High Turnover? Your Supervisor Could Be the Problem

By Barbara Burke

The available pool of high performing tele-professionals is shrinking by the day, causing call enter managers to take a closer look at the reason good employees leave. A recent national survey of 100 American workers by Interim Services, a national staffing and consulting concern, discovered that poor supervision is a top driver of employee turnover.

“Many companies overlook one of the most basic components of employee retention – the quality of the supervisor. No matter how much a company invests in fringe benefits, a bad supervisor can override that effort and cause employees to leave,” the study found.

How do you know if a poor supervisor or team leader is part of your turnover problem? If any of the following symptoms sound familiar, take a closer look.
• Chronically poor performance numbers. Even though this is an obvious sign of trouble, many managers let it go on too long hoping the numbers will miraculously improve.
• Good people are leaving. Don’t trust the standard exit interview to give you the real story. Meet with each departing person personally; assure confidentiality and ask for help in making your call center a better place to work.
• Employee absences are higher than the norm. A string of absences might be due to the flu bug. It’s also possible that your best employees are interviewing with the new call center down the block.
• The supervisor plays the “blame game.” Many poor performers don’t take responsibility for their lack of success, preferring to place the blame elsewhere.
• Internal customers complain about output quality, timeliness or willingness to work toward common goals.
• Your gut tells you that something is not quite right. Even if you don’t have any rock solid information, pay attention to your intuition. Check it out.
If you conclude that the supervisor needs to be replaced, take swift and decisive action. In most areas of the country, skilled supervisors with good track records are scarce. Odds are good that your search for the right person will go on for several weeks. In the meantime resist the temptation to hire anything other than a stellar candidate. No supervisor is better than a poor one.

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