A well-structured, interactive induction program is critical for ensuring an efficient workforce in the call center, as it has a direct impact on turnover and productivity. The topic of Virgin Media (News - Alert) employee Katie Carroll’s university project, an innovative call center training scheme has now found nationwide use.

An employee of the company, Carroll had worked on the project as part of her work-based BA (Hons) degree in Leadership and Management at Teesside University. In addition to focusing on streamlining the call center induction process, the project also discusses how to help employees learn faster.

Employing the technique described in Carroll’s project in its Stockton and Sheffield call centers, the company was able to save nearly $105,365 on training costs, explained Virgin Media’s officials. Seeing the success of these two call centers, the company has decided to implement the induction program in all its call centers across the U.K.

About three years ago, Carroll moved from a team manager position and joined the training department.

“The first project I was given to work on was to rewrite the induction program for Customer Relations,” Carroll said.

She began to recognize several ways to improve the induction program, which she believed would be capable of making the training process better and effective.  “My degree gave me the opportunity to explore that,” Carroll said.

Due to her experience as a team manager, Carroll knew that the performance level of someone who had gone through a good induction process is normally far greater than one who did not. 

“It gave me a great understanding of how important the induction process is,” Carroll said. “This was from the content to the best way to train and develop people while looking at accelerated learning."

Virgin Media asked Carroll to share the principles of her project with other company call centers across the U.K. Carroll’s project calls for regular reviews with managers during training and a more structured “Academy” process. It calls for an interactive appraisal tool to track new starter performance and behaviour and suggests effective ways to maximize on-the-job learning.