Employee Retention Management in Philippine Call Center Industry

Abstract

The Philippines is considered to be one of the best places to offshore call center operations because of lower labor costs and it having English as a second language. At present, the call center industry in the country is suffering from increasing turnover rates which should not be ignored. The objective of this study is to propose an employee retention management practice. This was done by getting an understanding of attrition and the factors influencing its numbers as well as the current retention management practices employed in the industry. Two hundred ninety seven (297) call center agents were taken as respondents to a self-administered survey questionnaire that looked into the factors affecting turnover. Focus group discussions involving 30 call center agents were also set up to validate the results of the quantitative questionnaires. Results of the study identified career advancement, compensation, and workplace friendships as reasons affecting turnover intent of the respondents. Though remuneration was identified to be a measure of job satisfaction for call center agents, their relationship with co-workers impacts their decision whether to act or not to act on their turnover intentions. Recognizing the present financial difficulty that the world is facing, call center companies might not see increases in compensation feasible. Therefore, the researcher recommended that management integrate humor in the company culture as well as in communication and leadership aspects of call center operations. The use of humor to foster positive relationships within the workplace can possibly make the agents stay longer considering the friendship they might lose if they leave their current organization.