Preparing for Attrition after the Recession

ACCE Conference & Expo – New Orleans 2011 Session #205 www.icmi.com/acce2011

Session: 205 Date: Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Time: 2:15pm - 3:30pm Track: People

Preparing for Attrition after the Recession Brent Haferkamp Senior Consultant, ICMI 516-467-8774 [email protected]

Susan Langwell Senior Consultant, ICMI 314-821-2096 [email protected]

Session Description Don’t let history repeat itself in your call center. Post 2000 recession attrition hit many companies quite hard, but you can take steps now to ensure your organization is in a better position this time around. Are your employees satisfied and do they want to stay? Join Brent Haferkamp and Susan Langwell as they reveal the costs and impacts of “ghost turnover.” Discuss and outline ways to motivate your employees, and discover how to be proactive in preparing your center for post-recession attrition -- before it’s too late! Speaker Background

Brent Haferkamp is an International Customer Management Institute (ICMI) Certified Consultant; providing strategic and tactical consulting and training for organizations in a variety of industries. As an ICMI employee, Brent has performed a number of call center assessment assignments, ranging from high level workforce management advisory to complete enterprise contact center redesign, as well as mid-term Executive Replacement (VP/Director) assignments. Prior to joining ICMI, Brent was a Senior Manager overseeing the “virtual operations” of a large passenger transportation company with 24/7/365 operations and annual call volumes in excess of 24 million. Prior to that, he was a Workforce Manager for a large international call center outsourcer, supporting up to 20 programs at any given time. Brent graduated from Parks College of St. Louis University with a degree in Aerospace Science. He is a former U.S. Air Force Pilot and veteran of Desert Shield/Desert Storm. In his spare time, he writes and develops Visual Basic call center tools and is very active on a number contact center related web forums.

Susan Langwell. As a Certified Consultant, Susan brings over 20 years call center operations experience to ICMI. Her background includes domestic and international consulting as well as many years in call center leadership roles. Serving in these roles has allowed Susan to gain a broad perspective of call center management and operations as well as hands-on practical experience. Prior to joining ICMI, she worked in a wide range of industries, organizations and environments providing strategic guidance and solutions to facilitate and achieve business results. Over the course of her career, she held a senior level position with an international management consulting firm focused on call center optimization and behavioral analytics, had her own customer care and training consulting firm and held management positions in call center operations for corporations such as T. Rowe Price Mutual Funds and Ralston Purina. Susan strengths include call center strategy development, training and facilitation, operational and organizational planning, project design and management, people performance and development, and customer relationship methodology. Susan graduated from the University of Delaware and now lives in the Midwest.

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Preparing for Attrition after the Recession

Brent Haferkamp and Susan LangwellICMI Certified Associates & ICMI Certified Consultants

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”

George Santayana (1863 – 1952)

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Questions

Some quick questions to start…

Laid off employees or had to give up headcount?

Seen a drop in voluntary attrition over the last year or so?

Was in the workforce during the Tech Bubble Recession

(2000)?

Have been conducting job searches?

Does anyone work for a job search website?

Ever heard the term “Ghost Attrition”?

Sirota Survey Intelligence Report August 2010

Question 2007 % Fav Trend

Knowledgeable about customer needs 67 -14

Responding quickly to meet changing customer needs 61 -13

I have opportunities to learn and grow 72 -9Senior management gives employees a clear picture of the direction the company is headed

66 -8

Keeps employees informed as to the state of the business 76 -7Supervisor acts as a coach/mentor in helping me improve my performance

65 -6

Responsive to customer needs 83 -5

How would you rate your job security? 66 -5

Rate the orientation provided to new employees 57 -5

Why Worry?

But…

They were happy to have a job…so why worry?!?

Because…

Following the 2000 recession, many companies suffered because they did not anticipate the high employee attrition rates!!!

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…are we condemned to repeat it?

Afraid?!?

Well, this one is SO much worse…everyone will be “afraid to test the job market!

This recession has been more destructive (in terms of job loss) than the recession of 2000 (see Unemployment Rate), which may only increase the rate at which employees leave their current jobs for new opportunities.

Data source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics (Apr 2010)

…are we condemned to repeat it??

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46% of surveyed executives recalled that voluntary turnover at their companies increased after the 2001-2002 recession ended

Deloitte "Managing Talent in a Turbulent Economy, Mar 2010"

Yet, the data suggested that 48% of the executives either:

•Do not anticipate high attrition rates, or•do not believe it will be a significant threat

…are we condemned to repeat it???

Our Employees are Looking…

Recent statistics show a growing trend of employees interviewing (or looking to interview) for new opportunities, even though most (78%) believe this is the worst job market of their careers.

Data Source: Adecco Group (Apr 2010)

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…are we condemned to repeat it????

Production

Hey, but production is up, right?!?

Production (con’t.)

How are we increasing productivity?• Increasing time• Extending hours• Forcing overtime• More productivity for given staff…but are we really seeing

more productivity per labor hour across the board?

Fear based production increase

Doing more with less• Less support staff• Less peer staff• Less attention to detail• Less recognition• Less customer attention

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Production (con’t.)

Short Term =

Cannot be Sustained =

Burnout=

Job Dissatisfaction=

Low Employee Engagement=

Attrition ???

Not to mention bad for the customer

As the Recovery Strengthens

Employees may not be leaving in large numbers now, but what happens when they feel safe to make a change?

•51 percent of Gen Y are prepared to accept a lower wage or a lesser role if their work contributes to something more important or meaningful•62 percent of Gen X plan to look for a new job within a year•46 percent of baby boomers say their career goals are not being advanced in their current job

Kelly Services

…are we condemned to repeat it?????

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How is Hiring?

Is your company Growing/Hiring?

If yes, do you expect to continue growing/hiring after the recession ends?

If yes, where are you finding these people?

…are we condemned to repeat it??????

Is it too late to do anything about it?Yes, No, Maybe

Today’s Discussion

Actions required…

Assess and Address current environment

Determine and Prepare for staffing needs

Evaluate and Address current training and associated gaps

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Questions to ask yourself…

1. Do I know how many of my employee’s are actively engaged? Disengaged? “Gallup's engagement ratio is a macro-level indicator of an

organization's health that allows executives to track the proportion of engaged to actively disengaged employees.

In world-class organizations, the ratio of engaged to actively disengaged employees is 9.57:1.

In average organizations, the ratio of engaged to actively disengaged employees is 1.83:1. “ (Gallup website)

2. Why would I care? Attrition!

3. What does employee engagement have to do with attrition? Everything!

The Definition of Employee Engagement

"a heightened emotional connection that an employee feels for his or her organization, that influences him orher to exert greater discretionary effort to his or her work".

Source: The Conference Board


Key Drivers of Employee Engagement

1. Trust and integrity – how well managers communicate and 'walk the talk'.

2. Nature of the job –Is it mentally stimulating day-to-day?

3. Line of sight between employee performance and company performance – Does the employee understand how their work contributes to the company's performance?

4. Career Growth opportunities –Are there future opportunities for growth?


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Key Drivers of Employee Engagement

5. Pride about the company – How much self-esteem does the employee feel by being associated with their company?

6. Coworkers/team members – significantly influence one's level of engagement

7. Employee development – Is the company making an effort to develop the employee's skills?

8. Relationship with one's manager – Does the employee value his or her relationship with his or her manager?


Assess and Address Current Environment

“Each year the average company loses 20-50% of its employee base” - Bain & Company*

“Replacing a lost employee costs 150% of that person’s annual salary” - Columbia University*

“Research by Gallup and others shows that engaged employees are more productive, more profitable, more customer-focused, safer, and more likely to withstand temptations to leave.”- Gallup **

*Quoted in an article by Kyle LaMalfa, Loyalty Expert and Allegiance Best Practices Manager

**Gallup website

The Business Impact of Employee Engagement: The CorporateLeadership Council completed a study of the engagement level of 50,000 employees around the world. Those employees who are most committed perform 20% better and are 87% less

likely to leave the organization. (Source: Corporate Leadership Council)

“Actively disengaged employees erode an organization's bottom line while breaking the spirits of colleagues in the process. Within the U.S. workforce, Gallup estimates this cost to be more than $300 billion in lost productivity alone.”(Gallup

website)


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“There is one key to profitability and stability during either a boom or bust economy: employee morale.” Herb Kelleher, founder of Southwest Airlines


Assess Current Environment…

Conduct an Employee Engagement Survey1. Determine engagement level of current employees 2. Are they thinking about leaving? 3. Are there employees you want to keep? Wish would

leave?Hold Focus Groups

1. Tenured and New2. Strong and Average Performers3. Quiet, Influencers, Leaders

Analyze findings to determine extent of the issues and next steps


Address Issues…

Create Communication Plan1. Sharing Results 2. Outlining Next Steps3. Providing regular status updates on the initiatives

Develop a Retention Strategy which include…1. Assess recruiting, hiring and onboarding process2. Make available development opportunities 3. Establish KPIs that support accountability and are fair4. Develop rewards and recognition program5. Ensure supervisors and managers spend the majority of their

time focusing on their teams

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Determine and Prepare

Determine Staffing Needs…

Current Attrition Rate vs. Predicted Attrition How many people might you lose?When will you need to start hiring?Do you have the budget? Space?Work with Workforce Management

Determine and Prepare

Prepare to hire…

Update job descriptions and associated competenciesCoordinate with Human Resources to create a recruiting

and hiring planCoordinate with Training to schedule staff and facilitiesReview facilities, space and determine IT involvementProvide additional training to Managers and Supervisors

Evaluate and Address

Evaluate training and onboarding…

Review training and onboarding processes Identify training gaps as determine through agent

performance metrics, quality and coaching results and feedback form both the management team and agents

Update training and onboarding processes neededConsider adding a mentoring program as part of the

onbroading process

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Preparing for Attrition after the Recession

Brent Haferkamp and Susan LangwellICMI Certified Associates & ICMI Certified Consultants

[email protected] [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

Documents

Preparing for Attrition after the Recession