In today’s digital world, technology is at the forefront of many conversations for its ability to increase efficiency and improve productivity, but Scott Budding, Sales Engineering Manager, UK & EMEA at Calabrio, explains how it can also benefit the contact centre’s most important asset — agents.
In the modern contact centre environment, agents hold the reputation of their organisation in their hands. Across millions of engagements, they are the voice of the brand with the power to make or break the customer experience. The stakes are high, and given nearly two-thirds of customers leave after one poor experience, it’s critical that agents provide the best possible levels of service.
A key part of delivering effective performance is to focus on agent wellbeing. Calabrio research highlights a concerning trend: 53% of contact centre employees experience stress-related symptoms, leading to significant challenges in maintaining key job skills. Critical thinking, empathy, and adaptability – essential for delivering high-quality customer service – tend to decline as agents become stressed and disengaged, jeopardising the customer’s experience.
When agent wellbeing declines, it doesn’t just affect the individual – it ripples across the entire customer experience – and can tarnish a hard-won reputation. The fact remains that agents who feel unsupported, overstressed, or burnt out are less likely to engage positively with customers, potentially leading to subpar service for customers – and then can easily lead to criticism in today’s digital age. This negative customer feedback can spread rapidly, leading to damaging consequences that make it harder to attract and retain customers in the future.
Moreover, the impact on agent productivity and retention rates can lead to a vicious cycle of short staffing and increased pressure on remaining staff, further exacerbating wellbeing issues, and affecting service levels. Put these issues together, and agent wellbeing is not just a matter of ethical employment practices but a strategic business imperative.
Harnessing Technology to Support Agent Wellbeing
Workforce management solutions today are enablers for more than just forecasting and scheduling. Organisations are now realising the potential to use such technology to empower and support their agents. This has become especially important over the past few years with the shift to remote and hybrid work models. Spotting wellbeing warning signs is not always a straightforward issue but being physically separated from their colleagues makes it difficult for managers to see if agents might be struggling. Traditional indicators, such as changes in physical appearance or body language, are often no longer visible, requiring managers to adopt new strategies to monitor and support their teams.
In this context, key signals can include changes in behaviour, such as increased absenteeism or a sudden drop in performance. As such, metrics like average handle time, silence time, hold usage, call disposition and after-call work time, are crucial in spotting stress or disengagement indicators. Additionally, communication patterns, both in customer interactions and internal communications, can reveal changes in an agent’s state of mind.
In practical terms, contact centre managers can harness a variety of technological solutions to support agent wellbeing, turning these tools into invaluable assets for identifying stressors and intervening before issues escalate. Options include:
- Embrace analytics: Use analytics platforms to monitor performance and behaviour metrics that could signal that an agent is struggling. In addition, tools that analyse sentiment can spot a change of attitude, even in the absence of traditional visual cues. These insights can help identify patterns that may indicate stress or burnout, before absenteeism or presenteeism starts to kick in.
- Implement supportive technologies: Technologies such as AI and machine learning can automate routine tasks, reducing agent workload and allowing them to focus on more complex and rewarding customer interactions. If there are effective plans in place (training & resource planning) to support dealing with continual complex & emotive interaction, this can significantly improve job satisfaction and reduce stress levels.
- Facilitate flexible scheduling: Workforce management tools that offer schedule flexibility can help agents achieve a better work-life balance, contributing positively to their overall wellbeing over the short and long term. Contact centres may choose to embrace self-scheduling capabilities as a way to offer flexibility. It allows agents to move their breaks and lunches, add extra time or take time off various calls and tasks.
- Promote virtual visibility and engagement: Utilise video conferencing and collaboration tools to maintain a sense of team cohesion and support, even in a remote setting. Regular check-ins and virtual team-building activities can help managers gauge team morale and individual wellbeing.
- Monitor performance: A performance monitoring system can track agents’ progress and identify areas for improvement. It isn’t about watching agents or spying on them, but being there to support them if they need it. Weighted scorecards that focus on the KPIs most important to your organisation can also be created, giving agents clear visibility into their performance trends and empowering them in their work and development.
- Offer targeted training and development: Leverage e-learning platforms to provide ongoing training and development opportunities, helping agents feel valued and engaged. Analytics can help support this initiative by identifying specific coaching and training needs for individual agents. Capabilities, such as live screen monitoring, allow supervisors to view agents’ screens in real-time, offering immediate feedback and guidance. It can also facilitate peer learning by showcasing top performers’ practices.
- Make time for training: Workforce management tools provide the visibility to help organisations understand how they can increase training and development opportunities whilst maintaining maximum efficiency. By providing real-time data on incoming traffic and performance levels, organisations can identify where demand is lower than forecasted and reallocate agents to training and development tasks on quieter days. This makes the best use of agents’ day, keeping them engaged in their work and providing the opportunity to dedicate time to their progression.
By prioritising agent wellbeing through strategic use of technology, contact centre managers can create a supportive work environment that enhances employee satisfaction, improves customer experience, and safeguards business reputation. In the digital age, where customer feedback is instant and widespread, the wellbeing of front-line staff is not just an HR concern but, increasingly, a foundation for wider business success.
Scott Budding is Sales Engineering Manager, UK & EMEA at Calabrio
About Calabrio
Calabrio is a trusted ally to leading brands. The digital foundation of a customer-centric contact centre, the Calabrio ONE workforce performance suite helps enrich and understand human interactions, empowering your contact centre as a brand guardian. We maximise agent performance, exceed customer expectations, and boost workforce efficiency using connected data, AI-fuelled analytics, automated workforce management, and personalised coaching. Only Calabrio ONE unites workforce optimisation (WFO), agent engagement, and business intelligence solutions into a cloud-native, fully integrated suite that adapts to your business.