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The article discusses attrition in the business process outsourcing industry.

High attrition rates are ruining BPO service levels

If you have, or are looking at, a strategic business process outsourcing partner, you need to ask them about their attrition. Poor attrition rates have been killing BPO service levels for years. In fact, the industry standard for annual attrition is more than 50%.

These attrition standards are ruining service levels because when a BPO is hired by a company to provide offshore staff or a managed service, they must hire and train employees to perform that function. As those employees learn and get better, so does the service. If those employees leave, then new employees must be hired and trained and, naturally, the service level decreases. If this is happening frequently, one can see the negative impact on the level of service being provided by a BPO partner.

Setting a new standard

At Connext, we recognized this from the beginning and set our annual attrition goal at 20%. We have not met that goal every year, but we have come close. The result is a better, more consistent level of service to our clients.

Connext Annual Attrition Data

Managing Attrition more Effectively

All companies can work at managing attrition more effectively. We have consistently achieved close to our goal by doing a few things at each stage in the employee lifecycle.

  • Recruiting and Selection
    • Multi level screening
    • Skills assessment
    • Automated risk assessment
    • Client validation
    • Employee Referral strategy
  • Training and Orientation
    • New hire orientation
    • On the job training
    • Employee retention training for leadership
    • Retention bonus programs
  • Separation
    • Exit interview
    • Continuous improvement analysis
  • Performance and Culture
    • Events, recognition, and team building
    • Hybrid or work from home setup available
    • Frequent compensation and benefit calibrations
    • Coaching and support
    • Loans and charity

Ask your BPO

If you have a BPO vendor or are evaluating several, you should absolutely ask about their attrition rates. Not only does it give you a good view into how they treat their employees but it will also tell you a lot about the level of service you are going to receive.

If you thought this was interesting you should check out our Connext Cares program for employees.

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