Boredom and Employee Retention

Staff boredom can be a leading reason for high turnover in a call center. Our experience is that this is one of the most difficult issues to solve. The difficulty is driven by two key factors:

• Serving the customer - the work of a call center is primarily about answering the phones
• Time - the longer the process in handling the customer’s call the more expensive the call becomes therefore processes are designed to be straight forward

Let’s face it. Many call center jobs are absolutely boring! The repetition of process repeated 50, 100 or 200 times a day can be tough to take.  There research indicates that the that the average call center representative stays at the job for 13 to 18 months. If a typical agent handle 100 calls a day, in the course of 13 months the call center representative may have done the job over 20,000 times. Repetitious. Boring. “I think I will find another job.”

Job boredom is tough to solve depending on your environment. Below is a list of common reasons why call center representatives think their job is boring:

• Repetitive work
• Excessive control by managers, supervisor or team leaders
• Limited career progression opportunities within the call center or company
• Limited job variation.

We have compiled a list of suggestions that may assist you in dealing with the ‘boring call center’ factor:

• Enlarge the agent’s job: brainstorming sessions with staff may assist you in determining what additional functions a call center representative could do to provide increased variety.
• Enrich the agent’s job: be less controlling and put accountability on the agent
• Going end-to-end: change the way work is organized and set up work processes so that an agent can take a task from beginning through to conclusion. If a call center representative hands off a piece of work to another area of the office, carefully consider what the benefits and impacts would be if the call center representative handled the work entirely from beginning to end.
• Develop competency teams: a group of representatives specifically focused on providing a certain expertise essential for the success of your call center operation. The expertise could be focused on a type of process, a system or even in providing specific types of support or training.
• Job rotation: allow staff to rotate between functions within your call center.

This may all appear to be common sense stuff. It is. Job boredom is a key factor in agent retention strategies. Consider the boredom factor in your call center by surveying your staff but more importantly conduct exit surveys with staff that are leaving.

Posted: January 28th, 2007 under People.
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