Research indicates, and reality bears it out, that most centers experience a 300% spread between their high and low performers. So, obviously you want to keep your high performers happy i.e., reduce turnover. The national average for contact center employee turnover is between 22 and 24%. World-class organizations are striving for single-digit turnover (6-8%).

What are the greatest causes of high turnover? Autocratic management style, poor pay and poor quality of work life including no job diversity, no career path, narrow job description and no ability to make empowered decisions are the greatest causes of high contact center employee turnover. Fortunately, there is a lot you can do reduce turnover, including avoiding the above mistakes.

The first step is to improve your ability to hire the "right" employees. Begin by conducting a thorough examination of your current recruiting and hiring practices. What media do you use to attract prospective employees and what is the success rate of each? Has your recruiting staff received the appropriate training in interviewing techniques such as behavioral interviewing? Have you fully defined the required skills and competencies for the agent position and are these requirements communicated to prospective employees during the recruiting process? Don’t hire agents promising an entry level position and a stepping stone to the rest of the organization. You may hire a competent person, but over time he may become disillusioned and/or bored. Are prospective employees provided first-hand access to the jobs they will be performing, for example via side-by-side monitoring? Are those most familiar with the position (existing agents) involved in the hiring process? By painting a realistic picture of the work environment and position expectations, you can increase your odds of hiring the "right" employees. Of course, once you get the "right" employees in the door, there is still much work to be done -but you'll be off to a great start!

Also, in the Customer Centric best practice study, Response Design and the APQC learned that there was a strong correlation between companies that marketed the call center to the rest of the organization and lower agent turnover. It seems that when agents get the applause they deserve, they simply want to hang around!