Devoted to the call center industry, the agents on the phones, and their managers

One thing that I know works is promoting employee engagement. It's a good thing you posted this because I was writing something in relation to this. The post came in right on time so I could link it. Thanks!

I agree Jam - pay close attention to warning signs and you're likely to lose far fewer employees.

Scary image!

Hi LJ - well great minds think alike. :-) Ahhh, yes, employee engagement, clearly something not all call centers have done. I'm hoping that this would spark an interest for management, don't you think?

December's over and I've heard news that our bi-lingual reps are planning to jump ship as the new year comes. I've gently confronted them and they honestly answered me back, YES. Their reason? Their peers who have jumped from our province-based company to Manila call centers were getting 3-4 times what they are currently getting. Very lucrative for them so I told my boss about it and her answer was, we route our Spanish calls to our Affiliate company in South America so we won't have to waste $$ to hire Spanish speaking reps from Southern Philippines and have them jump ship after their contract... double ouch...
She has a point, but it still doesn't address the (our) i$$ue.

(sigh!)

As long as this industry is still in its infancy, there will be no significant decrease in attrition regardless of whatever strategic or tactical actions any company might take.

Once this industry reaches its maturity, meaning, both the average age of the employees and the industry experience reaches 'maturity' level, (maybe 7 to 10 years from now), we might see a plateau in the attrition level and a downward slope from then on.

But that doesn't mean we should sit down and do nothing. Key elements here are:

1) Create great environment for the staff (comfortable work facilities, good corporate culture, etc)
2) Continuously train supervisors and managers (both hard and soft skills)
3) Provide competetive compensation (meaning: offer salaries and benefits that would be similar or equivalent to what the employee might get in another company doing similar work)
4) Open communication both horizontally and vertically

But two critical elements:

1) Take out irresponsible, incompetent and unprofessional supervisors and managers (one bad supervisor can cost you an entire team)

2) Take out irresponsible, incompetent and unprofessional employees (they spread negative and cynical behavior)

I'd like to add: Case to point - Maturity of the industry and its employees

Many are saying it's the pay. Question: In local Philippine banks, why is it that though the average pay of employees and managers are well below that of average pay of employees and managers in the call center industry, the employee attrition in local banks is very low compared to the call center industry.

Simply it's the maturity level of both the industry and its employees.