Impact of Attrition

Benchmark Study
Results from August 2007 Survey
Impact of Attrition Survey

Request sent to Knowlagent internal

database via email
Title Breakdown
251 responses
Unknown
3%
Other
19%

Manager
38%

Number of Agents

VP
17.2% 18%
More than 1000

33.3%
Less than 100 Director
22%
11.7%
501-1000

10.6%
301-500

27.2%
101-300
Organizational Goals
Please select the category that most closely matches that of the most
important goals in your call center.

Revenue/Sales related 15.6%

Customer satisfaction related

68% of goals are
40.2%
Customer loyalty related 4.5%
customer satisfaction,
loyalty or experience-
Quality related 8.6%
related.
Cost related 3.3%

Customer experience related

22.1%
Net promoter related 0.8%

Other (please specify) 4.9%

Organization's Success Towards Most Important Goal

Did not meet goal
39% of respondents 4%

were partially or Exceeded the goal

completely 25%

unsuccessful against Partially met the goal

their highest stated 35%

goal.

Met the goal

36%
Ranking Challenges to Goal Achievement

What are the key obstacles to achieving the goal? (all that apply)

Other 14.3%

Agents not the right

personality fit 29.5%
Agents without right
skills and knowledge
41.0%

Agent attrition 52.5%

Organizational
alignment 21.7%
Other goal(s) in conflict
23.8%
Not enough resources
37.7%
Not enough budget
19.3%

Attrition ranks the highest. Other issues addressable via hiring

processes also stand out – personality and skill mismatches.
Impact of Attrition

Impact of Attrition on Achieving Goals

Doesn’t affect
success at all
2% Major reason for lack
of success
Has little effect on 15%
success
13%

Gets in the way of

success
70%

Attrition significantly impacts success at 85% of companies.

Attrition Across the Agent Lifecycle

17 15 17 13
22
29
4 6
8 16
9 5
13
12 8 3 Do not track
5
14 3 17
12 >50%
19
20 31-50%
19
20 20 21-30%
18 27 11-20%
19
0-10%
21
41
36
29 26
24
13

New hire Less than 90 90 days to 1 1-3 years More than 3 Overall
training days on the year years attrition
floor

When reporting on attrition at different stages, respondents

typically reported lower numbers than what would be expected
when reviewing the overall attrition percentages.
Why does attrition occur?

Rank order the top 3 reasons for attrition.

The agent has a poor relationship with the

supervisor

Other

The agent does not have a clear career path for

advancement
Number 1
The agent does not have the right knowledge
Number 2
and skills to perform the job
Number 3
The agent isn’t a good personality fit for the job

The job is not what the agent expected

The agent leaves to make more money

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

While increasing salary is selected most often as the cause of attrition, the most
highly ranked reason is related to unclear job expectations. When Number 1 and
Number 2 rankings are combined, increased salary, unclear expectations and
personality fit appear to be equal contributors to attrition.
Battling Attrition

Rating Method Effectiveness Against Attrition

Increasing salaries 13 21 35 13 2 16

Focusing on career growth opportunities 12 30 34 13 1 11

Improving/Creating mentoring programs 11 36 27 7 1 19

Implementing supervisor-agent coaching programs for

19 40 26 7 8
existing agents

Increasing training and communications to existing agents 19 40 29 7 15

Improving new hire training and nesting 17 50 22 5 7

Using assessment tools for hiring 11 23 34 6 3 22

Very effective Effective Somewhat effective Not very effective Not effective at all Method not in use

The methods most reported as effective against attrition are improving new hire training
and nesting, increasing training and communications and implementing coaching
programs.
Success Over the Long Haul

Rate Long-Term Effectiveness Against Attrition

10%
Lowered initially and
20% more since then.
Have not addressed.

31%
13% Lowered and stayed
Unsuccessful in at or near that level.
lowering.

26%
Lowered temporarily
but has since
increased.

While 41 percent have had success lowering attrition and at least keeping it steady,
39 percent have either been unsuccessful or were unable to sustain results.
Where would the savings go?

Applying Cost Savings From Lowering Attrition

Apply towards the

bottom line
33%

Invest in highest
stated goal
49%

Invest in secondary
goal(s)
18%

Most respondents would take costs saved from attrition reduction and apply
towards their most important goal.
About Knowlagent

Knowlagent has enabled

companies around the world to
manage call center agents for 13
years.
Hiring
Training
Communications
Coaching

Easy to use on-demand software

No capital expenditures
Deployable in 30 days
Accessible via the Web
Enabling more companies to optimize
frontline performance faster and more
affordably than ever before.

For more info:

kengle1@knowlagent.com