There's long been a large focus on customer experience (CX). Now, employees are having their day as organizations begin to prioritize employee experience as well. According to a recent Deloitte study [1], 84% of organizations rate employee experience as important, with 28% ranking it in their top three most pressing issues. Evolving worker demographics and the historically low unemployment rate of recent years have acted as catalysts for change as companies fight to increase employee engagement and reduce turnover. This has led to companies spending an average of $2,420 per person on employee experience initiatives in 2019 [2].
What is employee experience?
Employee experience is the sum of everything an employee encounters while she does her job. This can include physical environment, supervisors, peers, technology, nature and volume of work tasks, training, and more. All of these factors add up to form an overall experience that shapes the employee's opinion of her job and employer and influences her satisfaction level. Employee experience shouldn't be confused with employee engagement. Employee engagement is a measure of an employee's commitment to their employer and its business goals. Good employee experience is often a means for increasing employee engagement.
Employee experience in call centers
Call centers have mirrored the rest of the business world by launching agent experience (AX) initiatives. In an area plagued by high turnover, AX initiatives have the potential to decrease attrition and increase engagement. Increasing agent satisfaction and engagement lead to a better customer experience, so the stakes are high.
There are many directions from which a call center can and should approach improving AX. For example, technology tools play a significant role in agent experience. According to a recent NICE inContact /ICMI study, when asked what made it hard to work in customer service, 30% of agents cited inadequate/hard to use systems. Conversely, "having the necessary tools to perform my job duties effectively" was the number two factor for driving engagement.
Agents want technical tools that make them more effective at their jobs while also helping with their professional development. The best cloud call center software can address these goals, and many more.