Workforce Well-Being: Why Is It More Important Now Than Ever?

Stress is a major barrier to success and is affecting every member of the call center team. In this post, we explain what your key triggers are for agents, supervisors, and senior managers, and show why it pays to take a comprehensive approach to organizational well-being.

The impact of recent years has been far-reaching. Flexible work practices (teleworking), growing customer demands, and a rapidly changing competitive landscape are taking their toll. And these stressors are taking a toll on contact center staff.

How Does Stress Affect Agents?

According to a study by ContactBabel, stress levels among agents are currently increasing considerably: 96% say they feel stressed at least once a week, while 33% of them experience it several times a week, compared to 25% in 2017. Not surprising, given that they’re dealing with an additional 14.4-omnichannel interactions per day. At the same time, many people are still psychologically adjusting to an often-disorienting “work from anywhere” culture, while grappling with the nuts and bolts of juggling work and family life.

What Effect Does Agent Stress Have On Supervisors And Customer Experience (CX)?

The same study revealed that 60% of respondents agreed that staff attrition and absence, although initially related to the pandemic, continue to cause CX problems. How do those running call center operations manage agent schedules and skills throughout the day while planning recruitment and training, in the most cost-effective way possible?

Contact center leaders must also understand the big picture, such as why staff is leaving the competition or why customer churn rates are higher than usual. The pressure is on call center operations to manage agent stress while also dealing with hybrid working and an increased number of digital communication channels. Add to that the need to optimize performance, keep teams connected, and meet ever-increasing customer expectations. It has all created a perfect storm of anxiety and stress that threatens the well-being of employees and the long-term prosperity of organizations. What can be done to reverse this trend?

3 Tips To Improve The Well-Being Of Agents

Well-being translates into empowered agents, who take control of their work life and the customer experience; where supervisors support the business with a motivated workforce that exceeds key metrics and service levels and where executives strike a good balance between cost control, innovation and business expansion.

1) Take a Holistic Approach

It is necessary to know what works and what do not, for agents, supervisors and senior managers. Looking beyond the call center and engaging other parts of the organization, including subject matter experts, to improve knowledge, drive contact center performance and improve well-being. Find out what processes are in place to share learning from CX best practices so that all departments can improve and increase their own sense of well-being.

2) Make The Most Of Data

With customer and employee loyalty in flux during the pandemic, companies need deep, relevant insights inside and outside the organization to help protect and grow customer relationships and prevent staff from leaving for competitors. Too often, though, valuable information gets trapped inside the call center. Essentially, many companies are sitting on a gold mine of intelligence that is not being used effectively.

3) Follow The Leaders

Success depends on gaining control of data through data-driven technologies. For example, Thomson Reuters wanted to understand how the introduction of remote agent onboarding and training, due to COVID-19, was affecting its business. Using the latest analytics, the company identified calls with multiple and long wait times, and then worked to establish the reasons why this was happening. The goal was to eliminate call waiting.

As a result of the analysis program, the company enjoyed significant benefits with a broad impact on the well-being of the organization. Thus, average call times were reduced by more than 90 seconds, half an hour waiting per call, and there was a 6.4% increase in customer satisfaction.

Success depends on eliminating stress at all levels of the organization. Modern workforce engagement management (WEM) solutions, including AI-based analytics, are the answer to well-being. Technology can also be key to improving staff engagement, optimizing call center performance and increasing profitability.