Member Article

Contact centre troubleshooter takes on NE

A Sunderland-based business is now offering its services to the North East’s contact centre industry in an attempt to stem the flow of staff moving from job to job and to identify exactly why people leave contact centres.

Emma Cordiner of Denalli believes that the increasing demands placed upon contact centre staff can account for poor productivity and high attrition rates. Her findings are based on her experience in recruitment for the contact centre industry.

“Contact centres in our region literally waste £188 million on recruitment and the training of staff who stay with a company for a short period of time and then move on to other positions within the sector,” said Emma.

“Unfortunately, sometimes without realising, these businesses let their staff down by not valuing their work, through bad management practice or simply by a lack of ongoing training. In many cases people move jobs for reasons other than for better rates of pay.”

Emma’s business involves a three step process to analyse problems, make recommendations and then provide solutions, while with training companies, universities and other experts.

“Because I am totally independent from the contact centre management structure, I have found that staff are willing to tell me in confidence what the problems are in an organisation,” said Emma. “I am then able to suggest solutions to the management which will ensure that dissatisfied staff stay with the company – in many cases with an increased sense of value and motivation.”

There are more than 50,000 people employed in the contact centre business in the North East and the industry boasts a staff growth of around 5% each year. However many contact centres experience a 20% to 30% staff attrition rate.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .