Pay and conditions

Small pay rise for agents…and call centres can’t keep them

Retention has overtaken recruitment as a major staff issue, says the latest survey by Incomes Data Services.  Our exclusive article is by the author of the report, Catherine Chubb


PAY for call centre agents has changed less than in previous years because of tight benchmarking.  And employees are increasingly shopping around for the best pay and conditions, which means that employers are facing more problems with keeping staff than with recruiting them.

Recruitment and retention Call centres are experiencing difficulties with both recruitment and retention of staff but a larger proportion are experiencing more difficulties with retention.
Almost two-thirds (65 per cent) of respondents to the IDS survey said retention of staff was fairly difficult or very difficult, while almost three-fifths (57 per cent) of respondents had found recruitment fairly or very difficult.
There is a strong, continuing link between recruitment and retention issues, with organisations that have difficulties recruiting staff tending to have similar problems retaining staff, and a high staff turnover rate.  Of the organisations experiencing recruitment difficulties, almost nine-tenths (88 per cent) were also experiencing retention difficulties.
The main reason cited by call centres for recruitment and/or retention becoming harder was the difficulty finding employees with the appropriate skill sets, particularly in areas where labour markets were tight.  Other reasons cited for recruitment and retention difficulties included competition for staff from other call centres and other types of organisations. 

Salaries for customer advisors Our survey found the average starting salary for all customer service advisor (CSA) grades was £14,300.  The average midpoint salary was £15,800 and the average maximum salary was £17,900.  The median salary range had a starting salary of £14,000, a midpoint of £15,400 and a maximum of £16,700. About nine-in-ten organisations had a salary range for customer service advisors, as opposed to a single rate.

Small movement in pay ranges  There has been less growth in average salary bands for all grades of customer service advisor when compared with last year's survey. The average midpoint salary for all grades of CSAs has risen by only 1.3 per cent over the past year, compared with four per cent growth in the 2006 survey.  The average starting salary has only moved by 1.4 per cent, compared with 3.7 per cent the previous year and the average scale maximum has grown by 2.3 per cent compared with 4.8 per cent growth the previous year.  The small salary scale movements indicate the importance of benchmarking by companies against other companies' pay levels or “market rates”.

Pay by sectors The chart shows the average midpoint or spot rate salaries for customer service advisors in the seven main sectors represented in the survey.  The highest average CSA salary was in the public sector at £18,800 -- 19 per cent higher than the overall average for all sectors. This can be explained partly by the broader range of skills often required for many of the call centres in the public sector, for example fully-qualified nurses at NHS Direct provide medical advice to callers.  Also, call centre staff in the public sector are less likely than those in other sectors to be paid bonuses in addition to their basic salary.
There was a gap of £5,800 between the average midpoint salaries in the lowest and highest-paying sectors.  The lowest salaries were for customer service advisors in the leisure and travel sector, which had an average midpoint salary of £13,000 -- 17.7 per cent lower than the average for all sectors.

Pay reviews for call centre staff over the period July 2006 to July 2007 were mostly worth between 2.5 and 3.5 per cent, although a third of reviews gave rises over four per cent.  The overall median settlement level for call centre staff was 3.3 per cent, slightly lower than the median for the whole economy over the period of 3.5 per cent.  The telecoms and utilities sector paid above the median settlement level for the whole economy, with a median of 3.7 per cent. The public sector and retail sector brought down the overall median for call centre staff, as they accounted for some of the lowest pay rises applied over the period.
 

Sickness absence The average rate of sickness absence among the survey respondents was 3.9 per cent of working time or 8.9 days a year.  Recorded rates of absence by the IDS survey since 2003 have shown that average working time lost due to sickness is on a gradual downward trend. The most common measures introduced in an effort to reduce absence rates were absence management programmes and monitoring systems, return-to-work interviews, bonuses linked to attendance and occupational health programmes.

Profile

Catherine Chubb, who has worked for IDS for four years, is a researcher on the fortnightly IDS Pay Report.   She co-wrote and edited the research report on pay and conditions in call centres and her other main responsibilities include reports on pay and conditions in local government and pay in the finance sector.