Is this plausible?
Contact centers depend on frontline workers to create exceptional customer experiences (CXs). However, with average annual attrition hovering around 42%, the industry has struggled for decades to hire people who stay and perform well. Data suggest that attrition-related problems are accelerating despite advances in recruiting and talent assessment technologies.
A 2004 U.S. Call Center Industry Benchmark study reported attrition of 33% compared to 42% in 2022, a trend consistent with year-over-year increases in the broader U.S. economy (see Figure 1).
FIGURE 1: 2011 - 2021 ANNUAL ATTRITION IN THE U.S.
High attrition requires centers to hire more people to maintain headcount; it’s an expensive cycle. The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) estimates that, across all jobs, companies spend $4,683 to hire one person. However, the contact center industry’s median cost per hire is substantially lower at $1,750, according to ContactBabel.
An alternative to generic benchmarks is to calculate cost-per-hire directly. Figure 2 outlines internal and external expenses that affect a company’s cost-per-hire.
FIGURE 2: COST-PER-HIRE CATEGORIES
Box 1 below shows that it costs $2,250 ($94,492 / 42 hires) to hire one person in our featured 100-seat center. Our estimate is less than half of SHRM’s benchmark and 29% higher than ContactBabel’s median.
So, the myth that the average cost-per-hire for a contact center agent is $4,683 is plausible but unlikely. We draw this conclusion for three reasons.
First, the $4,683 estimate is an average across jobs, including executive roles.
Second, a few very high cost-per-hire estimates are inflating SHRM’s estimate.
Third, the expense categories highlight the role of market-specific factors, such as office space, in cost-per-hire calculations.
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**Excerpt from The Hard and Hidden Costs of Attrition by Mark Alpern and Brent Holland published in December 2022 in the Contact Center Pipeline magazine
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