October 2002

The Purdue benchmark research has been conducted since 1995. Purdue currently holds data for more than 5,400 call centers. To learn about how to participate in some of Purdue University's new benchmark research, please visit www.BenchmarkPortal.com.

Q: What does the acronym FTE stand for, and what does it mean?
- Miguel Alberto P'ez

A: FTE stands for full-time equivalent. Contact centers usually have a mix of full-time agents and part-time agents. A part-time agent working 30 hours per week equals 75 percent of a full-time equivalent. A part-time agent working 20 hours per week equals 50 percent of a full-time equivalent. The number of FTEs cannot be determined from total paid hours, as total paid hours would eliminate absenteeism, leaves of absence and other non-paid activities. FTE is an important concept for contact center managers to grasp, particularly when building staffing models and budgets.

Q: Do you know current figures on outsourced customer service in the U.S. (percentage of companies that outsource)? My last figure is 25 percent (Fortune 1000) in 1997. In your estimation, is the outsourcing trend continuing?
- Cindy Adams

A: From our research of over 25,000 call centers, including the Fortune 1000, companies outsource only approximately 8 percent of their calls. The teleservices industry continues to grow at about 11 percent per year; however, it is a very crowded industry with many small players. I would anticipate a consolidation in the next twelve months.

Several recent Ask Dr. Jon questions that have been submitted by readers (visit www.BenchmarkPortal.com/AskDrJon) have focused on the training of call center supervisors. In this case, we focused on how much of the supervisor's time was devoted to training. We found that, on average, a supervisor spends almost 28 hours per year in training.

As you can see from the first graph (below), 70 percent of that training is done on-site, while 30 percent of it is held at an off-site location. We also asked a question regarding the average length of each training session ' did it last an hour or less or several days? We grouped the respondents by whether their training was held on-site or off-site and plotted their answers. The results make up the second graph. As you might expect, off-site training tended to last longer per session than on-site training; with the majority of off-site classes lasting a full day.

However, when we compared the two groups with respect to the number of hours spent per year in training, we discovered that the two groups spent the same number of hours per year on average (28 hours). Also, both groups devoted the same percentage of their budget (2.3 percent) to supervisor training ' independent of location. So, it would follow that off-site training must happen less frequently than on-site training. On the other hand, though both groups devoted the same percentage of their budgets to training, it does not follow that on-site and off-site training cost the same. Keep in mind that larger centers could devote a larger dollar amount to training even though it is the same percentage of their overall budget as a smaller center.

Hopefully, these statistics will allow you to measure how your operation's training program compares to other call centers.

Dr. Jon Anton (also known as 'Dr. Jon') is the Director of Benchmark Research at Purdue University Center for Customer-Driven Quality. Have a question? E-mail him at [email protected].