Our Ultimate Agent® program starts with figuring out the cost of your turnover. It’s a lot. DMG Consulting estimated that it costs approximately $5,000 to replace and train a new agent, as stated in its whitepaper Making WFM Work: Best Practices and ROI Model. That is money simply thrown away. The time is now to make the needed changes to find and retain quality contact center agents that will improve customer satisfaction and stop the flow of money that disappears every time you need to hire a new agent.
To start, look internally at the role and the responsibilities of the contact center agent in your organization. Now look at the job description. Do they match up? Or is the job description filled with generic statements that do not relate to the contact center? Does the job description actually provide a clear picture of the contact center agent job? If not, there’s going to be a turnover problem, and it’s time for an overhaul. There are different processes that can align the agent’s real role to a job description, and at Singola we developed a job analysis questionnaire and corresponding worksheet in order to develop the right job description for your organization. The Ultimate Agent® program also requires a check to make sure you are offering competitive pay and compensating the responsibilities of the role accordingly.
Now that you have a work of art job description, it is time to take that puppy for spin. As we’ve said before, recruit smarter, not harder. Take a look at floating employees who already understand your organization and see if they could function effectively full-time. Of course, you should also always be hiring. Do not wait for a vacancy to start looking. If you wait, you prolong the process and get stuck with more days of an empty seat in the contact center, leaving the remaining agents to pick up the slack and shoulder the burden. Instead, build a list of viable candidates that are ready when you need them. Keep resumes on hand and remember to go back to them.
Following these steps for a more robust and effective recruiting process will result in happier employees and patients, and a healthier bottom line. Don’t believe us? Give us a call and we’ll prove it.
Photo from Wikimedia Commons.