5 (More) Contact Center Employee Engagement Trends

A new year isn’t just a good time to make personal resolutions—it’s also a great opportunity for businesses to take stock of what’s working, what isn’t, and seek out solutions that get them to their business goals.

And, if you’re a contact center in 2019, chances are focusing on employee engagement is one of your top priorities.

That’s why CallMiner joined forces with nGUVU—makers of nGAGEMENT, the employee engagement platform for contact centers—to discuss the employee engagement trends taking shape in 2019 that every contact center needs to know about. 

In my previous blog, I listed five employee engagement trends we expect to see in the coming year.

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Empowering Agents through Professional Development and Skill-building

Contact centers and call centers alike are notorious for their high turnover rates, with numbers ranging from 30% to 45% depending on which resource you consult.

That’s why any good contact center employee engagement strategy in 2019 needs to understand the root of the cause and develop employee engagement plans designed to alleviate the problem (or fix it altogether).

A lot of times, it comes down to a lack of future career opportunities or areas where agents can level up that lead to disengagement and attrition.

Contact centers need to invest in tools and resources that not only allow agents to carry out their jobs efficiently and effectively but grow their skillset for the future if they want to keep their agents motivated and engaged on the job for years to come.

A gamified learning management system (or LMS) is a great addition to any modern workplace that wants to strengthen their team.

By employing game-like mechanics—like leaderboards, badges, and rewards that facilitate learning and improving agent performance—in everyday work, managers can foster a sense of achievement and motivation that one-on-one meetings often can’t.

Digging Into Real-time Data

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle once wrote, “It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data.”

It’s a lesson contact center managers should no doubt keep in mind as they look to revamp their employee engagement strategy in 2019.

Measuring performance based on specific contact center metrics is not only one of the easiest ways to spot areas of improvement, but find out how engaged employees are. And, the more data you have (and the quicker you can access it), the easier it is to predict future trends—whether they’re related to peak performance hours, or stressors that cause employee dissatisfaction and absenteeism.

Looking at contact center data doesn’t just help managers do their job better. By offering agents easily accessible dashboards, agents can take full control of their performance, recognizing problems areas they may not have noticed otherwise, and inspiring them to better their quality of work not just for themselves, but the customer journey as a whole.

Recognizing Agent Health and Well-Being (to Prevent Burnout and Attrition)

Harvard Business Review recently reported that nearly 50% of employees feel constantly exhausted due to high-stress levels and physical demands at work (and not only that but the more exhausted they are, the lonelier they feel, too.)

It’s a shocking statistic that shows no signs of decreasing (the same study found that exhaustion levels had increased by 32% from even two decades ago).

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Contact centers can boost agent well-being and prevent burnout and attrition by fostering a more engaged workforce through gamification, which allows agents to socialize with one another through friendly competitions that re-emphasize shared goals and boost results.

The 2018 Global Talent Trends survey found that 50% of employees “would like to see a greater focus on well-being at their company.” Contact center managers need to make employee engagement a priority if they want to prevent burnout in 2019 and beyond.

Developing a Better Work-Life Balance for Agents

According to a survey conducted by Everest College, 83% of professionals feel stressed at work.

That’s especially the case in most contact centers.

Think about it: many contact centers and call centers are open 365 days a year to better serve their customers (and even the best agents are often encouraged to work long days and during peak hours). But, as we’ve already discussed, a high-stress environment can impact overall productivity and health, leading to absenteeism.

That’s why businesses are increasingly opting for flexible practices that allow workers to choose the hours they work (and, if the technology allows, from where) to minimize the effects of stress and develop a better work-life balance.

Such a shift in scheduling won’t always be possible for every contact center. But if you want to retain top talent, it may be a must. (A study from Indeed found that “more than one in four employees in organizations that are not perceived to support work-life balance plan to leave their companies within the next two years.”)

Giving Agents a Sense of Purpose

Fostering an engaged workforce isn’t just about accomplishing goals or improving performance, but connecting agents to the broader mission of an organization to ultimately make their work more meaningful.

The benefits not only have a lasting effect in the contact center but beyond its walls as well. (Studies have shown that developing a sense of purpose can improve your health and even make you live longer.)

By sharing an organization’s vision and mission, contact center managers are better able to demonstrate and define business objectives clearly, fostering personal growth by intrinsically motivating agents to succeed.

Want to learn more? Click here to access the full webinar.