Winning the war on Workplace Attrition is driving contact center transformation

Empowering your people with the right skills, tools, and technology can reduce workplace attrition – helping you drive enhanced customer experience and reduced customer service agent turnover.

“I bought a suit. You seen it. Now it’s covered in mud. This town doesn’t have a one-hour cleaner, so I had to buy a new suit, except the only store you could buy a new suit in has got the flu….”

In 1992, we all laughed at our dear Cousin Vinny – in 2020 this was the reality we came to know.

In the here and now, most of the tangible signs of the global pandemic era have disappeared. No masks, the plastic restaurant table dividers are no longer, and traffic has returned.

But one not-so-visible remnant of that era still exists – attrition in the workplace.

The 2021 United States Bureau of Labor Statistics report had the annual separations rate at 57.3%. In some industries it was even higher – running as high at 65% in retail, 73% in food service, and as high as 100% in contact centers.

In the 2016 Report, the aggregate average of turnover was 17.8%. This equates to an additional 4 in 10 workers leaving within one year. That means that if you have 1,000 employees at an average rate of $25/hour, churn will cost you about $10 million more today than it did 5 years ago. * In addition, metrics such as average handle time (AHT) and first call resolution (FCR) are less desirable with new hires. For one of our clients, AHT is 25% longer and FCR is 4% lower for agents in month 1 as compared to month 6.

Beyond direct expense, attrition negatively impacts growth in top line revenue. In his article on Entrepreneur.com, Sumit Aneja depicts how enterprises, “…with the highest NPS consistently grab the biggest growth shares for their industries. A study published by the prestigious London School of Economics entitled ‘Advocacy Drives Growth’, shows that an average Net Promoter Scores (NPS) increase of 7% correlates on average with a 1% growth in revenue.”

NPS was on average 35 points higher in month 6 as compared to month 1 for the same client agent pool mentioned above.

So how are we winning the war on attrition? Here are a few of the initiatives we have used to curb the tide:

• We’ve provided our people with the tools and technology to empower them to handle more complex issues, while automating much of the mundane
• We’ve implemented employee focus groups who meet leadership and HR to identify reasons for the churn and put initiatives in motion to address the concerns
• We’ve revamped performance and incentive programs
• We’ve made career path mentoring and coaching a higher priority
• And finally, we’re in a constant state of recruiting – for the necessity today and the demands of tomorrow.

These initiatives have resulted in a 25-point increase in NPS (including a direct positive impact on customer loyalty and wallet share) and a 35% reduction in customer service agent turnover for one of our clients.

*Figure based on cost of replacing an employee is 6 months’ salary and 2,000 hours worked per year

To learn how Capgemini’s Intelligent Customer Interactions solutions are empowering our people to drive contact center transformation for our clients, contact: scott.manghillis@capgemini.com