Workforce Management Featured Article
Employee Engagement is a Top Initiative for Call Center Leadership
Anyone who runs a contact center knows that employee engagement has always been a problem. Add in a global pandemic, staff shortages and shifting employee attitudes toward employment, and the problem has reached catastrophic staffing problem levels.
So what does it take to better engage employees so they’ll stick around longer and perform better work?
Employee engagement software-as-a-service provider Centrical recently announced the release of a new industry trend report on the 2022 global state of contact center employee retention and performance. The report found that 90 percent of contact center leaders say improving the employee experience is a top priority for 2022-2023.
"It's easy to say that contact centers need to improve the employee experience to reduce attrition, but it isn't so simple," said April Crichlow, chief marketing officer for Centrical. "Many factors are at play, from wages to interactions with managers, clarity of KPIs, increasing customer demands, and a host of other issues.”
One of the key ways they plan to do this is through gamification of call center solutions. Over half – 54 percent – of respondents say they plan to add gamification in the next 12 months. Gamification is the use of game-design elements and principles in non-game contexts, such as e-learning and performance management solutions. The goal is to make call center work more fun and improvement and learning more quantifiable. Users can compete with one another to learn how to do their jobs better and reap rewards for doing so. The goal is to motivate agents, make work a little more enjoyable, and improve call quality and customer experience.
"From the survey, we received very clear insights on where contact center leaders' mindsets and priorities are today,” said Gal Rimon, CEO and founder of Centrical. “Employees are doubling down on their expectations, customers are more demanding than ever before, and to remain successful you must invest in your frontline employees and put them at the center of your business."
Edited by Erik Linask