For decades, contact centres have been environments of high staff turnover. Employees were expected to churn, and managers focused their resources on rapidly recruiting and onboarding new people. But a tight post-pandemic labour market and rising recruitment costs mean that model is no longer sustainable.
Hiring new employees for the contact centre is now the top workforce-related challenge for CX leaders worldwide. This is according to the MIT Technology Review Insights research study, “Customer experience and the future of work”.
What is the study suggesting for employers?
Managers aren’t just trying to keep existing seats filled. The research found organisations plan to increase the size of their CX employee base. They’re also shifting resources to bring the customer experience under greater internal control. This reflects the importance of CX to their overall brand and market differentiation. The MIT study projects a 10% increase in the number of in-house employees from 2022 to 2024. This growth rate also extends to supervisory roles in the contact centre.
At the same time, survey respondents say they expect CX to become more specialised in the future. Staff will need greater data and analytics skills, as well as deeper expertise in process mapping and customer journey optimisation. As chatbots and other self-service technologies continue to proliferate, agents will have to handle more complex and challenging customer interactions. Including those that require problem-solving and empathy.
Improving recruitment is only part of the solution. CX leaders need to focus on better retaining and developing the talent they already have.
Rethinking the employee value proposition
Working from home has alleviated some of the pressures on contact centre hiring managers. The survey finds that retaining more staff is the greatest benefit of hybrid working. Followed by employees having lower stress levels and better mental health. This also affects retention.
But hybrid working alone isn’t enough to keep employees engaged long term. They want — and deserve — opportunities to develop and grow. Learning new skills and technologies are among the most important aspects of job satisfaction. This is according to a survey of 16,000 contact centre agents conducted last year.
While most contact centres do provide extensive training, these courses are often tactical and primarily focused on optimising daily performance. CX leaders acknowledge they don’t offer the meaningful development and career advancement that employees expect.
Nearly half the respondents to the MIT study believe their employees’ greatest daily frustrations are insufficient learning and development opportunities. More than 70% of CX leaders see learning and development as the area of employee lifecycle that’s most in need of improvement.
Investing in CX employees
As with many business initiatives today, building a culture of learning and development requires rethinking people, processes, and technology.
Supervisors will need to focus more on coaching and creating career paths, and less on productivity related KPIs in conversations with their employees. They should rethink which metrics to focus on. Agents will then have time to participate in training while meeting their shift-based performance goals.
Organisations don’t need to build all their training content in-house. Comprehensive online learning is available from many training companies, technology vendors, and social media platforms. Supervisors can use gamification with their e-learning tools to encourage more participation. As well as culture-building activities designed to build proficiencies and add new competencies.
With so many organisations shifting to hybrid work, there’s also an opportunity to redesign existing office space into experience centres. Employees can spend time immersed in learning and development activities; collaborating with colleagues on optimising customer journeys; and receiving targeted coaching.
Using AI to enhance the employee experience is another way to support a learning culture. Examples include using AI to improve real-time coaching; prompt next-best actions on the job; and skills-based routing. More than 60% of organisations considered AI leaders by The Economist Group are using AI to identify employees’ career growth capabilities.
CX employees have a valuable set of interpersonal and analytical skills. Their deep knowledge of an organisation’s processes and pain points are also crucial. As CX leaders look to the future, they’re working on developing career paths. Those not only within the CX department, but also in other functions. Supervisors should consider a wide range of opportunities when discussing and designing career paths with their employees.
Top performers and the bottom line
Organisations that are most likely to retain growth-oriented agents go above and beyond. They should create learning and development programs beyond providing basic skills-based training. Offer flexible schedules that allow people the time to invest in their development. Use AI to provide job-related insights. Implementing these elements will improve retention.
By better developing and retaining agents, organisations will reduce hiring and onboarding costs. Furthermore, this will improve the customer experience overall as a result. Investing in CX employees by creating a learning culture isn’t just a nice-to-have. It’s a worthwhile investment for your business.