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White PaperThe Power of Retention: Maximizing Value in Centers of Excellence

In the contact center business, one single factor dramatically affects the success and real business outcomes of your contact center operation. What is it? Employee retention.

In this white paper, John Yanez, Chief Operating Officer at Qualfon, explores the value of employee retention, explains how any contact center can make significant improvements in retention and engagement, and demonstrates why tenure should be a number-one priority for both you and your outsourcing partner.

Today’s Value Challenge

Managing a contact center network to service customers is more difficult today than it has ever been. Competition is fierce for employees and, as a result, employee attrition is on the rise and customer loyalty is on the decline. In the current landscape, companies face an array of challenges to navigate:

Rising healthcare costs and wage rates are reducing profit

margins

The need to deepen customer relationships at reduced costs

Optimizing the tradeoffs between service delivery quality and

driving down costs

Yesterday’s Solutions: No Longer Effective Gone are the years of simple business solutions. Executives are finding that their old tactics are no longer an option for solving customer-related problems or achieving a competitive edge.

Old Solution #1: Improve Quality and Customer Satisfaction by Throwing Money at the Problem In the past, companies with customer relationship issues used to throw money at the problem. Today, that is no longer an option, since budgets are tighter than ever.

“Qualfon has recognized that

employee retention and

engagement are the

number-one drivers of value

for both our clients and our

customers. But it’s rarely

recognized as a champion

of success in call centers

today. This publication

explains why tenure is so

critical today and how you

can leverage the power of

retention for top-quality

customer experiences at the

lowest price.”

-John Yanez Chief Operating Officer

Qualfon

The Power of Retention: Maximizing Value in Centers of Excellence

White Paper


Old Solution #2: Outsource to Reduce Costs

Previously, many companies reduced the cost of their customer service and customer management services by outsourcing, then by offshoring for labor arbitrage, and then by asking providers for price reductions. Today, however, these options have been exhausted. Pricing has stabilized and outsourcers are under the same pressure to improve their own profitability. In addition, outsourcers have flocked to the same geographies—and sometimes even to the same building—limiting the available options and increasing the overall competition for top talent.

Today’s Solutions: Mildy Effective? Today, executives have high-tech solutions at their fingertips, but these high-priced technology investments often deliver mixed results.

New Solution #1: Big Data Makes Big Promises to Improve Quality and Customer Satisfaction

Many outsourcing providers now offer analytics and big data solutions to aid companies in doing more with less. All the hype around big data equates to big promises, but is the investment worth the outcome? Analytics can identify issues and opportunities but they do not actually solve them. Knowing the problem is only half the battle. The big data risk is that it can often overload the outsourcer’s client in data complexity, making it difficult to turn information into insights and smart improvement plans. These solutions also require the client to have the cleanest, most up-to-date customer data—preferably in a single database. So, many times the data prep work and back-end integration costs can be a barrier to entry.

New Solution #2: Automation Cuts Costs—or Does it?

Another popular approach is to automate customer service and create online self-service portals or interactive voice response (IVR) systems that push interactions to more cost-effective communication channels. Despite the fact that many simple and routine functions have already been automated, a high number of customers still prefer to interact with a real person via the phone, chat, or email. Furthermore, websites and self-service tools are not always effective at deflecting interactions away from the contact center. In fact, many reports show that more than half of inbound calls are from customers who first attempted to resolve their issue using self-service. Last but not least, automating the

“Everyone is trying to

build deeper customer

relationships with fewer

dollars, and it’s not easy

to do. After the

recession, companies

have squeezed out

every last efficiency, and

now they’re turning to

high-tech solutions that

come with costly

investments and high

degree of technical

complexity and

difficulty.

What many companies

are missing is this: they

need to go back to

basics and focus on the

largest factors driving

the highest costs in

their customer

management

ecosystem—in most

cases it’s the people-

related costs.”

-John YanezChief Operating Officer

Qualfon

From the

EXPERT


customer experience is not typically a good long-term strategy to deepen customer relationships and increase customer lifetime value.

Qualfon’s Solution: Employee Retention

With yesterday’s solutions no longer effective and with high-tech solutions delivering inconsistent results, where can customer-focused executives turn for surefire solutions that increase service quality, reduce costs, and deliver more value to customers?

Qualfon believes that within the contact center, the answer lies in employee retention. Why retention? Because it’s the only solution management teams have seen that creates a consistent and truly exponential effect on the traditional value equation:

Value = Quality/Price

In fact, Qualfon has found that contact center agent retention acts as a mathematic multiplier of value, which is why Qualfon labels this effect:

“The Power of “r”

r = retention

V = (Q/P)r

Value = (Quality/Price)r

Quality: Highly tenured, engaged employees provide high-quality

customer experiences

Price: Higher employee retention rates reduce operational costs,

which lowers the cost of service

Value: Overall value is raised to the power of “r,” where “r”

equals retention, delivering more value and driving customer

loyalty

Retention: a mathmatic multiplier of

value

From the

EXPERT

“As an industry, we have

just gotten used to the

fact that high attrition

rates are in contact

centers all around the

world. But

complacency is getting

in the way of success.

When companies start

focusing on retention,

they witness numerous

improvements—from

service quality and cost

to customer

satisfaction.”


Qualfon


Retention: a Solution Often Overlooked

Companies often overlook retention as a solution for increasing quality and decreasing costs in the contact center because executives and managers have become immune to the high agent attrition rates that are so common today, especially among outsourcing providers. In outsourced contact centers around the world, monthly attrition rates of 8-10% have become the industry standard and people are blindly accepting these rates for a variety of reasons. First, they may not understand the magnitude of the problem, or they may see it as “just the nature of the business.” Many times, though, people accept these rates because the attrition data is obscured, so it actually seems better than it actually is.

A Word to the Wise: There are Many Ways to Calculate Attrition

There are many different ways to calculate attrition and the approaches and formulas used to generate attrition percentages vary widely from company to company. A best practice is to use an “all-in approach” for the calculation, meaning that from the minute an employee agrees to work for you, you should be tracking attrition. If a new employee doesn’t show up for the first day of training, that’s attrition. If a new employee attends initial training but doesn’t show up for the first day of nesting or production, that’s also attrition. In general, when someone unintendedly leaves the organization, it should be counted in the attrition numbers (except if the job is eliminated due to business reasons or demand fluctuations).

This all-in approach creates the most visibility into attrition and helps companies identify high attrition, but not all companies adopt this approach. Here are some of the situations, exceptions, and variables that can obscure attrition:

Not Counting Early Attrition: Removing attrition that happens

in training, nesting, or even during the first 90 days of production.

Excluding Part-Time Employees: Part-time employees are

sometimes seen as insignificant and excluded from attrition.

Attrition rates

of 8-10% are

the industry

standard

An “all-in approach” to

attrition creates more

visibility


Not Counting Attrition during a Ramp Period: Sometimes

outsourcers exclude attrition numbers when a new center or

program is ramping up.

Using a Staffing Agency during First 90 Days of

Employment: Sometimes outsourcers will use staffing agencies

to recruit and hire people and, for the first 90 days of

employment, those people are technically employed by the

staffing agency. After 90 days, if the employee is performing well,

only then will they become an employee of the outsourcer.

Confusion between Staffing and Attrition: Let’s say at the

beginning of the month you have staffed your program with 300

people and by the end of the month you only have 282 people.

This means you have 18 fewer people or a 6% drop in staffing.

Some confuse the issue by associating this staffing percentage

with the attrition percentage. You may have lost 27 people during

that month but were able to hire 9 people during the same period.

So, the attrition percentage is actually then 9%—not 6%.

Only Counting Voluntary Attrition: Attrition is categorized as

voluntary (unforced), which is when the employee decides to

leave, or involuntary (forced), which is when the company

decides to terminate the employee. Sometimes outsourcers

report their voluntary attrition percentage as their overall total

attrition number.

Additional Best Practices for Calculating Attrition Of course, this all begs the question: when should someone be excluded or not included in an attrition calculation? Here are a few commonly asked questions and valid arguments for exclusions:

Job Elimination: If you have to reduce staffing 10% because

there has been a 10% reduction in inbound volume from

customers, should that be counted as attrition? No. Job

eliminations due to demand fluctuations or situations that are

beyond the contact center management’s control should not be

included in the attrition calculation. More than likely, the team is

Sharpenyour attrition calculations with these

tips


still managing the contact center well, and therefore, it should not

“punished.”

Temporary Employees: Let’s say you increase the number of

agents during the holidays to cover increased volume, and then

you ramp down again after the holidays. Should that ramp-down

be counted? Typically, no. Holiday workers are not included in

the attrition calculation, since the people hired were temporary

workers, and they knew (at the time of their hiring) that their

employment would end after the holidays.

Job Change: What if an agent in a customer care program

moves to a different program for sales or gets promoted to a

supervisor position? This person must be replaced, but should

this count as attrition? No. Typically this is referred to as positive

attrition, and it is not included in the overall attrition calculation.

The waters get very muddy when discussing attrition, and it can be difficult to sift through what should be counted as attrition and what should not. The topic of calculating attrition could be a white paper in and of itself. Ultimately, it is up to the organization to decide, but no matter what you decide, it’s good to always track attrition and track on a monthly basis the different reasons why someone is no longer in their position.

Inconsistencies in the calculation explain why it can be a difficult to use an attrition number to effectively manage your contact center organization. This is why Qualfon encourages discussions around agent tenure, which is typically reported in average months/years—not as a percentage. It’s an easier calculation to generate. (Simply report how many months agents stay.) Plus, agent tenure rates can create a clearer picture of how attrition impacts your organization over a longer period of time.

How Retention Solves the Value Challenge

Qualfon has found that both internal and outsourced contact centers that address attrition and retention—rather than accept it—are the industry leaders that achieve the greatest value and deliver a sustainable competitive advantage. Qualfon studies have shown that contact centers that reach high retention rates exponentially impact the price and quality of services and also drive significantly more value.

Agent tenure is an easier

and clearer calculation


How does this happen? First, let’s look at how attrition affects both service quality and price.

P = Price: Retention Drives the Price Down Employee retention rates are directly connected to operational costs and, therefore, the cost of contact center services. The largest costs in customer

management are the people-related costs: wages, healthcare benefits, recruiting, training, and management. Together, these account for about 75% of the total costs in the contact center business1. So, retention is responsible for some of the largest drivers of operational costs.

The Real Price of Attrition: Replacement Costs Knowing that attrition and operational costs are tightly connected, a simple model can be used to determine the financial impact of your existing tenure rate on your overall replacement costs. How to Calculate Your Replacement Costs

You can calculate your average replacement cost by adding your cost to hire an agent to your cost to train an agent. Remember that job advertising, recruiting staff, and testing are all factors in your cost-to-hire. Your cost-to-train includes the cost of trainers and the money needed to pay agents during training and nesting periods.

Replacement Costs: a Significant Expense when You Have Average Tenure

Qualfon has found that on average, a contact center agent who works for an outsourcing provider will stay on the job for 10 months. This figure is based upon our experience in the outsourcing industry and interviews with other companies that utilize outsourcers. Qualfon believes contact centers can double the industry average tenure to 20 months or more because, even in a competitive outsourcing market,

Agents stay for only

10 months on average

Operational expenses (largely driven by people-related

costs and retention) directly influence service costs

1. IBISWorld Industry Report OD4794, Business Process Outsourcing Services in the US, April 2014, https://www.ibisworld.com/industry/business-process-outsourcing-services.html


we have experienced these levels of tenure. We also believe that even captive or internal centers can significantly improve their retention rates no matter where they are today.

Utilizing an industry survey by ICMI, Qualfon created a model for determining replacement costs and the related average agent pay. If companies keep an agent for only 10 months, 18% of the cost of that agent went to replacement costs (hiring and training). This means, on average, companies have a replacement cost of 18% across the organization.

If companies keep an agent twice as long (20 months), they only have a replacement cost of approximately 9% (see Figure 1), which is a 9% savings on the total labor expense and a reduction of approximately 50% in replacement costs. Simply put, if you double your retention, you can cut your replacement costs almost in half.

Figure 1: The Impact of Tenure on Replacement Costs

20-month

tenure can cut

replacement

costs in 1/2


Outsourcing Tip: An outsourcing provider with an agent retention

or tenure rate two times higher than the industry average should be able to provide services at a lower cost structure, resulting in savings of approximately 9%—regardless of the outsourcing location.

Q = Quality: Retention Drives Quality Up Retention and tenure not only have an effect on price, they also impact the quality side of the value equation.

Although there are many factors that impact performance, tenure has a positive correlation with performance and service quality. It typically takes an agent five months to reach a baseline performance. Before that, agents are “bottom-box” performers and are considerably weighing down the overall performance of the group. It is estimated that agents achieve “top-box” performance at 12 months of tenure. The caution here is that if average industry tenure is only 10 months, most companies are losing agents before they reach peak performance. So, average tenure rates typically result in average performance.

Figure 2 is a model showing the impact tenure has on performance, based on industry studies regarding average call handling time (AHT), which is a cost measure, and customer satisfaction (CSAT), which is a measure of the quality of service. This demonstrates the performance difference between agents with 10 months of experience versus those with 20 months of experience. Qualfon studies show agents with more tenure outperform their lesser experienced counterparts; however, we encourage you to perform your own analysis in your internal or outsourced contact centers.

Retention drives the quality of service up with engaged

employees who provide top-level performance and

service quality

Average tenure results in average

performance


Figure 2: How Tenure Affects Performance

Outsourcing Tip: Ask outsourcing providers to share their

average agent tenure rate, because it is an indicator of both the quality of service and also the consistency of performance. An outsourcer with an average tenure of 10 months may perform well one month and then poorly the next month—due to high attrition. It is difficult and costly to manage an outsourcer with fluctuating performance.

Reducing the Price and Improving Quality through Performance

Performance is usually determined by a scorecard that combines several key performance indicators (KPIs). Some KPIs, such as customer satisfaction, sales, and quality, measure the quality of service, while other KPIs, like average handle time (AHT) and first contact resolution (FCR), measure cost efficiency. There is a balance between these measurements, but tenure has a positive correlation with both.

Tenured Agents Outperform: Agents with 20 months of experience increase CSAT by 5% and decrease AHT by 5%.


Qualfon’s studies show that there is a 5% reduction in AHT when a contact center moves from 10 to 20 months in tenure (see Figure 2). This can translate into significant cost savings that ultimately reduce the price side of the value equation. The same is true when tenure increases create improvements in FCR—you eliminate the need for additional customer interactions and create cost efficiencies that can reduce the price of the service.

On the quality side of the equation, a 5% increase in customer satisfaction (see Figure 2) might not seem significant, but it is. The difference between an 85 and 90+% CSAT rating can be the difference between satisfying customers and delighting them. It is also important to remember that, even though CSAT is on a 100-point scale, the average range is typically from 75-100%, which is actually only a 25-point scale. Many studies have been performed on CSAT ratings impacting customer loyalty and customer referrals, and a 5% difference is significant.

Achieving Top-Box Performance As explained in Figure 3, the outsourcing industry’s average tenure rate of 10 months means most agents are leaving before they reach top-box performance and, more often than not, these contact centers are reaching only average performance. Overall, average tenure is a losing battle that ultimately becomes a threat to program sustainability and leads to a Turnover Danger Zone (see Figure 3). If contact centers can double tenure to 20 months, they are much more likely to reach top-box performance.

A 5% increase

in CSAT is

significant


Figure 3: The Impact of Tenure on Top Box Performance

The Turnover Danger Zone: Traditionally, agent turnover is high during training and throughout the first 90 days of production. This is considered the Turnover Danger Zone. During this time, agents are bottom-box performers who are not yet making significant performance contributions—yet hiring and training costs have already been invested. Basically, you’re investing more in new agents than you’re getting out of them in positive performance.

Top Performance Relies on Tenure: Contact centers with an average tenure rate of 10 months typically fall short of top-box performance. If you can reach a 20-month tenure, you’re much more likely to reach top-box performance.


The Multiplier Effect of Tenure

The power of retention has a multiplier effect on quality, price, and value. This effect is apparent when you assess performance based on tenure, using a return on investment (ROI) model (see Figure 4). If it takes five months before agents positively contribute to performance, contact centers make a five-month investment in agents before they reach a positive return on investment, or what we call a return on performance (ROP). The ROP can be measured by how long you keep agents after that initial five-month investment. If the average tenure is ten months, your ROP is only five months; however, if you double your tenure to 20 months, your ROP is not just doubled—it is tripled to 15 months. This is an important example of how the power of retention acts as a multiplier and can have an exponential effect on quality, price, and value.

Figure 4: The Tenure Multiplier Effect on Performance

Tenure Multiplies Performance: A 20-month tenure rate (2Xthe industry average) creates a 3X return on performance.


The Cost of Industry-Average Attrition When outsourced contact centers increase tenure rates to twice the industry average, they cut overall hiring and training costs by almost 50%, but Qualfon has found that, in general, most companies/clients have simply begun to accept the average attrition rate of 8-10% from their outsourcing providers.

Why the blind acceptance? Part of the reason is that attrition rates are just that—average. So, people view it as “not that bad” and when companies take a look at the alternatives for moving beyond the average, many see them as not feasible or just not available.

All this complacence and acceptance comes at a cost, though. How much? Figures 4 and 5 outline the impacts of accepting the average attrition rate versus the benefits of achieving an attrition rate that is one-half the industry average.

Small Operations take Big Hits to Talent, Flexibility

Figure 5: How Attrition Impacts Small Contact Center Networks

Smaller companies and those with small, outsourced contact centers are often the hardest hit when it comes to average attrition rates. Due to economies of scale, small contact center operations tend to struggle more with the performance and management challenges caused by attrition. First, small operations suffer more because staffing flexibility and scalability is often an issue. Second, knowledge and expertise is

8-10% attrition rates are accepted but they hurt

business


spread across a small-sized group. So, when talented people leave, the effect is greater.

Small, centralized and outsourced contact centers are particularly vulnerable to high attrition, especially in provincial locations. In these situations, the cost of attrition is high because these centers are “churning and burning” through the local labor pool, and, when sustainability becomes an issue, the center undoubtedly faces the cost of relocation.

Large Operations Lose Millions of Dollars

Figure 6: How Attrition Impacts Large Contact Center Networks

Large, outsourced contact center operations may seem to be immune to the challenges of smaller outsourced centers, but they still have struggles of their own; for instance, in large, decentralized operations, knowledge transfer becomes an issue. High performance often hinges on the ability to ensure skills and know-how flows from trainers to a vast and geographically diverse population of agents. When knowledge doesn’t transfer, performance suffers and attrition often rises.

Average attrition rates are costly for both small and large contact center operations but, obviously, the negative impact is amplified for large companies. While the big boys can tout about economies of scale, they typically pay heavily for attrition because these operations are more likely to accept the industry average attrition rate. In fact, when you observe large, outsourced contact center networks in the comparison chart, you see that if they have 5,000 agents with 9%

From the

EXPERT

“To compensate for

average attrition, large

operations are forced to

create high-volume

hiring and training

organizations. Even

worse, they may

strategically select

outsourcing partners

based on their ability

to rapidly hire and

replace agents—as

opposed to selecting a

partner that can

improve retention and

therefore drive higher

performance.”


Qualfon


monthly average attrition, they must hire and replace 450 agents on a monthly basis—that’s like launching a new small contact center every month!

Large or small—companies simply cannot afford to ignore the average attrition rates in the outsourcing industry.

What to Do About High Attrition: Creating

the Employee Loyalty Reaction

Understanding the impact that retention has on price and quality, many see employee engagement as the most important factor in improving retention and tenure. Employee engagement is an employee’s involvement with, commitment to, and satisfaction with work, and it is a known factor in driving employee loyalty.

Qualfon has found that when employee engagement reaches a very high level, contact centers achieve the “loyalty reaction,” which dramatically increases both tenure and performance. And, this is true in both internal and outsourced contact centers. When you invest in them, they’re much more likely to be committed to your success—that’s the essence of the loyalty reaction.

Figure 7: Creating the Loyalty Reaction with Employees

The Loyalty Reaction S-Curve: When companies impact the personal lives of their employees, commitment turns into loyalty, which dramatically increases performance.

Invest in them and they will be invested in your success


Three Levels of Engagement Most companies will tell you that they focus on employee engagement and loyalty, but the degree to which they actually put programs and services into place varies widely. The following shows how to differentiate the leaders from the laggards.

The Baseline: Employment

Most companies address the basic building blocks of employee loyalty, typically known as “work hygiene.” This base-level effort focuses on the employees’ work and concentrates on providing appropriate compensation and adequate job training, as well as a professional work environment. These efforts result in basic employee satisfaction. Employees know how to perform their duties and they are satisfied with the job and the pay. This is the first level of engagement but it does little to provide a meaningful experience for employees.

The Average: Commitment

When companies begin to focus on employees at work and in their personal lives, they can take engagement to the next level. This elevated level of effort focuses on additional aspects of their work environment by ensuring employees have a skilled and talented manager, career opportunities, professional development, and a deep corporate culture that people believe in and uphold. This second level of engagement also begins to make an impact in an employee’s life by offering social activities outside of work to increase the sense of belonging. They may also offer volunteer opportunities to make an impact in their community. This raises the level of involvement because it shows employees that their personal needs (both at work and in life) are being addressed.

The Leaders: Achieving the Loyalty Reaction

To make an even bigger impact on engagement, retention, and tenure, companies need to go beyond the work environment and influence the things that matter most to people—like health and wellness, spirituality, and family. Health is important, since it impacts what people are able to do with their lives. Spirituality is also a key. Qualfon believes that each person has a unique purpose in life and, for many people, this purpose is rooted in their spirituality. So, providing inter-faith support at work can be very powerful. Family is also critical. Whether or not spirituality

From the

EXPERT

“To really drive a

difference in employee

engagement,

companies need to

move past work life and

do things that make

peoples’ lives better.

You have to find what

makes your employees

tick and design around

that. Move outside the

corporate comfort

zone of career

development and job

training programs and

start inviting spirituality,

family, hobbies,

community projects,

and mental health into

the workplace.”


Qualfon


is important to someone, they typically believe that a large part of their purpose is their family. Whether they are the head of the household or a member of their extended family, contributing to the welfare of their family is a deep purpose in life. Connecting with the a person’s personal purpose in life is the third level of engagement and these approaches typically shift employees from a benchmark of commitment into a true loyalty reaction, because the company is aligning with their personal purpose.

How to Create the Loyalty Reaction

If companies want to create the loyalty reaction in their own centers, there is a three-part philosophy that Qualfon has found provides a helpful foundation. In developing the basis for a loyalty plan, Qualfon concentrated on these three primary ideas:

1. Every person has a unique purpose in life.

2. Encourage each person to discover their purpose,

3. Help them achieve that purpose.

These foundations have helped Qualfon build a loyalty strategy by starting with the employee in mind and then creating a service-committed culture that also benefits clients, their customers, and the communities in which we operate.

Seven Components for Creating the Employee Loyalty Reaction

1. Leadership and Commitment from the Top: It is extremely difficult to create a company culture that is at odds with the culture of upper management because the culture of upper management eventually dominates. So, leadership support and commitment to employee engagement strategies and loyalty-building programs are crucial. It can also be helpful to include employee engagement in your company mission and purpose statements.

2. Create a Shared Purpose that is Meaningful at Work and In Life: It is incredibly valuable when a company embraces a mission that impacts your employees’ purpose in life, while also aligning with the purpose of the company. Contact center organizations actually have a great opportunity to rally around

“We had to take our old

way of thinking and

turn it inside out.

Instead of building a

loyalty program from

the company out to the

employee, we built it

from the employee to

the company.

“We found that

employee engagement

comes naturally when

you keep this one

simple rule in mind:

“It’s not about what

you can get out of your

employees. It’s about

what you are investing

in your employees.”


Qualfon

From the

EXPERT


the idea of service by serving both customers and also those around them, like employees, family members, friends, co-workers, and people in the community.

3. Customization is Key: A company’s loyalty-building approach needs to be hyper-localized. What is important to employees in the United States can be drastically different than what is important to employees in the Philippines or Mexico. Design programs and services around the needs of your employees and their surrounding communities.

4. Measure Employee Engagement: Explore ways to measure your employee engagement and put meaningful incentives around it. Consider making it an executive-level priority to track how well your company performs in the areas of employee loyalty. Ensure that these measures are part of the overall performance scorecard so they are prioritized and assigned significance.

5. Don’t Just Train Your People—Develop Them: Too often, companies train a person to do the job they are currently performing and forget to develop that person for future opportunities. Invest in professional and personal development programs to enable your people to be better prepared for future opportunities.

6. Managers and Supervisors are the Key to Success: Although leadership and support from the top is important, nothing will be accomplished unless employee loyalty approaches are given to the local managers and supervisors. They are the ones who make a difference in the lives of employees, and they have to be entrusted with the loyalty plan and empowered to make a difference.

7. Employee Loyalty takes Time and Patience: Creating the loyalty reaction is not easy and it takes a lot of time. Because building trust doesn’t happen overnight. Cookie cutter approaches to social programs and employee services typically have limited impact. The programs need to involve your people and develop over time, so your people know they work for a company that cares about them personally and professionally. In addition, it then takes some time for your people to embrace

Qualfon takes a unique approach to employee enagement and loyalty.

It has incorporated the concept of caring for employees into the company mission statement and has created a Chief Mission Officer role and Mission Index to help measure its ability to achieve the loyalty reaction.


your loyalty plan but, when they do, you can truly achieve the loyalty reaction.

The Loyalty Reaction: Qualfon’s Unique Approach Qualfon takes a unique approach to driving the loyalty reaction. It has a Chief Mission Officer to keep the company dedicated to employee engagement and retention. The Chief Mission Officer’s primary responsibilities involve generating engagement (by specifically touching the personal lives of employees), and tracking how well Qualfon cares for its employees (through the use of its Mission Index Scorecard).

Qualfon’s Mission Index Scorecard measures four key areas: employee satisfaction, job opportunities created, employee volunteerism, and employee retention. Executives have identified performance targets in each of these four categories and they are included when incentive bonuses are calculated for the management team. These steps ensure Qualfon is not only measured on business success, but also on how well it invests in its people. Figure 8 is a sample of the types of programs and services Qualfon offers to help stimulate the loyalty reaction.

A

Chief Mission

Officer tracks loyalty


Figure 8: Qualfon Mission Programs

Conclusion

Employee retention or tenure is clearly one of the biggest drivers and real multipliers of value for contact centers and their clients, yet it is often the most overlooked solution for increasing performance while decreasing costs in customer service and sales operations. Companies that invest in employee engagement and partner with contact center providers that make retention a top priority ultimately achieve the highest quality customer experience, the greatest value, and significant competitive advantages.


About Our Expert: John Yanez, COO John Yanez is an accomplished global executive and captive operations professional with +20 years of call center and business management experience across onshore, offshore, and near shore locations, including North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. As Qualfon’s COO, Mr. Yanez is responsible for operational

excellence, building strategically tailored solutions and ensuring that Qualfon continuously delivers on client needs. Prior to joining Qualfon, Mr. Yanez served as vice president and general manager for Stream Global Services, where he was responsible for managing a client business unit driving strong, value-add client solutions across service delivery sites in North America, Central America, Europe, Africa, India, and the Philippines. While at Stream, Mr. Yanez established high client retention while he delivered significant growth through his client relationships. Prior to joining Stream, Mr. Yanez served as senior vice president of international operations at TeleTech Holdings, where he had full responsibility for the service delivery of clients generating $550M in revenues and driving retention and growth for all international clients. Mr. Yanez has also held senior-level management positions at InterSight Technologies and Equifax Canada. Mr. Yanez is based in Tampa, Florida.


About Qualfon Qualfon is a people-driven business process outsourcing (BPO) company and a global provider of call center services and back-office processing. With experienced BPO leadership and a strong track record of business growth dating back to our founding in 1996, Qualfon helps companies reduce costs and deliver superior customer experiences. Today, we have 11,000 employees serving international brands across many industries, and our intelligent outsourcing locations span the United States, the Philippines, Guyana S.A., Mexico, and China. Qualfon’s mission to “Be the Best BPO, Make People’s Lives Better” means we invest in our people and, in return, they take better care of you and your customers. Qualfon’s employee retention is twice the industry average, which creates a people-driven value chain: Our employees stay longer, providing you a higher quality service at a lower price.

Learn more at www.Qualfon.com or contact us at 1-877-261-0804.

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