What is Attrition in the BPO

One of the common challenges experienced by every industry is Attrition, especially in the IT and BPO Sectors. In the BPO or call center industry, manpower plays a pivotal role in the industry’s growth and revenue generation. Needless to mention, every company leaves no stone unturned to retain talent, but despite that, there are various aspects that contribute to manpower attrition and hence attrition has been a continuous challenge for the BPO sector.

Today in this article of  “Attrition in the BPO ” we will walk you through the attrition metrics in BPO  and  the common reasons for attrition in a company followed by some important tips to control the attrition.

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Now, without further ado, let’s discuss our topic ” What is Attrition in the BPO?”

What is Attrition in the BPO?

Attrition term is commonly refers to a process of decreasing number , size of any matter. The same way attrition in corporate is the process of decreasing  or leaving  number of employees . We can simply define the attrition  below:

“A gradual decrease in employee numbers that primarily occurs due to staff  leaving , termination or voluntarily retirement.”

In call center or BPO, representatives are the back bone of the industry hence their attrition puts and adverse effect on operations and revenue , especially the attrition of tenured agent. Hence for the sake of understanding, in this article the term “attrition” should related and refers to the attrition of call center or customer support representatives .

Now, let’s understand how we can categorize Attrition in the BPO.

Attrition Categories:

Attrition in an organization or BPO can be primarily categorized under 2 categories:

1. Voluntarily Attrition – it means , when an employee leaves the organization with “advance notice or willingly”
2. Involuntarily Attrition – When an employee “asked to leave: or “terminated” by the organization.

Further in the article we will understand both the categories of attrition in detail and also discuss some common reasons of Voluntary and Non-Voluntary Attritions.

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Let’s start:

Common Reasons of Attrition in the BPO

As mentioned above a call center experts can leave the organization voluntarily or may be asked to leave by the manager for certain reasons let’s first understand Voluntary part

Voluntary attrition : The process where an employee willingly wants to resign or leave the organization is counted under Voluntary Attrition.

Although, there are could be various reasons for Voluntary Attrition but some common reasons are outlined below :

1. Better Job Opportunity : One of the common reasons cited by most of the call center experts as they look for growth in their career.
2. Higher Studies : Other common reason, where employee leaves the organization to pursue further studies
3. Retirement : When employee is at the retirement age , or wants voluntarily retirement.

In addition to above mentioned reasons some other common reasons are  Sabatical leaves, Poor work life balance, No recognition in job, lack of career enhancement etc. which pushes employees to end their tenure with the company and they put down their papers.

We will publish a full blog shortly on “Voluntary Attrition” , covering all the aspects or reasons of attrition and how to control the attrition.

Now , let’s discuss some common reasons for involuntary attrition :

Involuntary Attrition refers to those instances where, employee is indulge in some activites that voilates the rules and regulations of an organization and lead to termination from the company. Some common reasons for involuntary attrition are:

1. Termination : An employee may be asked to leave from the organization due to poor performance, behavior issues, fraudulent activities , indulge in data fudging etc.
2. Downsizing : When there is a process ramp – down or company decides to budget cuts.
3. Merger and Acquisition : When a giant comapny acquire a small comapny or there is a merger of 2 companies , rist of involuntary attrition becomes very high.

While in no way attrition can be considered good, but involuntary attrition can lead to a toxic environment in the company and remaining employees may feel insecure about the jobs, low confidence and feel work pressure.

You can read a detailed article on call center ZTP ( Zero Tolerance Policy) here

Now let’s discuss some proven tips (in brief) to control the attrition :

Tips to Control Attrition:

Having experience of 15 + years in call center industry , I have listed 5 proven tips to control attrition :

1. Conducting regular RNR programms.
2. 1:1 Meeting or Skip sessions with experts.( once a week)
3. Prepare  RAG or EWS tracker  bi-weekly or monthly.
4. Keep a tab on experts behavior ( especially at month end).
5. Create a welcoming work environment

Conclusion:

After reviewing above mentioned reasons for attrition , it becomes imperative to address attrition in the BPO for sustained success. Although, retaining 100% talent or maintaining 0 % attrition is not a plausible task, but industry can work on several programmes to control attrition in the BPO. Ultimately, a stable and committed team is the bedrock for delivering exceptional service and ensuring long-term profitability in the dynamic landscape of BPO operations.

FAQ :

Now it’s time for some FAQs related to Attrition in the BPO :

Q1. What is the idle Attrition rate in BPO ?

Ans : The idle attrition rate for BPOs should not cross 10% of the process.

Q2. What is Attrition in the BPO or Call Center?

Ans : Attrition is a process where employee leaves the organization due to various reasons

Q3.  How is Attrition Calculated?

Ans: The formula to calculate attrition : (No of agents left the organization )/ Avg of Headcount *100

I hope this blog will help you to understand the basic of attrition in the BPO and other industries , for more informative blogs related to call center , data science and data analytics , subscribe to our daily newsletter.

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