The Great Resignation has seen the UK undergo the highest turnover in staff over the past two years. Companies have been offering bounties of up to £3,000 to attract new staff which has created a ‘war for talent’ in the contact centre industry. Businesses are desperately looking for and buying out skilled staff which leaves other businesses unable to compete and retain their staff resulting in high staff turnover, poor customer service and insufficiently trained staff.
Not only are contact centres dealing with staffing issues, they also have a reputation for being inflexible ‘clock watchers’ which has limited the younger generations looking to contact centres as a viable career path.
So, with all these challenges contact centres are facing, how are they expected to attract and retain staff?
Higher salaries and improved package benefits
While some businesses can dig deeper into their pockets to hire the best of the best, others simply don’t have the luxury and need to look at new inventive ways to attract new staff. Some businesses offer a flexible dress code, extra compensation for unsociable shifts, free gym memberships, lifestyle benefits, special discounts and life insurance to attract staff into their business.
Flexible work-life balance
Over the past two years, employees and managers have seen how their teams can thrive while working from home, something that a lot of businesses have been against for years. Employees are a lot happier having the flexibility to work from home and are often more willing to work late shifts as it doesn’t mean them commuting late at night or needing to arrange childcare.
The younger generations entering the market also prefer to work within a flexible environment, searching for roles that are remote or hybrid, over roles that are solely office based. Allowing flexibility is a great benefit to the employer too, as they’re able to cast their net wider and find premium talent across the country and not only local to the office.
“But if they’re not in the office, how do we know what they’re doing?” I hear you cry. That’s not an issue when you have the right technology solution and reporting in place. Modern contact centre solutions are cloud-based so they allow agents to log in from anywhere. Managers have full visibility of who is available, can listen to call recordings for quality purposes and have a clear view of the team’s overall performance.
Improved training
While struggling to retain staff, businesses also find that they’re continually struggling to train staff fast enough so that they’re able to offer quality service as quickly as possible. In the UK, 1 in 4 contact centre agents believe they’ve not been adequately trained, so it’s important to implement a detailed induction plan into your business, as well as offer ongoing training and support for agents.
Several contact centres have found that by implementing systems that are intuitive to use and include a detailed knowledgebase of FAQs and scripts that help staff assist customers quickly, has helped them dramatically. Some contact centres that offer different service channels, like calls, emails and webchat, tend to assign specifically skilled agents who are naturally better at messaging versus over the phone which helps build confidence as they train up. Cloud contact centres offer omni-channel features that allow agents to handle selected contact service channels from one place.
Cloud-based contact centre benefits
Although it may seem like a big change, there are loads of benefits to modernising your contact centre for both your agents and your business.
Everyone can fully embrace flexible working locations
Without a commute, agents are more willing to work undesirable shifts
Agents can embrace a wider set of communication skills including social, email, SMS and web chat, as well as the traditional phone
The advance of digital training and online knowledge bases allow agents to own their development
Real-time analytics, dashboards and reporting give managers a clear view of performance and the ability to react quickly in busy times
You have access to a wider national talent pool
So, if you’re looking at new ways to attract and retain contact centre staff, have a look at moving to a cloud contact centre that can offer you a wide range of benefits that not only your staff will enjoy.
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