DR . DEBRA BENTSON
FEATURE
OVERCOMING THE WORKFORCE CHALLENGES
HOW MANAGERS CAN ENSURE HAVING THE RIGHT PEOPLE AT THE RIGHT TIMES .
BY BRENDAN READ , CONTACT CENTER PIPELINE ; Q & A WITH DR . DEBRA BENTSON
ILLUSTRATION PROVIDED BY ADOBE IMAGES
Contact center professionals are , in today ’ s New Normal , facing multiple challenges . Chief of which is ensuring they have the right , qualified people in the right quantity at the right time who are productively providing topnotch customer-retaining-and growing service .
These leaders have their hands full . They are overbusy with meeting increased customer service expectations and handling staffing shortages and work-from-home ( WFH ) and hybrid working . All the while looking over their shoulders at the next possible disaster that threatens to disrupt operations .
To get a handle on these issues with helpful , doable insights , we recently had a virtual conversation with Dr . Debra Bentson . Dr . Bentson is an accomplished industry authority with expertise in workforce management ( WFM ) who has joined our Advisory Board ( To learn more about Dr . Bentson see Box ).
DR . DEBRA BENTSON
WHAT ARE THE PRINCIPAL CHALLENGES THAT CONTACT CENTERS ARE FACING WHEN MANAG- ING THEIR WORKFORCES ? AND WHAT ARE THEIR DRIVERS ?
A : Retention is a significant challenge . One driver is a psychological principle called hedonic adaptation : it means that we adapt to positive and negative changes to develop a new normal setpoint .
If a new agent is excited about their new job that excitement will diminish with time . Simply put , employees , like contact center agents , get bored and then disengage .
6 CONTACT CENTER PIPELINE