What tactics can be employed to try to reduce employee turnover in contact centers?

If you want to quickly, efficiently and cost-effectively hire Top Performing Contact Center Agents – those who will meet or exceed your expectations – those who have the Personality/Job-Fit/Temperament Factors for the job – and the ‘Telephone Personality’, Intellect & ‘Verbal Artistry’ to credibly represent your Brand – follow these steps:

1. Stop asking for Resumes up-front and instead start conducting ‘Voice Auditions’ with your Candidates. Regardless of what’s written in someone’s Resume – you need to ensure that a Candidate has the right ‘Telephone Personality’ for your Company & Brand. It’s very important that you hire Call Center Agents with a pleasant, clear speaking voice (power, pitch, pace and pause). Your customers want to speak with Call Center Agents who communicate professionally –who are easily understood - and who don’t sound like ‘script readers’. It’s only after a Candidate passes their ‘Voice Audition’ that you should ask for a Resume.

2. Administer Skills Testing to your Candidates. You need to ensure that a Candidate can demonstrate a minimum acceptable level of proficiency in specific areas such as: Names, Spelling, Comprehension, Typing Speed & Accuracy, Grammar, Audio Transcription & Data Entry Skills. But keep in mind that a Skills Test Pass Rate only increases the likelihood of predicting the long-term effectiveness of a Candidate for a Call Center Agent position to 53% - and that’s just a bit better than flipping a coin!

3. Administer a Personality/Job-Fit Assessment to your Candidates. Personality/Job-Fit Assessments are best at forecasting the future success of a Job Candidate for a Call Center Agent position. Candidates for Contact Center jobs need to have a unique constellation of Traits - and specific amounts of those Traits - in order to successfully complete the Job Requirements. A Call Center Agent’s long-term success depends much more upon Temperament/Personality/Job-Fit Factors than on Product Knowledge, Past Experience or Skill Set.

A Study on “The Comparative Validities of a Variety of Predictors of Hourly Wage Jobs in Reducing Turnover in New Hires” uncovered the following Results:

1. Interviews are a subjective and potentially biased process. Regardless of an Interviewer’s Skill – or a Candidate’s ability to present well – an Offer of Employment based on a strong interview alone only has a 14% chance of predicting the long-term success of a Candidate for a Contact Center job.

2. Adding Reference Checking only increases the likelihood of predicting long-term success in a Candidate for a Contact Center job to 26%. And we all know that it’s getting harder to perform meaningful & insightful Reference Checks.

3. Job Previews - via software-based call simulators - or Role Play - only increases the likelihood of predicting long-term success in a Candidate for a Contact Center job to 44%.

4. Skills Tests such as Typing Tests, Audio Transcription Tests, Windows Literacy Tests, etc. only increase the likelihood of predicting long-term success in a Candidate for a Contact Center job to 53%.

5. With an 80% Predictive Ability, Personality/Job-Fit Assessments are best at forecasting future success of a Candidate for a Contact Center job.

Top performing Contact Centers drive their Revenue & Performance through superior hiring tactics. We help employers gain better insight & more accurate predictions as to which applicants from a pool of Candidates would perform up to, or beyond their established standards. You can find out about a Free Trial of SPAS Call Center Agent Pre-Employment Screening Software at http://www.telesoftsystems.ca/64201.html

A proven way to reduce turnover is to provide customized training programs, not just at new hire, but ongoingly. This acknowledges the importance of their job and supports them, giving them the tools and techniques necessary to do their jobs.

The most effective way to reduce employee turnover is by making a solid commitment to their development.

With our company, it begins by asking the interview candidate to tell us what he/she really wants to do with their career. Often times potential employees are looking at contact center positions as the way to gain access to a great company with the hopes their career will prgress into areas where they have true passion.

We are upfront with candidates about this. We realize that no child at age twelve tells his/her parents "When I grow up, I want to be a customer service rep!" and openly embrace that. We make it abundantly clear to our employees that if they bend over backward delivering awe-inspiring service to our customers management will, in turn, bend over backwards to give them every opportunity to meet their career aspirations.

Knowing that one of my employees true passion is to work in the QA area of IT, we provide opportunities for that employee to visit the department, pair them up with representatives from that deparment when they come over to listen to calls, and even loan them to the group so they can build on their skill sets. When the time comes and an opening becomes available, department managers often come to me first looking for qualified candidates.

What I can provide are highly motivated employees who know our product and customers and have a good track record of "corporate citizenship". It's a win/win situation.

The results? Last year we turned over 20% of our customer support staff into roles of greater responsibility. And you know what else? Our average tenure is now pushing 2 years across the department. Even in lieu of getting a promotion, our employees appreciate the commitment we make toward their development and reward us handsomely with great service to our customers!