Employees are considered one of the most precious assets of industries like contact centers. These centers usually face the issue of high attrition rate due to numerous factors attached with the job.

The attrition rate is usually calculated by following method:

First, add the number of agents at the beginning of the year and number of employees at the end of year and divide the result by 2 which give average number of agents.

Now, count the number of agents that left in year the year.

Finally, divide the number of agents that left the firm with average number of agents to get attrition rate.

Some important factors that directly influence the rate of attrition are discussed below:

Atmosphere at the workplace

Extremely strict rules and regulations may result in discomfort among agents leading to higher attrition rate. Other factors like break duration, office facilities and behavior of the colleagues also impact the rate of attrition. The behavior of team leaders and managers are also major drivers associated the rate of attrition in the contact centers.

Educational aspirations

Various employees at call center firms leave the company for pursuing further education at college/university level. The quantity of these employees is low due to which rate of attrition somewhat remains neutral due to this factor.

Remuneration

A good salary along with balanced structure of incentives influences the employees to stay longer in the company. Rise in the percentage of the remuneration after every appraisal also decides whether the employees will stick to the company or will search other options.

Type of process

Usually, the outbound sales calling is more challenging and demanding as compared to customer support process. This is because the agents in sales profile have to deliver extra efforts for convincing the customers. Therefore, the complex nature of the job may also result in high attrition at outsourcing service agencies.

Job market

Along with remuneration, number of opportunities in a region also affects the rate of turnover of employees in a customer support company. Employees tend to change the jobs more quickly if the job openings are enormous in the area. For example, call center companies in India are densely located in metropolitan cities like Delhi and Bangalore  where rate of attrition remains high.

Job burnout

Jobs in call center often become monotonous after 10-12 months due to which employees start losing interest in it. The companies must ensure that roles are rotated among the employees to avoid this situation. Also, upgrading the position to a senior level decreases the chance of an executive to change his / her job.

Training and development

Streamlined training sessions in the contact center decrease the rate of attrition. This happens because properly trained employees prefer to stay in the firm due to better competency related to the process whereas a poorly trained agent prefers leaving the company because he / she is unable to cope up with the complexity of the job.

 Keeping all these factors in mind while planning the strategies related to workforce will definitely help in retaining the employees for a longer duration.