Lifecycle Practice For Call Center Attrition
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The True Cost of Attrition
A Lifecycle Practice for Attrition
Executive White Paper July 2008
The True Cost of Attrition
Table of Contents Table of Contents................................................................................................... i Lifecycle Approach................................................................................................1 New Hire ...............................................................................................................2 Proficient Agents...................................................................................................8 Conclusion ..........................................................................................................10 References .........................................................................................................12
i
The True Cost of Attrition
By Matt McConnell Who cares about attrition? It depends.
If it concerns the effort involved in hiring 30-50 percent of the workforce every six months, human resources does. If it concerns the length of time it takes for new hires to become adequate, supervisors do. If it concerns how much all of this costs, operations certainly does. If it concerns the impact of attrition on customer loyalty, the executive suite should care about it.
What is becoming clearer to leading organizations is that the impact of attrition is usually underestimated because of multiple partial owners, but it is absolutely necessary to control. What can be done to manage this many-headed beast?
Lifecycle Approach The owner of the customer experience faces the greatest impact from rampant agent attrition and therefore should own the attrition solution. Studies show that poor customer service leads to customer defection. It is a fair assumption that a constant influx of new agents cannot provide the same level of customer service that a steady core group of agents properly hired, trained and coached can. These basic principles form the foundation for a practical approach to attrition across the lifecycle (Figure 1), an approach that rallies all the players around the same goal and measures their progress accordingly. Agent Lifecycle Retention Model
Figure 1
1
The True Cost of Attrition
The lifecycle approach is based on addressing different attrition factors at different stages of the agent lifecycle. Solving the challenges at each stage requires different tactics, but the underlying strategy for each relates to the larger goal of retention. In approaching each stage of the agent lifecycle, it is important to determine which of the factors the organization can or is willing to change. Attention to the fewest factors with the largest impact will yield the largest return, in the shortest timeframe. These few key indicators should be measured at each of the lifecycle stages, in addition to measuring attrition separately at each stage to get a true picture of progress. The best practices for attrition are outlined in the context of each stage of the agent lifecycle:
New hire Agent-in-training Agent on the job Proficient agent
New Hire Incorrect expectations, wrong skills and wrong personality “fit” are often given as the top reasons new hires leave the job, either voluntarily or involuntarily. In a recent survey conducted by Knowlagent, only pay ranked higher (Figure 1). The other three can largely be addressed by more effective screening during the hiring process.
Rank order the top 3 reasons for attrition. The agent has a poor relationship with the supervisor Other The agent does not have a clear career path for advancement The agent does not have the right knowledge and skills to perform the job
Number 1 Number 2 Number 3
The agent isn’t a good personality fit for the job
The job is not what the agent expected
The agent leaves to make more money
Figure 2
The figure below outlines a candidate screening process for eliminating three of the top reasons for new hire attrition. By obtaining objective information about a candidate early in the process and providing the candidate with expectations of the job, time is spent only with the candidates who are capable of doing the job and committed to moving forward in the process.
2
The True Cost of Attrition
This screening process has two components:
A Best Practice Process for Hiring
Figure 3
Candidate Learns About the Company Often new agents have no idea of the pressures, expectations and environment of a call center. Some companies try to address this issue by allowing candidates to tour the floor, sit side by side at agent desks, etc. For many this isn’t feasible, either because of customer privacy concerns or because of the time spent with candidates who may not choose to move forward. As early as possible, standardized details about the company and the position should be available to the candidate in order to help them determine their level of interest in the position. Key to this step is allowing candidates to experience a preview of the job by providing access to a realistic representation of the calls an agent receives and the actions the agent is required to take on typical and even difficult calls. This step of the process is best suited to the beginning of the screening process to minimize the time spent with candidates who are not interested in being considered. Company Learns About the Candidate The objective of the early screening process for the company is to learn if the candidate meets minimum requirements, and assessments provide the most objective way to determine that.
3
The True Cost of Attrition
Although many companies use assessments, they are typically at the end of the process, after recruiters and hiring managers have invested time in a candidate. A more effective use of assessments is to screen multiple candidates, not to confirm or invalidate a decision on one. The key assessments in this process are for personality and cognitive fit and base skill level. Personality Personality fit is uncertain ground with many hiring managers. This is because often the attributes that are being hired for are not truly personality traits, but general, hard to measure characteristics like “customer-service focused” or “friendly.” Additionally, when assessments or other methods are used to determine personality, they typically try to find people who most closely match high performers. This approach is risky as pin-pointing the reasons for a star agent’s success is much more difficult than naming the characteristics that make low performers fail. A simpler approach is to determine what makes a candidate more likely to fail. By testing and placing existing average and high performers in one group and low performers in another, it becomes clear that a few traits are prevalent among low performers and rarer in average and high performers. The distinction between high and average performers is more difficult to ascertain as additional factors play a role in what makes a star among agents. Thus screening out those who are unlikely to be successful leaves a pool of capable candidates. Base Skill Level If a candidate doesn’t possess the minimum requirements needed for the job, that candidate is set up for failure. Assessments of some type are often used to try and determine who has the basic skills to perform the job. Skills assessment thresholds should be based on existing high, average and low performers. Setting thresholds too high may exclude too many viable candidates, and setting them too low may include too many with a high chance of failure. The right threshold is based on an individual skill’s correlation to performance as well as its relative importance to the business.
New Hire Retention Plan Key Questions What skills are basic requirements? What skills can I train? Which few traits prevent success? What is my decision process for retention-based hiring? Key Measurements Compliance to hiring process New hire attrition Early performance data
Agent-in-Training Once expectations and fit are addressed, the biggest risks to attrition and performance for agents-in-training are related to on boarding and the nesting environment. If agents are unprepared and are not able to perform to standards out of new hire training, they become an attrition risk. If new hire training takes too long, costs become unmanageable. The key is balancing these two concerns. With an overall retention goal across all stages of the agent lifecycle, new hire training should be linked to how an organization hires and be based both on the profile hired against and the individual needs. Layering new hire training in this way meets the needs of both cost and proper preparation.
4
The True Cost of Attrition
Preparing and Positioning New Agents for Retention
Figure 4 Layer One – Cognitive Profile and Skill Thresholds Using an example profile of a hiring company, let’s take one of the trait components and one of the skill components to take through this first layer. This example model identifies and excludes fast learners as a high attrition risk since they may quickly become bored with the routine calls at this center. It also has a critical skill need for listening and typing. The new hire training based on this profile might be a week longer than another similar job because the profile eliminates fast learners, and the Agent-in-Training Retention Plan agents hired would need the additional time to Key Questions understand and practice the concepts covered. A high In what areas is the agent already threshold on listening and typing would ensure that prepared? new hires come in with an appropriate level of these Which content covers 90% of skills and could therefore begin learning the calls? applications and specific call flows right away. What training will be online? What practice will be simulated? Layer Two – Individual Assessment Results Key Measurements At the individual level, hiring assessment results Time to proficiency coupled with training pre-testing enable organizations Day one performance to move away from “one size fits all” new hire training. Early attrition By creating tracks or paths within the new hire curriculum, new agents who have more skills and experience can “test out” of particular areas and be placed into nesting and move to the floor more quickly.
5
The True Cost of Attrition
Adopting a blended learning approach in new hire training is key to making these paths of learning logistically possible. Additionally, offering both instructor-led and e-learning means that the learning style needs of more new hires are met. As new hires gain increased confidence in this more “individualized” approach, early attrition is reduced.
Agents on the Job Performance Link Once agents are on the floor, performance shares a symbiotic role with attrition. More than 250 call center leaders responding to a survey Knowlagent conducted in the second quarter of 2008 indicated that low performers make up almost 50 percent of overall attrition.
Estimate the percentage each group contributes to your overall attrition.
Highest performers
Average performers
Lowest performers
19%
33%
48%
Figure 5 This high percentage of low performers proves a commonsense view most people have about performance and attrition. People do not like to fail. Therefore, when agents lack confidence in their ability, they are more likely to attrite. And obviously, low performers are more subject to involuntary attrition. The call center is a dynamic environment with customer service level driving many of the day-to-day decisions on the floor. When training is scheduled, it is often canceled due to call volume demands. Low performers already struggling become more overwhelmed as policies and procedures change, new products are rolled out, etc. This environment makes it difficult, if not impossible, to move lower performers along the performance curve (Figure 6), thus contributing to the ongoing battle with attrition. Moving the Performance Curve
Figure 6 6
The True Cost of Attrition
For those low performers who cannot be moved along the curve with training because of traits or other factors, it is probably beneficial that they attrit and are replaced with better fit agents who will be more likely to stay. As hiring efforts focus on screening out poor fits from the start, more average and high performers join. So how do you improve the performance of the agents on the floor given the aforementioned challenges of the call center environment?
Best Practice Training The best practices for improving performance form the foundation for improving satisfaction and ultimately retention. Since changing behavior is the only way to achieve sustainable results, all of the following principles are geared to that end. These principles are illustrated below (Figure 7). Training to High Performance for Retention
Figure 7 Frequent Too often training is an infrequent occasion as opposed to a consistent, systemic part of the call center operation. In a recent survey by Knowlagent, almost 40 percent of call centers reported training agents between one and four times a year. Many centers provide agents with access to a learning management system or knowledge base with the hopes that agents will go get the information and knowledge they need. Considering the enormous pressures to meet service levels, it isn’t hard to figure out why so much of what is scheduled doesn’t occur and why agents don’t often take the initiative to get the information they need before they need it. The underutilized asset in this equation is downtime between calls. Pushing training to the agent desktop during small pockets of downtime is the only way to ensure training happens frequently.
7
The True Cost of Attrition
Targeted Even if training is provided frequently, a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t provide maximum value. If the center and the agent invest time in training, it should meet the needs of both. An agent does not want to be trained on something that isn’t relevant to their needs, and the center doesn’t want to train an agent on an area at which he or she excels if there is another area that needs improving. Basing individualized training on performance meets the targeted criteria and provides the highest value. Easy to Digest & Apply Immediately Adult learning theory asserts that short learning interventions that can be immediately applied have the best chance at retention. This concept is clearly important in a fast-paced environment like the call center where the unplanned nature of calls gives agents less control over their day than most. A 15-minute learning break allows a short respite for some targeted information that is used on the next call for maximum reinforcement. Measurable Impact One of the keys to success in any endeavor is measurement, and nowhere is a culture of measurement more prevalent than the call center. Giving all players a view to their performance, and an Agents on the Job Retention understanding of how they impact that performance Plan through training, provides the measurement and Key Questions guidance needed to underpin a successful How do I prioritize training? performance improvement initiative at the individual How do I make training relevant? agent level. How do I make training stick? How do I ensure consistency in Consistent training and communications? Consistency has two applications in this context. The importance of regular communications cannot be Key Measurements overestimated in keeping agents informed and Amount of training delivered engaged. Additionally, the consistency of message in Low performers moved to average those communications and training is important. Eperformers learning provides a conduit for regular Training directly linked to communications and removes the possibility of performance improvements different teams getting different messages or levels of Mid-stage attrition information from supervisors, team members or even trainers.
Proficient Agents Study after study shows that the supervisor-agent relationship has one of the largest impacts on retention. Additionally most supervisors were high-performing agents who were promoted to supervisor, without much training in how to manage and coach performance. Many supervisors attest to being overwhelmed with the administrative burden of the job, which leaves little time for coaching. In a survey on coaching conducted by Knowlagent, 71 percent felt they did not have sufficient time to coach every day, with 80 percent spending less than two hours a day on all coaching activity. In instances where there is performance coaching, it is typically not consistent from team to team. These facts add up to a setting where agents feel that they lack a supervisor who can truly foster their performance. A common result is that agents leave just when the center has invested the most in them, and that investment is paying the highest returns.
8
The True Cost of Attrition
Best Practice Coaching The foundation for coaching outlined here is based on the key principles needed to change behavior though coaching in the call center in order to improve performance, satisfaction and retention (Figure 8). Best Practice Coaching Forms Performance Partnership
Figure 8 True Coaching What gets called coaching on many teams is really managing without much guidance on improvement. Eighty percent of executives in a study by Knowlagent indicated that they do not believe supervisors have all the right skills for coaching. Because they lack the experience and often the training to do so, supervisors rarely have the skills to coach for improved performance and behavior change. Improving these skills with training is critical to making an impact on performance and attrition. Targeted By its nature, coaching should be targeted, but it’s difficult for supervisors to keep up with all team members’ performance and customize coaching accordingly. By linking to KPI’s, coaching instances can be targeted to performance trends that indicate problems as well as those that indicate opportunities for enhanced performance. Supervisors with access to personality assessment results can even leverage that information to help them tailor their coaching. Frequent The demands on a supervisor’s time are many. And often the lower performing agents take up a disproportionate amount of that time. To meet the needs of all experienced agents, time must be uncovered and exploited for both agents and coaches to interact on performance problems as well as enhancement opportunities. Finding pockets of call volume downtime for agents and available time for supervisors to meet and work on coaching plans and activities creates the time needed to provide frequent coaching.
9
The True Cost of Attrition
Actionable Unless it is actionable, much of what is called coaching is merely advice, perhaps applicable, perhaps soon, perhaps not. Basing coaching on the call flow creates actionable coaching. The steps to this process are: 1. Break the call down into key steps. 2. Identify the step where the agent struggles. 3. Identify the behaviors needed to execute the step successfully. 4. Develop a plan to change those behaviors. Using this process provides a clear context and specific actions. Consistent Because most coaching happens on an ad-hoc basis, similarly performing agents can receive very different types and levels of coaching. Nearly 50 percent of supervisors surveyed can not define their coaching process. Creating standards and baking them into center processes ensures that agent performance and retention efforts are individualized to needs and achieve consistency in application. Measurable Even though it is one of the greatest points of leverage with the agent, coaching is largely unmeasured, an anomaly in the call center. By embedding a measurement system that shows how much, who and what is getting coached as well as its link to performance, constant improvement through coaching becomes systemic in the center. Individual Accountability With the experienced agent, training results may reach a plateau, and more individual plans might be required to reach higher levels of performance. But without a skilled coach and without a mechanism to take ownership for increasing performance, proficient agents may be left adrift, becoming dissatisfied with the prospects for improvement and/or advancement. There are areas where agents can work independently to improve, and in others, they may require supervisor intervention to get the full benefit of coaching. Creating a partnership for performance between the agent and the supervisor provides the ownership needed at a more experienced agent level and provides a framework for creating and sustaining improvement.
Proficient Agents Retention Plan Key Questions Are my supervisors prepared to coach? How targeted and actionable is coaching? Is coaching consistent across supervisors? How often do supervisors coach? Do agents have a mechanism to take ownership for performance improvement? Key Measurements Compliance to coaching processes Time spent in coaching Problem coaching vs. enhancement coaching Performance changes directly linked to coaching Proficient agent attrition
Conclusion The impact of agent attrition is felt in many areas of an organization, but rather than galvanizing efforts to reduce attrition, this situation often leads to silo efforts and unclear expectations across the organization. Once the scope and scale of the problem is acknowledged, a central goal organizes the efforts carried out across the lifecycle of the agent.
10
The True Cost of Attrition
These efforts can be summarized as: New Hire
Stop hiring the wrong candidates by utilizing the right information as early as possible.
Agent-in-Training
Give agents the best chance to succeed with the right preparation.
Agent on the Job
Create satisfaction by improving performance.
Proficient Agents
Enable supervisors to partner with agents to provide meaningful coaching and strong relationships. Agent Lifecycle Retention Model
Figure 10 Key to each of these steps along the lifecycle is asking important, foundational questions that help uncover contributing factors to attrition and determining which of those have the most impact on the problem. Focusing efforts on those key areas will yield the most results, and the measurement of the progress against those key areas ensures that the most important lead indicators receive the right level of focus. With a central goal coupled with a focused approach to reducing attrition across the agent lifecycle, all of the key stakeholders involved in the customer experience will see improvement in each of their arenas of focus as well as an overall improvement that benefits the entire organization.
11
The True Cost of Attrition
About Knowlagent Knowlagent’s on-demand agent management solutions ensure you get the right people on your team and keep them there. Knowlagent’s solutions are designed to impact early, mid and late stage attrition by hiring the right agents, placing them where they will be most successful, and ensuring they perform at the highest levels. By automating traditional call center management processes, Knowlagent’s solutions for training, coaching and hiring reduce spending attributed to off-phone activities while improving the key metrics that matter most to you. With Knowlagent, you can optimize frontline performance faster and more affordably than ever before. You can spend less and get better.
References Teodoru, S (2007). Satisfaction with contact centers drives customer loyalty. Contact Center Satisfaction Index, 1, Retrieved September 1, 2007, from http://cfigroup.com Knowlagent. (2005). Coachpalooza: a call center focus group series summary report (1st ed.) [White Paper]. Alpharetta, GA: Debbie Qaqish & Dwight Lucas.
12
A Lifecycle Practice for Attrition
Executive White Paper July 2008
The True Cost of Attrition
Table of Contents Table of Contents................................................................................................... i Lifecycle Approach................................................................................................1 New Hire ...............................................................................................................2 Proficient Agents...................................................................................................8 Conclusion ..........................................................................................................10 References .........................................................................................................12
i
The True Cost of Attrition
By Matt McConnell Who cares about attrition? It depends.
If it concerns the effort involved in hiring 30-50 percent of the workforce every six months, human resources does. If it concerns the length of time it takes for new hires to become adequate, supervisors do. If it concerns how much all of this costs, operations certainly does. If it concerns the impact of attrition on customer loyalty, the executive suite should care about it.
What is becoming clearer to leading organizations is that the impact of attrition is usually underestimated because of multiple partial owners, but it is absolutely necessary to control. What can be done to manage this many-headed beast?
Lifecycle Approach The owner of the customer experience faces the greatest impact from rampant agent attrition and therefore should own the attrition solution. Studies show that poor customer service leads to customer defection. It is a fair assumption that a constant influx of new agents cannot provide the same level of customer service that a steady core group of agents properly hired, trained and coached can. These basic principles form the foundation for a practical approach to attrition across the lifecycle (Figure 1), an approach that rallies all the players around the same goal and measures their progress accordingly. Agent Lifecycle Retention Model
Figure 1
1
The True Cost of Attrition
The lifecycle approach is based on addressing different attrition factors at different stages of the agent lifecycle. Solving the challenges at each stage requires different tactics, but the underlying strategy for each relates to the larger goal of retention. In approaching each stage of the agent lifecycle, it is important to determine which of the factors the organization can or is willing to change. Attention to the fewest factors with the largest impact will yield the largest return, in the shortest timeframe. These few key indicators should be measured at each of the lifecycle stages, in addition to measuring attrition separately at each stage to get a true picture of progress. The best practices for attrition are outlined in the context of each stage of the agent lifecycle:
New hire Agent-in-training Agent on the job Proficient agent
New Hire Incorrect expectations, wrong skills and wrong personality “fit” are often given as the top reasons new hires leave the job, either voluntarily or involuntarily. In a recent survey conducted by Knowlagent, only pay ranked higher (Figure 1). The other three can largely be addressed by more effective screening during the hiring process.
Rank order the top 3 reasons for attrition. The agent has a poor relationship with the supervisor Other The agent does not have a clear career path for advancement The agent does not have the right knowledge and skills to perform the job
Number 1 Number 2 Number 3
The agent isn’t a good personality fit for the job
The job is not what the agent expected
The agent leaves to make more money
Figure 2
The figure below outlines a candidate screening process for eliminating three of the top reasons for new hire attrition. By obtaining objective information about a candidate early in the process and providing the candidate with expectations of the job, time is spent only with the candidates who are capable of doing the job and committed to moving forward in the process.
2
The True Cost of Attrition
This screening process has two components:
A Best Practice Process for Hiring
Figure 3
Candidate Learns About the Company Often new agents have no idea of the pressures, expectations and environment of a call center. Some companies try to address this issue by allowing candidates to tour the floor, sit side by side at agent desks, etc. For many this isn’t feasible, either because of customer privacy concerns or because of the time spent with candidates who may not choose to move forward. As early as possible, standardized details about the company and the position should be available to the candidate in order to help them determine their level of interest in the position. Key to this step is allowing candidates to experience a preview of the job by providing access to a realistic representation of the calls an agent receives and the actions the agent is required to take on typical and even difficult calls. This step of the process is best suited to the beginning of the screening process to minimize the time spent with candidates who are not interested in being considered. Company Learns About the Candidate The objective of the early screening process for the company is to learn if the candidate meets minimum requirements, and assessments provide the most objective way to determine that.
3
The True Cost of Attrition
Although many companies use assessments, they are typically at the end of the process, after recruiters and hiring managers have invested time in a candidate. A more effective use of assessments is to screen multiple candidates, not to confirm or invalidate a decision on one. The key assessments in this process are for personality and cognitive fit and base skill level. Personality Personality fit is uncertain ground with many hiring managers. This is because often the attributes that are being hired for are not truly personality traits, but general, hard to measure characteristics like “customer-service focused” or “friendly.” Additionally, when assessments or other methods are used to determine personality, they typically try to find people who most closely match high performers. This approach is risky as pin-pointing the reasons for a star agent’s success is much more difficult than naming the characteristics that make low performers fail. A simpler approach is to determine what makes a candidate more likely to fail. By testing and placing existing average and high performers in one group and low performers in another, it becomes clear that a few traits are prevalent among low performers and rarer in average and high performers. The distinction between high and average performers is more difficult to ascertain as additional factors play a role in what makes a star among agents. Thus screening out those who are unlikely to be successful leaves a pool of capable candidates. Base Skill Level If a candidate doesn’t possess the minimum requirements needed for the job, that candidate is set up for failure. Assessments of some type are often used to try and determine who has the basic skills to perform the job. Skills assessment thresholds should be based on existing high, average and low performers. Setting thresholds too high may exclude too many viable candidates, and setting them too low may include too many with a high chance of failure. The right threshold is based on an individual skill’s correlation to performance as well as its relative importance to the business.
New Hire Retention Plan Key Questions What skills are basic requirements? What skills can I train? Which few traits prevent success? What is my decision process for retention-based hiring? Key Measurements Compliance to hiring process New hire attrition Early performance data
Agent-in-Training Once expectations and fit are addressed, the biggest risks to attrition and performance for agents-in-training are related to on boarding and the nesting environment. If agents are unprepared and are not able to perform to standards out of new hire training, they become an attrition risk. If new hire training takes too long, costs become unmanageable. The key is balancing these two concerns. With an overall retention goal across all stages of the agent lifecycle, new hire training should be linked to how an organization hires and be based both on the profile hired against and the individual needs. Layering new hire training in this way meets the needs of both cost and proper preparation.
4
The True Cost of Attrition
Preparing and Positioning New Agents for Retention
Figure 4 Layer One – Cognitive Profile and Skill Thresholds Using an example profile of a hiring company, let’s take one of the trait components and one of the skill components to take through this first layer. This example model identifies and excludes fast learners as a high attrition risk since they may quickly become bored with the routine calls at this center. It also has a critical skill need for listening and typing. The new hire training based on this profile might be a week longer than another similar job because the profile eliminates fast learners, and the Agent-in-Training Retention Plan agents hired would need the additional time to Key Questions understand and practice the concepts covered. A high In what areas is the agent already threshold on listening and typing would ensure that prepared? new hires come in with an appropriate level of these Which content covers 90% of skills and could therefore begin learning the calls? applications and specific call flows right away. What training will be online? What practice will be simulated? Layer Two – Individual Assessment Results Key Measurements At the individual level, hiring assessment results Time to proficiency coupled with training pre-testing enable organizations Day one performance to move away from “one size fits all” new hire training. Early attrition By creating tracks or paths within the new hire curriculum, new agents who have more skills and experience can “test out” of particular areas and be placed into nesting and move to the floor more quickly.
5
The True Cost of Attrition
Adopting a blended learning approach in new hire training is key to making these paths of learning logistically possible. Additionally, offering both instructor-led and e-learning means that the learning style needs of more new hires are met. As new hires gain increased confidence in this more “individualized” approach, early attrition is reduced.
Agents on the Job Performance Link Once agents are on the floor, performance shares a symbiotic role with attrition. More than 250 call center leaders responding to a survey Knowlagent conducted in the second quarter of 2008 indicated that low performers make up almost 50 percent of overall attrition.
Estimate the percentage each group contributes to your overall attrition.
Highest performers
Average performers
Lowest performers
19%
33%
48%
Figure 5 This high percentage of low performers proves a commonsense view most people have about performance and attrition. People do not like to fail. Therefore, when agents lack confidence in their ability, they are more likely to attrite. And obviously, low performers are more subject to involuntary attrition. The call center is a dynamic environment with customer service level driving many of the day-to-day decisions on the floor. When training is scheduled, it is often canceled due to call volume demands. Low performers already struggling become more overwhelmed as policies and procedures change, new products are rolled out, etc. This environment makes it difficult, if not impossible, to move lower performers along the performance curve (Figure 6), thus contributing to the ongoing battle with attrition. Moving the Performance Curve
Figure 6 6
The True Cost of Attrition
For those low performers who cannot be moved along the curve with training because of traits or other factors, it is probably beneficial that they attrit and are replaced with better fit agents who will be more likely to stay. As hiring efforts focus on screening out poor fits from the start, more average and high performers join. So how do you improve the performance of the agents on the floor given the aforementioned challenges of the call center environment?
Best Practice Training The best practices for improving performance form the foundation for improving satisfaction and ultimately retention. Since changing behavior is the only way to achieve sustainable results, all of the following principles are geared to that end. These principles are illustrated below (Figure 7). Training to High Performance for Retention
Figure 7 Frequent Too often training is an infrequent occasion as opposed to a consistent, systemic part of the call center operation. In a recent survey by Knowlagent, almost 40 percent of call centers reported training agents between one and four times a year. Many centers provide agents with access to a learning management system or knowledge base with the hopes that agents will go get the information and knowledge they need. Considering the enormous pressures to meet service levels, it isn’t hard to figure out why so much of what is scheduled doesn’t occur and why agents don’t often take the initiative to get the information they need before they need it. The underutilized asset in this equation is downtime between calls. Pushing training to the agent desktop during small pockets of downtime is the only way to ensure training happens frequently.
7
The True Cost of Attrition
Targeted Even if training is provided frequently, a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t provide maximum value. If the center and the agent invest time in training, it should meet the needs of both. An agent does not want to be trained on something that isn’t relevant to their needs, and the center doesn’t want to train an agent on an area at which he or she excels if there is another area that needs improving. Basing individualized training on performance meets the targeted criteria and provides the highest value. Easy to Digest & Apply Immediately Adult learning theory asserts that short learning interventions that can be immediately applied have the best chance at retention. This concept is clearly important in a fast-paced environment like the call center where the unplanned nature of calls gives agents less control over their day than most. A 15-minute learning break allows a short respite for some targeted information that is used on the next call for maximum reinforcement. Measurable Impact One of the keys to success in any endeavor is measurement, and nowhere is a culture of measurement more prevalent than the call center. Giving all players a view to their performance, and an Agents on the Job Retention understanding of how they impact that performance Plan through training, provides the measurement and Key Questions guidance needed to underpin a successful How do I prioritize training? performance improvement initiative at the individual How do I make training relevant? agent level. How do I make training stick? How do I ensure consistency in Consistent training and communications? Consistency has two applications in this context. The importance of regular communications cannot be Key Measurements overestimated in keeping agents informed and Amount of training delivered engaged. Additionally, the consistency of message in Low performers moved to average those communications and training is important. Eperformers learning provides a conduit for regular Training directly linked to communications and removes the possibility of performance improvements different teams getting different messages or levels of Mid-stage attrition information from supervisors, team members or even trainers.
Proficient Agents Study after study shows that the supervisor-agent relationship has one of the largest impacts on retention. Additionally most supervisors were high-performing agents who were promoted to supervisor, without much training in how to manage and coach performance. Many supervisors attest to being overwhelmed with the administrative burden of the job, which leaves little time for coaching. In a survey on coaching conducted by Knowlagent, 71 percent felt they did not have sufficient time to coach every day, with 80 percent spending less than two hours a day on all coaching activity. In instances where there is performance coaching, it is typically not consistent from team to team. These facts add up to a setting where agents feel that they lack a supervisor who can truly foster their performance. A common result is that agents leave just when the center has invested the most in them, and that investment is paying the highest returns.
8
The True Cost of Attrition
Best Practice Coaching The foundation for coaching outlined here is based on the key principles needed to change behavior though coaching in the call center in order to improve performance, satisfaction and retention (Figure 8). Best Practice Coaching Forms Performance Partnership
Figure 8 True Coaching What gets called coaching on many teams is really managing without much guidance on improvement. Eighty percent of executives in a study by Knowlagent indicated that they do not believe supervisors have all the right skills for coaching. Because they lack the experience and often the training to do so, supervisors rarely have the skills to coach for improved performance and behavior change. Improving these skills with training is critical to making an impact on performance and attrition. Targeted By its nature, coaching should be targeted, but it’s difficult for supervisors to keep up with all team members’ performance and customize coaching accordingly. By linking to KPI’s, coaching instances can be targeted to performance trends that indicate problems as well as those that indicate opportunities for enhanced performance. Supervisors with access to personality assessment results can even leverage that information to help them tailor their coaching. Frequent The demands on a supervisor’s time are many. And often the lower performing agents take up a disproportionate amount of that time. To meet the needs of all experienced agents, time must be uncovered and exploited for both agents and coaches to interact on performance problems as well as enhancement opportunities. Finding pockets of call volume downtime for agents and available time for supervisors to meet and work on coaching plans and activities creates the time needed to provide frequent coaching.
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The True Cost of Attrition
Actionable Unless it is actionable, much of what is called coaching is merely advice, perhaps applicable, perhaps soon, perhaps not. Basing coaching on the call flow creates actionable coaching. The steps to this process are: 1. Break the call down into key steps. 2. Identify the step where the agent struggles. 3. Identify the behaviors needed to execute the step successfully. 4. Develop a plan to change those behaviors. Using this process provides a clear context and specific actions. Consistent Because most coaching happens on an ad-hoc basis, similarly performing agents can receive very different types and levels of coaching. Nearly 50 percent of supervisors surveyed can not define their coaching process. Creating standards and baking them into center processes ensures that agent performance and retention efforts are individualized to needs and achieve consistency in application. Measurable Even though it is one of the greatest points of leverage with the agent, coaching is largely unmeasured, an anomaly in the call center. By embedding a measurement system that shows how much, who and what is getting coached as well as its link to performance, constant improvement through coaching becomes systemic in the center. Individual Accountability With the experienced agent, training results may reach a plateau, and more individual plans might be required to reach higher levels of performance. But without a skilled coach and without a mechanism to take ownership for increasing performance, proficient agents may be left adrift, becoming dissatisfied with the prospects for improvement and/or advancement. There are areas where agents can work independently to improve, and in others, they may require supervisor intervention to get the full benefit of coaching. Creating a partnership for performance between the agent and the supervisor provides the ownership needed at a more experienced agent level and provides a framework for creating and sustaining improvement.
Proficient Agents Retention Plan Key Questions Are my supervisors prepared to coach? How targeted and actionable is coaching? Is coaching consistent across supervisors? How often do supervisors coach? Do agents have a mechanism to take ownership for performance improvement? Key Measurements Compliance to coaching processes Time spent in coaching Problem coaching vs. enhancement coaching Performance changes directly linked to coaching Proficient agent attrition
Conclusion The impact of agent attrition is felt in many areas of an organization, but rather than galvanizing efforts to reduce attrition, this situation often leads to silo efforts and unclear expectations across the organization. Once the scope and scale of the problem is acknowledged, a central goal organizes the efforts carried out across the lifecycle of the agent.
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The True Cost of Attrition
These efforts can be summarized as: New Hire
Stop hiring the wrong candidates by utilizing the right information as early as possible.
Agent-in-Training
Give agents the best chance to succeed with the right preparation.
Agent on the Job
Create satisfaction by improving performance.
Proficient Agents
Enable supervisors to partner with agents to provide meaningful coaching and strong relationships. Agent Lifecycle Retention Model
Figure 10 Key to each of these steps along the lifecycle is asking important, foundational questions that help uncover contributing factors to attrition and determining which of those have the most impact on the problem. Focusing efforts on those key areas will yield the most results, and the measurement of the progress against those key areas ensures that the most important lead indicators receive the right level of focus. With a central goal coupled with a focused approach to reducing attrition across the agent lifecycle, all of the key stakeholders involved in the customer experience will see improvement in each of their arenas of focus as well as an overall improvement that benefits the entire organization.
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The True Cost of Attrition
About Knowlagent Knowlagent’s on-demand agent management solutions ensure you get the right people on your team and keep them there. Knowlagent’s solutions are designed to impact early, mid and late stage attrition by hiring the right agents, placing them where they will be most successful, and ensuring they perform at the highest levels. By automating traditional call center management processes, Knowlagent’s solutions for training, coaching and hiring reduce spending attributed to off-phone activities while improving the key metrics that matter most to you. With Knowlagent, you can optimize frontline performance faster and more affordably than ever before. You can spend less and get better.
References Teodoru, S (2007). Satisfaction with contact centers drives customer loyalty. Contact Center Satisfaction Index, 1, Retrieved September 1, 2007, from http://cfigroup.com Knowlagent. (2005). Coachpalooza: a call center focus group series summary report (1st ed.) [White Paper]. Alpharetta, GA: Debbie Qaqish & Dwight Lucas.
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