How To Make The Contact Center More Attractive For Hiring Agents?

Call center professionals understand the importance of workforce management tools and processes to ensure there are sufficient agents to work on each shift.

In the last 10 years, there has been a change in the workforce. Today, more than ever, employees are prioritizing work-life balance as a priority when evaluating a potential employer. Contact center workers want to make sure that any organization they join will allow them the freedom they need to enjoy this balance.

In addition, employees want to know the impact that their time and effort have for users and the organization through feedback sessions, reports and recognition. This is a trend that call centers should adopt, since the workforce management team can have a great impact on employee recruitment and retention.

There are four ways to use workforce management tools to help make the call center more attractive to potential (and current) employees: 

1) Offer Flexible Work Shifts

Most organizations adopt a top-down approach to scheduling: they first analyze the number of people they need and create work shifts based on those requirements. This often results in static and standardized work shifts (i.e. from 8 am to 5 pm from Monday to Friday, from 10 am to 7 am from Tuesday to Saturday, etc.). The reason for this type of standardization is that contact center employers are used to thinking about work schedules in these terms.

Allowing agents to create their own schedules through tools such as “Dynamic Programming” and other flexible programming solutions enables agents to better control their work-life balance.

2) Propose Telecommuting Opportunities

Working from home is a very attractive option for many segments of the workforce, including students, self-employed workers and other segments of the workforce who are not interested in traditional employment situations.

If an organization has not yet considered opening telecommuting opportunities for agents now is a good time to start evaluating it.

3) Add The Gamification

Studies have shown that implementing a gamification component in KPIs is a very effective way to motivate employees to high levels of performance. When a game aspect is added to the performance management program, agents can see the value they bring to the organization. In addition, this adds a level of fun to your daily work life that can really take your performance to the next level.

4) Start A Labor Force Management Market

By combining the above three aspects, many forward-looking organizations have begun to experiment with a “Workforce Management Market”.

By assigning a value to KPIs and allowing agents to obtain “points”, they can exchange them for aspects such as flexibility in the work shift, telecommuting opportunities and other benefits related to the management of the workforce. In addition to tangible benefits, it provides a real motivation for employees to meet and exceed their objectives.

The key to recruiting and retaining quality personnel is to demonstrate that employees are valued as individuals for their contributions to the organization.

Introducing changes adapted to modern call centers in the management of the workforce can have a great impact on employee morale, which not only leads to better staff retention, but also to significant improvements in customer service. Happy agents equal happy users!