From Riches to RAGs
RAG!! Red, Amber and Green.. Well, these are not the colors on a traffic signal this time, but in an embedded software of the ‘Early Warning System’ that indicates the likelihood of an agent leaving. Red indicates that the agent will certainly quit within 30 days, Amber suggests that the agent is at risk to quit and Green means that agent is satisfied in the position.
The term ‘Early Warning System (EWS),’ coined by Convergys, is a good way of combating agent attrition that is the major challenge today in the call center and BPO industry. While developing the warning-system software, Convergys penned down some triggers, including qualitative and quantitative data, which incite attrition. And after weekly meetings with individual agents, the team leaders enter the qualitative information onto this EWS software, which compiles and indicates the likelihood of agent attrition with RED, AMBER or GREEN (RAG) indicator.
Many other BPOs have followed suit. Infosys BPO too has a similar program called ‘Attrition Forecasting’ and Wipro BPO has something as ‘People Pulse.’ All these programs track employee behavior and intervene time to time in order to prevent attrition.
Reduction in attrition, though directly or indirectly, does affect the customer. But the effectiveness of such programs is a big question. How effective are they? And are there any other ways than such programs to curb attrition?
If you are a customer: Can you directly be involved in reducing the attrition rates?
If you are an employee: Have you been subjected to any such program? How has been your experience?
If you are an employer: What other ways do you use to check attrition? What is the success to failure ratio of such programs?
Write your mind here. Spill what your heart says too.
Almost all companies out there can probably claim a reduction in attrition over the past few years. As the economy churns and people become less confidant, they would rather stay where they are, presumably with some seniority – the old “devil you know” philosophy. The real problem with that statistic is that it is not statistically signifigant given the environment used to measure it.
Bob
Well.. as for the complete eradication of attrition, it is not possible.. but as far as proactive approach is concerned the team leads are certainly taking action by timely intervention.. but this intervention is possible only thru the EWS system.. Convergys claims that after incorporating this system, they experienced a reduction of 15 to 25% in attrition in 2006.
This problem of inflation in attrition has been faced by whole IT sector, and it has engrossed since the market is more receptive of skilled labor in the recent past.Now the reasons for attrition can be as diverse as the no. of employees.
EWS seems to be a long awaited solution for the employers, but the success of any such system which studies human behavior based on his activities is still under scrutiny of experts. Another thing is that such system will be reactive to the actions of employees rather than proactive i.e warning about whether an agent wants to leave the organization but important is not to let such circumstances to arise, as they say “precaution is better cure”, I think for more fruitful results employers need to be more proactive and eradicate the basic reasons of why an employee look out for fresh air.
Interesting concept..but then its effectiveness depends on the interaction between the team leaders and the agents-in the transparency,openness or lack of it…(”And after weekly meetings with individual agents, the team leaders enter the qualitative information onto this EWS software, which compiles and indicates the likelihood of agent attrition with RED, AMBER or GREEN (RAG) indicator.”) isn’t that a huge drawback?