This appendix provides information on using a call center to resolve EEO issues, benchmarking for call centers in the public and nonprofit sectors, and examples of savings from consolidating calls.

USING A CALL CENTER TO RESOLVE EEO ISSUES OR ACCEPT CHARGES

The U.S. Census Bureau hired hundreds of thousands of temporary employees to carry out the decennial census data collection and related activities. As part of its human resources infrastructure for the 2000 census, the Census Bureau set up a small call center that provided informal EEO counseling services for its staff from October 1, 1997 through September 30, 2002. The call center had an 800 number that was well publicized throughout the country and provided to all applicants and employees. The ten counselors who staffed the call center were selected for their background and experience in dealing with difficult issues, their in-depth knowledge of agency human resources and EEO rules, policies, procedures and practices, their interpersonal skills and their negotiation skills. They received additional training in specific techniques of EEO counseling over the telephone and special issues unique to the decennial census, such as the large number of temporary employees.

The call center was available during business hours. The counselors provided basic information about the EEO process, helped callers assess whether there was merit to their concerns, took the complaint information over the phone, assisted in working with employees and management when it appeared an informal resolution to the complaint was possible, and sent out notices of the right to file a formal EEO complaint when appropriate. The counselors also were responsible for logging all complaints into an automated database that tracked the progress of each complaint through the entire process and writing the counselors' reports that were sent on to the EEOC and the Department of Commerce when complaints became formal. The Census Bureau's assessment of this call center was that it was successful in terms of providing employees immediate nationwide access to skilled, trained EEO counselors and in resolving less complicated EEO issues.

The cases referred to the EEOC were not as successfully resolved because the EEOC was unable to staff the function at a level necessary to process and resolve complaints on a timely basis. The Census Bureau experience does, however, provide a case study of how to use call center technology and process to receive EEO complaints. The total number of complaints received was 3,501, of which 2,067, or 59%, were resolved informally by the telephone center counselors.

The Census Bureau's investment was relatively modest. The average salary, plus benefits, per counselor was approximately $66,500. Other expenses included desks, phones, phone lines, space and supplies. The Census Bureau estimates that their total expenses ran approximately $900,000 per year.

BENCHMARKING AMONG CALL CENTERS

In a comprehensive study of public and private sector call centers, the Purdue Research Foundation collected data from ninety-three federal, state, local, nonprofit, and public education institutions.(42) The data on which it reported covered such things as time-per-call, time in the queue, caller satisfaction, training time for new staff, average talk time, self-service options for callers, the extent of outsourcing for public call centers.

Among the study's findings were that:

· The public sector averaged 12% fewer errors per 1,000 data entries during an inbound call.

· Training time for new staff averaged 148 hours in business-to-business call centers, 156 hours in business-to-consumer centers, and 159 hours in the public sector.

· Caller satisfaction (defined as the proportion of perfect scores callers give) was highest in the public sector centers (59%) and lowest in business-to-consumer centers (45%).

· Staff turnover is a major issue for all call centers, ranging from 22-25% per year.

· For the government centers, 48% of staff at federal call centers were outside contractors, while state call centers had only 10% and local call centers had 8%.

· Federal call centers also had more self-service calls (in which customers got answers from a voice-prompt menu) than other sectors-24% for federal, 14% for state, and 11% for local centers.

These are not necessarily benchmarks for which EEOC should aim. Certainly, it will take longer to train an EEOC call center staff member to answer questions and take charges for the many laws EEOC enforces than it would take to train a customer service agent for a mail order firm to process orders. However, it could take almost as long to train a state call center employee to provide information on the state income tax system as it would take to train an EEOC call recipient. Thus, there are public sector organizations to which EEOC can look as examples of communicating complex information over the phone.

The distribution of costs was different among the call centers for the three levels of government, as shown in Table D-1

Table D-1
Proportions of Public Sector Call Center Costs(43)

There is more information on this study and other studies of call centers at
[ www.benchmarkportal.com.]

EXAMPLES OF SAVINGS FROM CONSOLIDATING CALLS

Calls centers provide two sources of potential savings, "pooled" labor and reduced information technology costs. Table D-2 illustrates an example of potential labor savings as the number of call centers are reduced. The information and assumptions used in preparing the table are:

· The number of groups/centers refers to the number of physical places where calls are handled.

· Agents required refers to the number of individuals needed to handle a given volume of calls.

· Occupancy means the amount of time the service provider is actually handling calls during the work day.

· This example is based on the following assumption for a "peak half hour."

- Call volume = 585 calls

- Average handling time = 210 seconds

- Service level is 80/20 (meaning that 80% of the calls are handled within 20 seconds of the first ring, which is the call center industry "gold" standard

- Annual salary of service provider is $35,000.

Table D-2
Potential Labor Savings with Varied Numbers of Call Centers

Source: Kramer & Associates, Cincinnati, OH.
[www.kramerandassociates.com]

While EEOC telephone calls have a wide range of time required depending upon the information or assistance the caller seeks, the example in Table D-2 illustrates the kinds of savings that properly equipped and managed call centers can produce.

_________________

42. Anton, Jon, Government Call Centers: Performance Benchmark Report, published by the Center for Customer-Driven Quality of Purdue University, Lafayette, Indiana, and sponsored by American Management Systems. April 2002.
43. Ibid., p. 36.

To continue to Appendix E, please click here