Call Center Scheduling Featured Article
Call Center Employee Perks Can Go a Long Way toward Improving Retention and Satisfaction
Let’s face it: few children aspire to be a call center agent when growing up. Yet call centers employ a significant percentage of the U.S. workforce, so it’s a reality for millions of people. While it’s easy to find call center employment horror stories with a simple Web search, for many Americans, it’s a worthwhile way to make a living.
Call centers have become more enlightened in recent years. The “boiler room” scenarios of the 1980s are largely gone, and the call center has morphed into a high-tech “contact center.” Smart companies have built advanced contact centers that are comfortable and attractive.
Retention is still one of the most prominent problems in the contact center industry, with some call centers experiencing annual turnover in excess of 100 percent. High turnover is an expensive prospect, and most contact centers take steps to keep turnover as low as possible, since constant recruiting and training can become expensive.
Intelligent contact center organizations have turned to programs and policies designed to make contact center work more appealing. Connect First, a Colorado-based cloud contact center company, recently took steps to build a portfolio of benefits designed to attract and retain the best employees. These include unlimited paid time off, a six week sabbatical program and health insurance for employee’s pets among the other “traditional” employee benefits.
The company also holds what it calls “Connect First Fridays” on the first Friday of the month, a social event that encourages employees to connect and unwind. It also features “Bring Your Dog to Work” days during which employees can sign up to bring their canine companions to the office.
“We started this company with friends and family and we wanted to keep building upon that energy,” said Geoff Mina, CEO of Connect First, in a statement. “By creating an atmosphere where we empower the employee and lead based on mutual respect, fun and creativity, and not based on fear, or micro-managing, we keep that same culture we had back when it all started.”
It’s critical to build benefits and features that are actually useful to employees. While decorating the call center for a holiday might look nice and raise some interest among employees, programs that directly help them work even better: things like rest and break rooms, dry-cleaning drop-off, occasional free meals, health services (occasional blood pressure screenings, for example), recreational equipment and other programs that lead directly to better quality of life will go even further.
There is ample human resources evidence that a pleasant working environment can foster improved contentment among employees, which can lead to greater job satisfaction and lower turnover. When workers feel valued, they are more likely to connect with the company, value the work they do and feel like a necessary, important part of a team.
Edited by Ashley Caputo