In large and small operations, turnover among agents has long been the bane of call center managers. The challenge starts with hiring the right people, but it doesn't end there. To stay afloat, call centers have to encourage them to remain.

Think a struggling economy means agents feel more secure about staying put than looking for something better? Don't count on it. As Services Editor Brendan Read has written in previous articles, businesses tend to locate call centers within unsaturated labor markets, as long as they expect to fill positions from among the local workforce.

A location's unemployment rate doesn't guarantee that agents aren't considering other jobs within the same area. This scenario applies to Royal Caribbean, which found earlier this year that competition for agents exists even in a city where unemployment has risen.

It's hard to believe the cruise company has competition. Royal Caribbean offers call center agents jobs in which they can advance quickly, plus the chance to earn free cruises. To ensure new agents didn't jump ship, the company had to help these agents feel connected with colleagues after initial training.

Changes to training also proved to be crucial at Baker & Taylor, where call center managers learned that agents didn't have to receive training by the book - or at least the same book. By allowing agents to develop proficiency with specific skills, the book wholesaler's call center reduced turnover and enabled agents to perform better.

How call centers convince agents to come aboard varies widely. Amenities like fitness rooms attract applicants, and agents may enjoy using them. But amenities alone don't retain staff. Whom you hire, and how you train them, are what determine if agents stay on board.

Royal Opportunities for Agents

Wichita, KS, is a city best known for airplanes. It's the headquarters of Cessna, Learjet and Raytheon Aircraft, as well as Boeing's manufacturing operations.

Wichita is also the point of origin for another form of travel. As we described in our case studies from our July 2000 issue, the city is home to Royal Caribbean's main call center in the US.

Agents at the center take calls for Royal Caribbean and for Celebrity Cruises, a sister cruise line. The center is open from 8 am to 10 pm on weekdays and from 9 am to 7 pm on weekends. Margo Watkins, regional human resources consultant with Royal Caribbean, estimates that between 80% and 90% of calls are from travel agents; the rest are from passengers.

The cruise company opened the Wichita center in 1997 to be a backup location. That was in case hurricanes hit Miami, FL, the city where Royal Caribbean had based its primary call center.

In September 2000, Royal Caribbean expanded the Wichita center, which had accommodated up to 350 agents. At 89,000 square feet, or nearly four times its previous size, the building houses one of the largest call centers in Wichita.

As of this fall, the center in Wichita employed 525 agents, close to double the number of agents at Royal Caribbean's center in Miami. Between the two centers, agents in Wichita now answer the majority of the calls.

An increasing number of agents came on board the Wichita center this year. To put the hiring during 2002 in context, look at the center's training classes. Each class runs four weeks, each with between 25 and 35 new hires. Agents start answering calls from customers during the last week of training.

In 2001, Royal Caribbean's center in Wichita conducted seven classes. At press time, the center had held eight classes for new hires so far in 2002, and scheduled three more for the rest of the year.

Despite the center's growth, turnover was high enough at the start of this year to prompt Watkins to change how the center hires and trains staff.

Royal Caribbean expanded its recruiting efforts beyond newspaper ads to include senior centers, colleges, career fairs, Kansas' employment Web site and the local urban league. Given the dominance of the aviation industry in Wichita, Royal Caribbean includes McConnell Air Force Base among locations from where it seeks agents.

The Wichita center offers a number of amenities, including catered lunches and a fitness center with full-time fitness instructors. If that weren't enough, agents receive a free cruise after a year on the job.

But one reason for turnover, says Watkins, stemmed from the difficulty of evaluating applicants.

"We weren't getting enough information," she says.

Royal Caribbean now conducts a three-hour assessment with each candidate. The assessment includes The DeGarmo Group's (Bloomington, IL; 309-828-4344; www.degarmogroup.com) Call Center Fit Index, a test that evaluates if a candidate is a good match for the position of call center agent. The test also determines the candidate's likelihood of staying in that job beyond a few months.

To learn how candidates respond to customers, Royal Caribbean uses Employment Technologies' (Winter Park, FL; 800-833-3279/407-865-6644; www.etc-easy.com) Call Center Simulation, software that presents candidates with examples of calls agents generally handle.

The cruise company is also keeping better track of people who apply for jobs at the Wichita center. In November 2001, Royal Caribbean established a waiting list of candidates. As the center has hired more agents, the list has shrunk to 570 applicants this fall from 1,100 in March.

The cruise company gives first priority to applicants who come with recommendations from current employees. These employees can earn $100 if the agents they refer stay with Royal Caribbean beyond a 90-day probationary period.

Watkins discovered that the 90-day time frame presented another opportunity to reduce turnover. She observed that agents felt lost in the shuffle because the agents they started out with in training classes weren't necessarily the same people they worked with.

So the center set up a voluntary buddy system, where more seasoned agents serve as guides to their less experienced colleagues. At press time, the number of mentors had grown to more than 60 from eight in March.

Agents can advance quickly within the center. Most agents can apply for promotions after six months in their positions. The exceptions are agents who handle reservations for groups; they need a minimum of a year in their positions to apply.

Besides becoming supervisors, agents can take tests to join a group called the core team. Watkins refers to this group as "the cream of the crop."

Members of the core team perform various functions. Some help with training new hires. Others maintain the distribution of calls between the centers in Miami and Wichita. Still others update agents' schedules throughout the day or assist agents on the floor. Watkins herself works closely with a core team member in human resources.