COGNITIVE LOAD
BY TROY PLOTT, NiCE
ILLUSTRATION PROVIDED BY ADOBE STOCK
THE SECRETS TO EFFICIENCY( AND AGENT RETENTION) BALANCING COGNITIVE LOAD GENERATES SMARTER SCHEDULES.
Through a pandemic, the Great Resignation, and difficult economic conditions, an age-old contact center challenge has become more complex: agent retention. According to Forrester, 63 % of contact centers deal with staffing shortages.
While there’ s no single cause or fix, a few factors rise to the top. Our 2025“ Managing the Modern Contact Center Employer Trends Report” found that workload and stress are today’ s leading causes of unmanaged attrition.
Nearly 40 % of North American survey respondents said that employee workload and stress are too high. This was six percentage points higher than reported concerns about pay or benefits; the spread is even greater in Europe, Middle East, and Africa( EMEA).
28 CONTACT CENTER PIPELINE
This increased stress can be attributed in part to the two factors( a) proliferation of digital channels and( b) customer service expectations that are now 24 / 7 / 365 globally and across multiple platforms.
Businesses no longer dictate where and how customers interact with them. Consumers are in the driver ' s seat, and they demand that organizations handle their customer service issues anytime and on any channel.
In fact, 60 % of contact center leaders say the number of channels agents are expected to manage and communicate on has increased, according to the survey. More than 80 % of respondents said they use email, 72 % said they use live chat, and 67 % said they use social media to serve their customers: all equal to or higher than those who use voice channels.
But while employees today handle more channels, adding new levels of complexity and stress, KPIs have remained the same and, in some cases, have become more stringent. In today’ s contact center, employees face substantially increased demands from both the market and their employers.
... EMPLOYEES FACE SUBSTANTIALLY INCREASED DEMANDS FROM BOTH THE MARKET AND THEIR EMPLOYERS.