June 24th, 2022
How PrideStaff Employment Agency Can Help Manage Staffing Shortages During Summer
Call center staffing during the summer months is often a daunting task, especially since 35% of customer service leaders struggle to find talented hires. Being the holiday season, it’s likely that this is one of the busiest periods for your call center. It’s also a time when you’ll experience staff shortages because your full-time employees want to make the most of the weather for outdoor activities. Addressing this challenge requires creative solutions, which is why you need an employment agency like Pridestaff to ensure business continuity and an overall positive customer experience. Read on to learn more about why you should trust us to meet your seasonal hiring needs.
The Dangers of Employee Shortages During Summer
So, what are the consequences of having a customer service representative shortage?
- More extended queue periods—having fewer agents results in a mismatch between the capacity and demand, leading to a poor average speed to answer (ASA)
- Higher abandon rates—customers are only willing to wait for a certain period before hanging up
- Increased overtime expenses—as an employer, you might have to introduce high overtime wages to cover for the extended work hours your current staff have to put in to meet the volume
- Higher burnout rate—working overtime with back-to-back calls can result in fatigue or even attrition which would worsen your current shortage issue
- Negative customer experience—this is expected when you have long waiting queues coupled with fatigued call center agents
How Pridestaff Employment Agency Can Help You Meet Your Summer Staffing Needs
Here are a few ways our employment agency can help your business this summer.
1. We help you plan ahead
Since you expect shortages every summer season, why not plan while still having time? We help you analyze the previous year’s wins and failures.
A few questions that crop up include:
- What worked?
- What was the one issue that left your agents and customers frustrated?
- Did your capacity match customer demand?
We can help you strategize for future summer months by using these statistics. Doing so will ensure you are ahead of your competitors and satisfy your customers and agents.
2. Our staffing agency will carry out the entire hiring process
Once you’ve established that a staff shortage is unavoidable, the next step is to bring in seasonal employees. Although there are plenty of job seekers available, you want to make sure those coming in are a great fit and have the necessary skill set to ensure they do a great job filling in.
Pridestaff employment agency will perform background checks plus screen and shortlist qualified candidates. We will also train and onboard them. In the long-term, our employment agency will utilize the network of former agents who are already conversant with your business and will therefore need less onboarding.
3. We will help you implement workforce management solutions
A flexible work schedule is one of the ways you can reduce staff shortages during summer. Moreover, this option acts as an incentive for seasonal hires. We always recommend adopting workforce management tools to make scheduling easy. Your employees can also use these tools to select their ideal time slots for overtime.
4. Seamlessly adopt a hybrid work policy with our help
A hybrid work policy is another way to reduce shortages, primarily if your business operates on a tight budget. Keep in mind that you don’t need to implement this for the entire workforce. Instead, allow a specific number to work from home during the summer months, and the selection can be on a rotational basis. Doing so will improve your agents’ morale and improve productivity and retention.
5. We will ensure your team has the right technology
We cannot stress the significance of technology in preparation for busy seasons. Maintaining a positive customer experience requires adopting the right software. At the very least, this software should meet the following:
- Be easy to use
- Be scalable to adapt to different team sizes
- Have collaborative features to allow team members to work together to meet consumer demands better
- Have interactive functionality that managers can use to guide their teams
How PrideStaff Employment Agency Can Help You Meet Your Summer Staffing Needs
Customer satisfaction means short waiting queues, quick solutions, and effective communication. Meeting such demands can be challenging when your permanent employees are on leave in the summer season. Also, you don’t want to ask remaining employees to take on more work as it could result in burnout, resulting in a poor working environment.
Fortunately, PrideStaff has years of experience in providing staffing solutions. Whether you need temp-to-hire or strictly seasonal workers, our team will bring in the right talent.
Do you need clerical, administrative, or call center staffing services? Contact PrideStaff at 754.800.2850 for a free consultation today.