Factors responsible for employee turnover at Boomerang Outsourcer Call Centre in the Cape Metropolis

Abstract

This study set out to investigate the factors influencing staff turnover at a domestic outsourcer call centre. The goal of this study was to identify the factors that influence employee turnover both from within and outside of the workplace. The desire to create job stability in the market and the rising young unemployment rates in South Africa are what inspired the idea for this study. The research also intended to explain why specific factors, which may be directly or indirectly related to the job or employee, affect an employee's tenure at a position. At Boomerang, a questionnaire was used as the primary instrument for gathering data. Agents on the operations floor who have worked in one or more of Boomerang's campaigns made up the sample for this study. Because the research did not concentrate on any time-influenced factors, their employment status as of the distribution of the questionnaire was not relevant. The questionnaire was split into three main categories, section A was the biography, getting to know the respondents and how they relate to the job. Section B was the Likert scale, and this had statements that addressed the fundamental research and the respondents had to rate them on a scale of 1 to 5 were 1 was Strongly agree and 5 was Strongly disagree. Using Zoho Survey, a survey distribution tool, the questionnaire was made available online and this proved to be much easier than hard copy distribution. Zoho Analytics, a data analytics tool that parses raw data into usable insights, was used to classify, edit, code, and analyse the acquired data. This software is used for both batch and non-batch statistical analysis that is organized and logical. Because it is user-friendly and will help with transforming the data to graphs, charts, and other forms, the data analysis tool that was chosen can be used to store and interpret the data. Some excellent aspects were brought up in the comments that the company is doing well, such as cultivating a cordial atmosphere and a joyful culture among the peers. However, according to the responses, the research found that a lot of factors influence how long employees stay at a company. Low income or looking for better opportunities were the most frequent causes. Most respondents pointed out the necessity for the business to match industry norms for compensation and suggested that, among other things, they could reconsider. Given how frequently questions about compensation are raised, management in the payroll department has been found to be deficient in some responses. That was noted to be frustrating because one can never know if they are getting paid correctly or not, hence there is inconsistency. While some of the responses indicated neutrality in most of the questions, this gave the researcher a picture that management needs to be more proactive in engaging with their agents as this indicated one of two things, either they don’t know, or they don’t care. In conclusion the research revealed that among the many other reasons that employees leave the company in particular the call centre under study, its remuneration. Whilst the responses that focus on management were varied from good to bad, the general consensus with regards to remuneration is the same, employees are not happy with their remuneration mainly because the cost of living in South Africa is rising and employees feel management should adjust remuneration in line with the job market and the cost of living. As the research showed, the findings from this created a platform for future research with a key focus on employee management within the confines of the contact centre industry. While this research focuses on South Africa because of its current economic and labour problems, this can be extrapolated to a a global scale to which the same concepts of research can be applied. The only distinguishing factor would be how the industry operates within the global context Also, future studies and avenues of research can be conducted on Motivation and Leadership as theories in the other types of call centres like international captive contact centres, domestic captive contact centres and international outsourced contact centres.