about what the job is and what it’s like – particularly about the nature of the calls we get, as, in housing, the calls can be quite emotive and complex – including everything from domestic abuse, water gushing through a roof, or talking to somebody who can’t pay their rent.
This can be quite a shock for someone who has come from retail or banking where the queries can be a bit more repetitive. So it’s really important to work with HR and refine your recruitment and induction process. You don’t want seemingly great candidates to turn up, be unhappy, and inevitably leave.
Contributed by: Chantal Mitchell, Customer Experience Manager at VIVID
If you are looking for advice on improving your recruitment, read our article: 12 Effective Strategies for Successful Call Centre Recruiting
3. They Are Taking the Emotional Strain of the Job Home With Them
Many organizations are sharing that the number of highly emotive customer calls they receive has significantly increased over the past few years. These customers may be extremely anxious and distressed, angry and confrontational, or expressing thoughts of suicide.
Taking multiple calls of this nature can take its toll on agents. They may feel responsible for the customer and want to do more to help outside of their remit or job role.
They may be feeling overwhelmed with these calls and not feel they can step away from their desk to catch their breath or debrief to a colleague.
They may at times even take the calls home with them, weighing heavily on their minds and impacting their personal lives and their own wellbeing.
For many agents, the only way to rebuild their resilience and wellbeing is to leave for another role, often in a completely different industry.
Contributed by: Helen Pettifer, Director of Helen Pettifer Training Ltd and a specialist in the fair treatment of vulnerable customers
4. You Aren’t Taking Their Psychological Needs Seriously Enough
As humans, we all have core psychological needs. Also known as the Self-Determination Theory of Motivation, this theory argues that we each have, to a greater or lesser extent, a need for autonomy, competence, and relatedness.
When individuals don’t feel that their needs in these areas are being met – in life generally, or in work more specifically – we notice that we don’t feel as good as when they are met. This might show up as anxiety, resentment, disengagement, low mood, ‘checking out’, or frustration.
It doesn’t feel nice. And when things don’t feel good, we often act to make things better so that we feel better. One of these actions might be to leave.
To combat this, consider what could be done to improve each of the following.
- Autonomy – How much control do agents have over their work? Can they choose where they sit (if in the office), where they work from and when, the hours they do, the breaks they take, who they take them with, the type of customer queries they deal with, the training they can access, etc, etc? What’s in the realm of the possible?
- Competence – Do they know how they are performing in the areas that matter to them, and to the business? Do they get performance data at an appropriate frequency? How often do they get feedback? How good is the quality of the feedback? Are there opportunities for peer review and collaboration?
- Relatedness – How well connected are individuals in the team to each other? How well do they understand the purpose of the organization and their contribution to it? How well do their skills relate to the job they do?
And don’t forget your own psychological needs in all of this too! Get this right and the rewards are fruitful.
Contributed by: Nicola Callan, Founder & Director at Boost HR
For top tips to help you better support your agents’ mental health and wellbeing, read our article: 10 Wellbeing Tips From an Award-Winning Contact Centre
5. They Are Being Poached by Your Competitors
Often agents leave simply because other people want them – especially your good ones!
So, don’t bury your head in the sand. Be aware and work doubly hard to keep them! You really want your agents to be sitting there thinking, “I like it here, I’ve got my flexibility, I’ve got my career development, I’ve got my mates – so I’m quite happy here, thank you very much!”
Contributed by: Karl Fletcher, Resource Planning and MI Manager at Novuna
6. They Are Constantly “Walking on Eggshells”
Lack of trust, micromanagement, inconsistent feedback, and poor communication slowly eat away at morale. In particular, micromanagement destroys motivation. Google’s Project Oxygen even found it was one of the top reasons employees disengage.
Psychological safety – where agents feel comfortable raising concerns or making decisions without fear – is critical (yet so often missing!). If agents feel like they’re constantly walking on eggshells or that their input isn’t valuable, their emotional investment in the job disappears.
If your best people are leaving, the warning signs were probably there all along. The question is… Are you looking for them?
Leverage Voice of the Employee insights, exit interviews, Glassdoor reviews, and pulse surveys to get an honest read on what’s happening culturally in your centre. Spot patterns, identify leadership gaps, and (crucially!!) act on what you learn.
Contributed by: Rob Clarke, Director and Co-Founder of Elev-8 Performance
7. You’ve Repeatedly Missed the Signs of Their Languishing Behaviour
Make a big deal about the little things, before the little things become a big deal.
By definition, our best performers are at the top of performance lists. This can put a ceiling on where it’s possible for them to progress towards or what can be developed and grown within the individual.
One of the most influential drivers of employee loyalty and tenure is personal growth. Studies have found that talent management strategies focusing on employee development and clear career progression are positively associated with employee retention1. High performers are more likely to stay with organisations that offer advancement opportunities aligned with their personal and professional goals.
When the opportunity for growth and development isn’t present or available (or is present, but unknown how to access it), this can result in a psychological phenomenon called languishing.
This is a state characterised by a lack of vitality, stagnation, and emptiness2. It’s a feeling of “blah”, of “beigeness” and of low motivation. In this state, seemingly innocuous and insignificant factors – the little annoyances we all experience in life, such as slow password resets, someone parking in “our” space, not being thanked, etc. – become amplified.
Those little things become a big deal.
With all people – but particularly with high performers who may feel that they have reached a ceiling – it’s the little things that deliver the biggest impacts on behaviour and motivation.
Making a more purposeful, focused approach on recognition of behaviours and situations for those performers and providing small, meaningful opportunities for genuine growth (i.e., mentoring other employees, seconding for team leaders, exposure to other areas of business and leadership teams etc.) can help reduce the risk of attrition in our top performers.
References:
1 Narayanan, A., Rajithakumar, S., & Menon, M. (2019). Talent management and employee retention: An integrative research framework. Human Resource Development Review, 18(2), 228–247.
2 Keyes, C. L. M. (2002). The mental health continuum: From languishing to flourishing in life. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 43(2), 207–222.
Contributed by: Danny Wareham, Founder & Director of Firgun
8. You Aren’t Giving Them a Sense of Purpose in Their Work
Your agents really want to know what their purpose is and how they make a difference – particularly Millennial and Gen Z employees. So, help everyone to see “How do I make a difference?” and the wider impact of helping each customer over the phone.
It’s so important to give them purpose and connect the dots, because if they’re not getting that out of the role, they will absolutely vote with their feet and start looking for something more meaningful elsewhere.
Contributed by: Sarah Graham, Senior People Development and Training Manager at Ocado
9. They’ve Stopped Seeing the ROI on Their Efforts
Believe it or not, good agents leave based upon the principle of value, specifically the Return on Investment (ROI).
Employees invest time, effort, energy, intellectual property, and more into their role. So, when the investment is understood to be greater than the ROI, good employees leave. Call it whatever you want, the truth always comes down to observed ROI compared to the value of the investment.
Consider the following… I mentored under a highly skilled and experienced person in a call centre. She had worked for the company diligently and honourably for more than 10 years when I met her.
Changes to policies that she understood as part of her ROI placed her in a position where her investment, especially of intellectual property, imbalanced the value/ROI equation, and she left – realizing she had more value than the company was willing to honour.
Contributed by: Dr M. Dave Salisbury, COO at D&C Consulting LLC
10. Your Coaching Sessions Have Become Increasingly Aggressive and Punitive
It is important to know how to coach and uplift people, so that your agents leave each coaching session feeling empowered and with a desire to improve.
However, some team leaders and QA coaches deliver feedback in a manner that can be perceived by the agent as aggressive or punitive. For example, delivering coaching sessions that are too direct, too blunt, and hurtful to the agent.
It is important for the coach to know the agent and how best to give feedback, so that it is received well and doesn’t leave them heading for the door.
After all, the purpose of coaching is to take a person from Point A to Point B and not to punish, put down, or for the coach to show off how much they know!
Contributed by: Sangeeta Bhatnagar, SB Global Human Capital Solutions
If you are looking for ways to improve your coaching, read our article: Contact Centre Coaching Models: Which Is Best for Your Coaching Sessions?
The Key to Retention Isn’t Just Better Pay or Perks
If you’re struggling with high agent turnover, the reasons are likely hiding in plain sight!
The key to retention isn’t just better pay or perks, it’s about fostering an environment where agents feel valued, supported, and empowered.
That means investing in leadership training, setting clear expectations from day one, offering meaningful career development, and creating a culture where agents feel psychologically safe.
It also means recognizing that agents are constantly evaluating their return on investment, and if they don’t see a future with you, they’ll find one elsewhere, as Adam Boelke, Founder of the Alignment Advantage Group concludes,
“To keep your talent, their ‘intrinsic motivators’ need to be fulfilled. A mistake leaders often make is to think money is their primary motivator.
It’s true, their compensation does need to be competitive with the market in your area, but beyond that, they need a deeper level of motivation.
They need to feel they’re part of something bigger than themselves and understand how their efforts contribute to it.
They also need to feel a sense of self-mastery and forward progression, which doesn’t necessarily always mean promotions. Investing in their development to be more effective in their roles, both in and out of the office, can satisfy that intrinsic motivation.”
So, take a step back and ask yourself: Are you making it easy for your agents to stay, or are you giving them reasons to leave?
For more information on improving the employee experience and reducing attrition, read these articles next:
- How to Change Your Shift Patterns – Without Losing Your Best Agents!
- How to Offboard and Celebrate Departing Agents
- New Ways to Empower Agents in 2025
Author: Megan Jones
Reviewed by: Jo Robinson
Published On: 5th May 2025 - Last modified: 13th May 2025
Read more about - Call Centre Management, Adam Boelke, Attrition, Chantal Mitchell, Danny Wareham, Dave Salisbury, Employee Engagement, Gemma Carter-Morris, Helen Pettifer, Karl Fletcher, Leadership, Nicola Callan, Rob Clarke, Sangeeta Bhatnagar, Sarah Graham, Top Story
