How to Retain Staff, part 1
by Allison Gross

The call center industry could be the only place where managers feel they have a successful retention program if staff turnover is only 30% a year. In just about any other business, a 30% turnover rate would be catastrophic. Most of us in the call center business accept the conventional wisdom that the high turnover rate is simply the cost of doing business. The problem is, once we accept that wisdom, there’s no motivation to try to affect change, even though constant staff turnover takes up far too much time and effort.

Many of us have come up with new programs to find and hire good people but why go to all the trouble to bring the best people in the front door if all you’re going to do is lose them out the back door after a short stay?

Having a great retention plan has traditionally been something call center managers promise themselves they’ll get around to when they have the time. But let’s face it…one of the reasons you’re always short of time is because you’re continually addressing the problem of high turnover.

A retention plan that works – and is used -- is now a necessity. If you’ve been putting it off, you need to make the time now!

Where to start?

One way to begin is by practicing a little armchair psychology. Let’s think, for a moment, about what really makes people tick. What makes you tick? What motivates you or “de-motivates” you?

If you think back to your Psych 101 class, you may remember that old discussion about Abraham Maslow’s “Hierarchy of Needs.” Maslow said that human beings are motivated by unsatisfied needs, and that certain “lower” needs need to be satisfied before higher needs can be -- a sort of hierarchy. If Maslow had been a call center manager, he might have called the following tips, “The Retention Hierarchy.”

Let’s start by destroying some old assumptions. Base salary, contrary to opinion, is usually not much of a motivator, however, it can be a substantial de-motivator. Studies show that using a raise as a motivator lasts for about two weeks and then fades. Why? Because most people, regardless of a raise, believe they’re still underpaid.
So here’s where the de-motivation factor comes in. Not paying your employees a good wage (subject to the marketplace and their skill levels) will result in de-motivation - and a high turnover rate. Accordingly, the lowest level of our Retention Hierarchy is to make sure you’re paying your employees a fair market salary.

Right now, you’re probably thinking, “Oh, sure; let’s just raise my costs and break my budget!” And, let’s face it, it’s very tempting – and probably normal -- to tread that familiar path. In reality, that’s a path to nowhere (or you wouldn’t be reading this article). Not having a balanced, market-driven pay program will end up raising your costs, through reduced productivity, lost training dollars and, ultimately, poor customer service. You get what you pay for! If you’re going to bring in the best (which, hopefully, you are), you’re going to need to pay a reasonable wage to keep them.

For example, one of our clients was paying its customer service reps (CSRs) a standard rate of $8.00 per hour, in a region where the going rate was closer to $10.00. Do you think they saved money? Not with a turnover rate approaching 60%! The rationale for their pay structure was based on the theory that the 20% savings exceeded the costs associated with the hassles and headaches of higher turnover.

Their rationale didn’t hold water. In reality, the savings evaporated and their strategy cost the company more in a variety of ways. What value do you place on the costs of training, management-focus lost to continual turnover (instead of managing), and, most importantly, customer dissatisfaction due to inexperienced and nonproductive CSRs?

We recommended that the client simply increase their pay rates to be competitive. That helped them attract better candidates -- and retain them. And it cut their turnover rate in half.

And that’s not the end of the story. Once a company addresses any salary issues, it can start being more creative, trying things that motivate people in ways that transcend money. Ways that make people feel valued and appreciated – and make them want to stay. In this case, our client implemented a variety of other retention measures and cut the turnover rate by an additional 60%!

The second level of our retention hierarchy would be to establish realistic goals, and track results to those goals. After all, you can’t expect people to be productive if they don’t know what’s expected. Most call centers do a decent job of establishing goals, and there are plenty of studies out there about such things as number of calls completed, average length of calls, etc.

But goals can’t just be notes on a piece of paper. They need to be real, actionable goals, not fuzzy concepts or abstracts. They should be clearly communicated when you hire new people. Most call centers fall down when it comes to effective follow-up. They don’t take the time to measure actual results against goals. For many, this is a fatal mistake.
You have a budget for your call center, right? And you periodically review your budget against actual expenses, right? Setting productivity goals for your people isn’t any different. I tell our call center clients that these goals should be communicated on a weekly basis, by posting your key performance indicators (KPIs) in the office for all to see.
There are two ways you can do this. The first is to graph your KPI results with your goals over a period of time, perhaps a quarter. Everyone will begin to identify with these goals and (if you’ve hired the right people) will work hard to meet them.
The second method is less traditional, but it works in ways that give people extra incentive. Provide a weekly report that shows the top three in each KPI category. This can be tied to weekly prizes of some sort, whether movie tickets, an extra bonus or maybe that special parking place! It really doesn’t take much here -- the recognition is the key.
Each of these steps can make your people feel more emotionally “invested” in your company. And invested people are more likely to stay.
Next week’s article includes the next step in the hierarchy as well as some advice on things to consider if you choose to use a professional staffing partner to fulfill your support staffing needs.

About the author
Allison Gross is Vice President of Comforce Corporation www.comforce.com, a $400 million public company involved in consulting and staffing for the call center industry. Based in Atlanta, GA, she works closely with major call centers all over the country, among them BellSouth, MBNA, and UPS, as well as numerous clients in the telecom, financial, hospitality, technology, and transportation industries. Allison Gross can be reached at (678) 812-2222, or at agross@comforce.com.