The South African contact centre industry employs more than 200 000 people and has shown consistent growth of 15% per annum over the past decade.
This is according to the 'Human Capital Focus Report for the Contact Centre Industry', conducted by local contact centre consulting and services group, C3Africa.
The report follows calls for the disbanding and banning of labour broker and flexible staffing employment practices. The implications of this threat, states C3Africa, would have severe negative effects on the industry as a whole, with tens of thousands of jobs at stake.
The survey's results indicate that HR management practices in most sectors of the South African call centre and BPO industry are positive and healthy.
Between 60% and 75% of most contact centre's operational costs are vested in the recruitment, training and remuneration of personnel, the survey revealed. However, the survey also suggests new staffing strategies will have to be devised in 2010, as a typical agent remains in the call centre between 12 and 24 months.
Findings indicate that some of the primary reasons for high agent attrition are salary related, frustration with IT systems, lack of career development initiatives, job design, and leadership development.
“South African contact centres certainly appear to be striving to build world-class operating environments” comments Rod Jones, marketing director of the Ascentys-C3Africa Group.
“However, to succeed in our prevailing economic conditions, businesses need to enhance their competitive advantage through the retention and development of key staff, and by providing exciting and dynamic career options to all levels of personnel, starting with the agent pool,” he states.
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