Employees are the backbone of an organization, but what happens when they keep leaving? Employee turnover is the term used to describe the number of people who leave their company over a given period of time. The employee turnover rate measures how many employees leave and need to be replaced over time.
Call centers have higher employee turnover rates than many other industries. Research by Deloitte suggests that 63% of contact center leaders face staffing shortages. With this in mind, it's no wonder that employee retention is at the forefront of the call center industry.
How to Calculate Call Center Turnover Rates
Calculating your call center employee turnover rate will allow you to adjust your strategies to respond to an increase in employee turnover rate. The good news is that there is a formula that you can use to calculate this metric. Here are the steps to take when looking to calculate this rate:
1) Set your goals(s)
Before carrying out any calculations, you should determine what information you need. Are you looking at a specific team or department? Maybe you want to compare rates across the center according to times of the year? Is this part of your corporate performance management plan?
2. Define what employee turnover means to you
When working out call center turnover rates, some calculations will include any outgoing employee, no matter the reason or the circumstance. On the other hand, some will only include employees who have left willingly and need to be replaced.
To obtain accurate and actionable data, include inclusion criteria that reflects your end goal. This will allow you to clearly understand what the data is showing you.
Aligning your goals with your definition and criteria will make it much easier to get to the issue's root and develop appropriate strategies to counter it.
3. Choose your time frame
Employee turnover can only be calculated once you have determined a time frame. Again, this can change depending on the purpose of the calculation. You may choose to compare between particular times during the year or hone in on a specific department in a season within a year.
4. Use the formula
Now that everything is in place, you can use the following formula to calculate the turnover rate:
Employee turnover = (number of staff who left / average number of staff) x 100
The numbers you use will vary depending on your time frame and your end goal, which is why it is crucial to set those before approaching any calculations.
Why are Call Center Turnover Rates so High?
1. Stress
Depending on which department they work in, an employee’s typical day may include placing hundreds of calls to people who possibly don’t want to talk to them or are already frustrated troubleshooting problems with a product or service.
Employees working in the sales team and placing cold calls might face hostile behavior and maybe even verbal abuse. If there are no strategies in place to help employees deal with this, they will rapidly burn out and leave.
2. Lack of growth opportunities
Knowing that working hard can open up opportunities for career development motivates staff members to give their best. However, the opposite is also true. A lack of growth opportunities will make call center agents feel stuck and lead them to search for another position that offers more possibilities for development.
3. Isolation
Working in a call center can be very isolating. While agents place or receive calls throughout the day, they may not have many meaningful interactions. Couple this with a poor work-life balance and they will quickly burn out.
4. Poor pay
Poor pay is a surefire way to decrease employee motivation and satisfaction. Call center positions can be draining, and a poor salary will drive agents out of a center in search of more worthwhile pastures.
5. Lack of recognition
Feedback is important, and that includes acknowledgment when employees do well. Not acknowledging your agents or only providing criticism will demoralize them and drive them away.
The Problems with a High Employee Turnover Rate
There are many reasons call centers undertake action to deal with a high turnover rate:
Affects employee morale
Working in an ever-changing environment can be exhausting. It’s hard to settle into a position when your team constantly changes. Moreover, seeing employees leave can make others consider doing the same. After all, what message is being sent if employees don’t feel they can remain in the long term?
Impact company’s revenue
The cost of hiring new staff to fill empty positions is steep. The Society for Human Resource Management found that a new hire costs, on average, $4,700. From this alone, imagine how much of the revenue of a company with a high turnover rate must be reinvested into new hires.
Inconsistent quality of work
High turnover makes it difficult to maintain a consistent quality of work and disrupts the company flow.
Understandably, it will take some time for new employees to get to grips with their role and the responsibilities that come with it. While the employee who just left had mastered the art of dealing with customer queries, the new hire may still be asking, “what are call logs?”
This will also affect customers, who feel like they are communicating with different people with varying levels of expertise and knowledge every time they get through to one of the agents.
10 Ways to Reduce Your Call Center Employee Turnover Rate
Now that we’ve covered the issues caused by call center turnover rate, let’s dive into how you can reduce it.
1. Invest in employee training and coaching
Providing training and coaching for your employees shows that you care about their future and are willing to invest in them. It also means that development opportunities are available should they want to take advantage of them.
Part of your commitment to employee development includes ensuring that all staff are well-versed in your company's privacy and data protection policies. Utilizing a privacy policy template, can help you standardize this training across all departments, ensuring every employee understands their role in maintaining compliance and protecting customer data.
This is a win-win, as investing in your agents not only works to decrease the turnover rate, it also helps them develop as employees, which will ultimately reflect well on your bottom line. The benefits of this can ricochet across your entire business in the form of improved customer service, increased sales, and ultimately, increases ROI.
Tools and platforms are available that take the guesswork out of providing the right type of training for your employees. Plecto helps you invest in your team’s development by offering fun, engaging coaching and training that bridges knowledge gaps.
2. Hold regular feedback sessions
As we’ve briefly mentioned, feedback is paramount.
Providing constructive criticism will:
- Allow agents to improve their performance, increasing their sense of achievement.
- Show employees that you pay attention and care about their development.
- Help you identify knowledge gaps across departments and address them efficiently.
Providing positive feedback will:
- Boost employee morale.
- Lead to agents feeling seen and acknowledged.
- Motivates the whole team to strive to perform well.
- Let employees know what you expect from them.
Of course, how the feedback is given also matters. Some best practices are to balance constructive criticism with positive feedback when possible, so as not to demoralize the agent. Be clear in your communication, use positive and encouraging language, and when you can, give examples to show not only what could be improved but how.
3. Use gamification
Gamification - adding game-like elements to a task – is used in many companies to add a sense of fun to their work day and development.
With a platform that offers gamification, your sales department could set up friendly competitions with one another to see who closes the most deals that week. Badges can be awarded for various achievements, and leaderboards displayed for all to see.
Gamification can also be used as part of your internal communication strategies, helping your employees to feel engaged and minimize feelings of isolation.
For example, say your latest update is to increase operations in Houston, TX. You can use gamification to announce this update and any day-to-day changes, such as products targeted at the Houston audience or the availability of a 281 area code customer number. In doing so, you create a powerful way to get all employees on the same page in a way that’s fun and motivating.
4. Reward top performance
Contact center agents who are performing well should be aptly rewarded. This helps foster a performance-driven work culture across your center; employees will feel motivated to continue performing well. This applies to both those having been rewarded, and those seeing their colleagues be rewarded. Rewards can come in the form of gifts, recognition, or time off.
There are tools available for rewarding employees. For instance, Plecto has a reward store on which employees can select the reward that they want depending on how many coins they’ve earned.
5. Clear communication between management and frontline employees
Frontline employees work with customers or members of the public. Agents in call centers spend most of their time handling calls with customers. Establishing and maintaining a clear line of communication between those agents and management will provide employees with the support they need. Being able to approach management with queries, for help, and to discuss any issues that may have arisen can absolutely resolve problems at the root before they snowball.
Call center agents have to put up with many stressful situations, including verbal abuse and hostile behavior. To ensure the well-being of your employees, they must feel safe and supported enough to report such behavior to their superiors. Make sure there is a very clear channel of communication they can use to reach management and seek the help they need.
On the flip side, managers should also be able to clearly communicate with agents to provide feedback when needed and provide support.
6. Exit interviews
Exit interviews are held with employees who are leaving the company. It’s an important practice to implement, as it allows you to collect vital information that can assist you in improving the workplace for the agents at the center.
Some questions to ask during an exit interview are:
- What is your primary reason for leaving this position?
- How was your relationship with your manager?
- Did you feel like your workload was manageable?
- Would you consider returning to this position? Why/why not?
The answers to these questions can shed light on areas of improvement to address, and possibly avoid other employees leaving for the same reasons.
7. Flexibility
Allowing employees some flexibility when working can lighten their load and ease their stress.
Although keeping a close eye on your agents can be tempting, excessive monitoring can make them feel too much pressure and a lack of freedom that will likely drive them away. Easing up on the monitoring a little also sends the message that you have faith in your employees – it fosters a positive work culture based on mutual trust.
8. Work-life balance
Encourage your employees to maintain a healthy work-life balance. This is crucial in helping them stave off stress and feelings of isolation.
To do so, here are some of the things that you can do:
- Encourage employees to take breaks.
- Allow employees flexibility in their work.
- Provide perks.
9. Invest in technology
A great way to decrease employee turnover rate is to give them the tools that they need to do carry out their tasks and make their roles easier.
For instance, your sales team could benefit greatly from a sales dialer software that streamlines outbound calling. This would remove much of the frustration linked to manual dialing and allow employees to focus on other, more productive tasks.
10. Good salary
Investing in your employees is crucial if you want to keep them around. You should ensure they receive a salary reflecting their work and efforts.
Investing in creative automation to save money may be tempting, but employee retention should come first. Who is going to benefit from the technology if your employees keep leaving? Motivation is crucial, and a good salary is possibly one of the biggest motivators.
Keep Retention on Speed Dial
Struggles with employee retention aren’t new to call centers – stress, poor pay, and a lack of growth opportunities are some of the factors at play. Thankfully, there are many steps that you can take to reduce the turnover rate and establish a solid employee foundation.
Provide regular feedback, facilitate clear communication, conduct exit interviews, and introduce gamification – these are only a few of the methods you can put in place to overcome high turnover rates and improve your employees' experiences at your call center.
If you’re looking for a toolset that can take your retention strategy to the next level, RingCentral x Plecto is a great combination to implement for all call center teams and axe many of the elements that make call center work difficult without leaving you to juggle countless new implementations.
Sienna Chen is a dynamic Marketing Manager at RingCentral, championing inclusive and innovative marketing campaigns that resonate with a diverse customer base. With a background in both digital and traditional marketing, she brings a well-rounded approach to her role that elevates the brand and fosters meaningful engagement across various audiences. Her dedication to blending creativity with data-driven insights enhances RingCentral’s commitment to diversity and market success.
