• 4,000 firms
  • Independent
  • Trusted
Save up to 70% on staff

Home » Glossary » Shrinkage

Shrinkage

Definition

What is Shrinkage?

Shrinkage is a call center term for the period that people are paid for when they are not available to answer calls.

Shrinkage is the difference between the actual amount of working employees (budget) and those required to perform the primary duties (work) by which they are employed.

In other words, it refers to the difference between the time you pay your employees to serve customers and the actual time they spend doing it.

Several reasons can induce shrinkage. This includes some unknown ones that are not as apparent as some that are outside your reach.

Make consideration about shrinkage percentage scheduling the number of agents required to manage incoming call volumes.

Call centers that regard shrinkage as a major predictor of workforce management (WFM) while recruiting and scheduling strive to reach a high quality of operation at a lower rate.

Shrinkage can be categorized into two, depending on the factors that cause them.

External shrinkage

External shrinkage refers to factors that are outside the control of a company.

The most common reasons for external shrinkage include:

  • Employee absenteeism
  • Employee tardiness
  • Holidays/Public holidays
  • Employee sickness

Internal shrinkage

In contrast, internal shrinkage is caused by factors well within the control of a company.

These factors include:

  • Team meetings
  • Employee coaching sessions
  • Employee breaks
  • Attrition
  • System downtime
What is Shrinkage

Why is it necessary to measure shrinkage?

Calculating the shrinkage predicts the average number of employees who would not answer calls over the interval. This volume can vary, but the normal range is between 10% and 40%.

For this figure, you should now split your base personnel requirement by the consequence of arriving at the number of employees you should schedule.

Call centers that take shrinkage criteria into account in their planning and scheduling reach higher service levels at lower operational costs. They also do this by incorporating all call-related tasks in the forecasting and scheduling process.

How to calculate call center shrinkage

To calculate shrinkage, add the total hours of external shrinkage to the total hours of internal shrinkage and divide it by the total hours available. Then, multiply the result by 100.

Total Hours External Shrinkage

+

Total Hours Internal Shrinkage

Shrinkage % = ___________________________________________________ x 100

Total Scheduled Hours

During slow times, agents can take longer breaks or spend more time talking with their colleagues.

And if these extended periods of unavailability exist at times when your business does not accept a lot of consumer requests, you will need tests to assess the degree of shrinkage.

How to control shrinkage in the call center

Call centers can track shrinkage manually or by using cloud-based call center software. This helps in examining when and where shrinkage occurs.

In addition, the software can help decrease shrinkage in your call center. It’s important to remember that you cannot control or prevent shrinkage.

However, accurate shrinkage calculation can help businesses refine their operations, identify areas of improvement, and reduce shrinkage.

Here are some tips on how to control shrinkage and maintain a solid strategy for shrinkage reduction and regular monitoring.

How to control shrinkage in the call center

Make use of workforce management (WFM) tools

Workforce management features are now included in almost all call center software. The software can automate the shrinkage monitoring process, making it far easier and more efficient than the traditional spreadsheet method.

You may schedule agents and even allow them to create their schedules within a defined boundary using WFM tools. Skill-based routing is available in a few WFM solutions, which can improve the agent’s job experience.

Measure shrinkage continuously

Rather than being an annual or monthly effort, shrinkage monitoring should be a continuous and regular part of your business operations.

Since shrinkage is a characteristic that adds to your call center’s overall efficiency, you won’t be able to improve performance without keeping a near-constant shrinkage rate.

This is only feasible if you measure it regularly, which new-age call center solutions may help you do. Shrinkage may be measured using various criteria such as call volume, service level objectives, and average handling time.

Variations in these measures have a direct impact on shrinkage. However, tracking fluctuations can help you pinpoint the elements that influence shrinkage.

Address absenteeism

One aspect of shrinkage that you can manage is absences. Managers can recognize agents who take frequent vacations and handle the problem. Managers should interact with agents regularly to learn about their problems and frustrations.

Absenteeism is generally caused by dissatisfaction with the work they’re performing, which you may address by providing them with suggestions on how to improve it.

Keep your agents competitive

Dealing with customers’ repetitive questions might exhaust your employees, so it’s critical to keep them engaged. You may set up a rewards program to recognize them for their efforts in addition to offering training and mentoring.

Another approach to keep them competitive is to offer incentives. Recognition on leaderboards, badges, or actual presents such as trophies are all possible rewards for achieving a goal.

How shrinkage affects call centers

Call centers with high shrinkage rates cannot maximize profits from their business operations. Essentially, call centers are paying agents for work they’re not doing due to different variables.

Aside from directly affecting the bottom line of a company, shrinkage affects the level of customer service that call centers provide. Agent unavailability can have adverse effects on customer satisfaction.

When extraneous reasons keep agents from doing their jobs, customers may face longer call queues or not be answered at all. As a consequence, a call center’s customer experience may suffer.

Outsourcing FAQ

What is What is business process outsourcing??

Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is the delegation of business processes to an external service provider to a nearby or farther location. BPO uses various technology-enabled services to optimize the delivery of services.

Some of the usual outsourced business functions are the following:

Payroll Accounting Human resources Customer service Sales Marketing

In the case of content providers, these could mean hiring writers, remote editors, or virtual assistants.

BPO speeds up processes and enhances efficiency. Companies that outsource some of their business processes use their time on core services and competencies.

With this shift in focus, companies improve their current processes, which may result in improved customer satisfaction. BPO helps companies divert their resources to more critical business strategies.

Often, companies find it impractical to hire a full-time position in-house because of the cost associated with doing so. Outsourcing services can also help them save costs and resources in hiring suitable employees.

The definition of business process outsourcing (BPO)

In business process outsourcing, a company delegates its services to a service provider. It can be a local firm, nearshore, or offshore company.

Upon reaching an agreement, the service provider will then set up a team for their client. They will shoulder the costs and resources needed, including:

Office space Workplaces Connection Cloud storage IT infrastructure

The providers are responsible for tracking the staff's performance and progress. Meanwhile, the clients are responsible for providing the tasks, processes, and KPIs needed for their operation.

In some instances, they are also allowed to incorporate their culture and values into their team and absorb them as a part of their company.

What are the benefits of business process outsourcing (BPO)?

There are many benefits to outsourcing, as well as some downsides and risks.

Outsourcing powerhouses like the Philippines and India produce high-quality talent at a lower rate due to their low operational costs and full government support.

Since outsourcing companies hire and produce experts in the field, clients can ensure better results in their operations – whether in customer service, accounting, or marketing. Their staff are trained to ensure that their clients achieve the outcome they expect.

Companies are able to scale their staff depending on the demand and availability of their tasks. This also helps them improve their operations by letting their service providers contribute to streamlining their processes.

Outsourcing poses more growth opportunities for businesses of all shapes and sizes. While there are still drawbacks to this practice, it is safe to say that its advantages outweigh its risks.

To explain it further, below we have outlined the top benefits of outsourcing business processes:

Cost savings

Companies can enjoy savings of up to 70% by leveraging the salaries and costs in offshore countries.

In the Philippines, for instance, companies can hire offshore staff with a US$500/month salary for starting positions. A team of 10 employees would only cost them as much as a single worker in the US with an equal position.

Global market

Small and medium-sized businesses find it most difficult to hire local employees that suit their roles.

The widened skill gap in developed countries, paired with economic crises, affects their capacity to expand their teams as needed.

Businesses get to access a bigger pool of talent that can fit their requirements. They can have better options in hiring employees since they are not limited to what is available in their home countries.

Global presence

At the same time, outsourcing opens clients to global trade opportunities. They can establish their global presence and expand more easily to other locations since they already have operations in the area.

Flexible workforce

Outsourcing is a great way to establish a remote workforce, especially for companies looking to implement this setup for the first time.

BPO reduces internal local compliance obligations, including providing additional office spaces to employees. Instead, organizations can hold their business operations on a remote setup, most usually having their teams in an office provided by the BPO firm.

Leverage skill

Companies cannot always do everything on their own. Burnout within entrepreneurs and teams is more common than everyone thinks, especially with everyone filling up the tasks beyond their skill sets.

A BPO company enables them to leverage the skills of other specialist companies on more complex tasks such as accounting and IT.

Focus

Lastly, BPO enables organizations to focus on their core business functions. This is because most of their non-core business operations are done with the help of a reliable service provider.

Business process outsourcing examples

The BPO industry is vast, generating over $200bn annually and employing millions of people worldwide.

As stated in the Market Analysis Report, the global business process outsourcing market reached over USD 245.9 billion in 2021. Thus, it is foreseen that we will acquire a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.1% this year from 2022 to 2030.

The proliferation of the global BPO sector is utterly driven by several key factors that organizations take full advantage of:

Improved efficiency and agility Focus on core competencies Decreased operational costs Adapt to the ever-changing business dynamics

In general, when we speak of outsourcing, it always entails contracting out parts of business processes to an external provider, either domestically or offshore.

BPO can be seen in different forms and contexts, from hiring single staff to getting an offshore team.

Here we have listed some of the examples of business process outsourcing:

Big enterprise

Corporate outsourcing has been around since the industry started. The new breed of large companies are still taking advantage of its benefits and using it to expand their offerings further.

Some of the known enterprises that outsource their services today include the following:

Google. Google has been ramping up its outsourcing efforts since 2016 by delegating development and customer support. Facebook. Meta, particularly Facebook, outsources content moderation to the Philippines as a way to filter toxic content and keep the platform safe for its users. Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo has been outsourcing their operations to the Philippines since 2011. It has recently pulled out its functions in the country, though the company retained its BPO center in Manila. Medium-size businesses

A medium business with 50-500 staff might outsource the labor-intensive accounting and finance functions to a team in the Philippines.

Small business and entrepreneur

The recent Clutch survey stated that around 90% of small businesses plan to outsource their services in 2022 due to the efficiency and flexibility that companies get.

It is common for small business owners to have a Virtual Assistant (VA) working for them full-time and remotely from the Philippines.

Aside from this, organizations can delegate other services such as development, IT, and digital marketing.

What are the different types of BPO?

Outsourcing can be executed in different forms, depending on the outsourcer's needs. The truth is that not everyone is fully aware and has an in-depth grasp of the BPO sector.

For most people, BPO can simply mean farming out business processes to third parties located in another country, but this is just one type of BPO.

As for businesses, it is always vital to be familiar with the various classifications and functions of BPOs. This way, they are able to opt for a business process outsourcing provider that is best suited for their type of requirements and industry.

More importantly, outsourcing is not a one size fits all strategic approach, this is why it is not enough just know what outsourcing is and how it works.

There are several types of BPOs that businesses can choose from. The type of business process outsourcing can be characterized by its specialization, location, and size.

Generalist or specialist BPOs

Business process outsourcing is in the human resources and professional services sector.

However, their services extend across all industries. The majority of BPOs are generalists in that they offer a full range of professional services.

Meanwhile, some specialize in certain verticals, such as the following:

Legal process outsourcing

Legal process outsourcing deals more with delegating legal processes and compliances to legal firms in another area.

Knowledge process outsourcing

Meanwhile, knowledge process outsourcing enables companies to outsource knowledge-related work, including research and development, innovation, and creativity.

Location

Business process outsourcing typically operates from developing nations such as the Philippines, India, and Colombia. They typically have cheaper cost of living and bigger populations. Different locations offer different advantages.

Size of BPO

The bigger BPOs employ more than 250,000 people. They are huge, global operations. Medium-sized BPOs range from 500-5,000 staff and offer a full range of services. The smaller BPOs might have 1-500 people.

Offshore

Offshore outsourcing refers to the process of delegating a part of operations or a department to an offshore country.

To maximize profitability and efficiency, companies choose to outsource to a different region or timezone. India, the Philippines, and South Africa are some of the popular countries known for offshore outsourcing services.

Onshore

Onshore outsourcing or onshoring, meanwhile, is preferred by firms looking to delegate their services within their country.

Onshoring does not offer as much savings as offshoring or nearshoring. However, clients prefer this as a way to maintain their branding and satisfy their local markets.

Nearshore

Lastly, nearshore outsourcing is preferred by companies that do not want the hassles of time zones and cultural differences in offshoring but still want to get the best out of their delegated services.

Through nearshoring, businesses can collaborate with their teams located in nearby countries. This gives them the opportunity to maintain their local compliance and save on costs since most nearshore locations are cheaper than their onshore counterparts.

Functions of business process outsourcing

Collectively, business process outsourcing provides any kind of staffing solution. Common functions of BPO include:

Finance and accounting

Outsourced finance and accounting services help businesses manage their books, monitor cash flow, and keep up with corporate income tax compliances without fuss.

Healthcare

Healthcare outsourcing, meanwhile, organizes various back- and front-end functions for the healthcare and insurance industries.

Creative and content

Creative services outsourcing covers everything from post-production of Hollywood movies to newspaper and website content.

Tech, IT and development

IT outsourcing involves delegating network management, web and app development, and cybersecurity protection to IT firms in different countries.

Sales & customer support

Some BPO providers specialize in sales and customer support for pre- and post-sales transactions. This helps companies meet the expectations and demands of their customers, keeping them satisfied even after their purchase.

Marketing

BPOs and marketing firms can help in ongoing marketing, communication and branding activities for their clients. This helps them attract more suitable leads in a cost-efficient way.

Talent and HR

Businesses can delegate HR, recruitment, and compliance to professional employer organizations to maximize recruitment and workforce management.

Administration

Generalist BPOs help organizations accomplish general business administration and operational activities. This includes data entry, appointment setting, and other related functions.

Supply chain management

Lastly, e-commerce stores benefit from outsourcing supply chain management to manage warehouse and delivery processes.

The future of BPO outsourcing

We have gathered five expert opinions from renowned global business leaders. They shared how they perceive the future of outsourcing will be, including the trends that will prevail in the coming years.

Meg Marrs, Safer Senior Care

Meg Marrs of Safer Senior Care strongly believes that entrepreneurs and business leaders should outsource their essential tasks.

“Outsourcing certain roles has freed up my time to focus more on big picture strategy, rather than being completely meshed in the day-to-day tasks.” 

One thing is certain, outsourcing to support businesses growth is something that will never go out of trend.

Sean Nguyen, Internet Advisor

As for Sean Nguyen, Director of the Internet Advisor, outsourcing to streamline processes is another essential trend that businesses will continue to apply.

He quotes, “Outsourcing can be really helpful, even at the most incipient levels, because it allows you to streamline operations. If it's not essential to have it taken care of in-house, there is no reason to do so.”

Elandas Miller, Kicking It Sports

Elandas Miller of Kicking It Sports, has been outsourcing back office and creatives since 2017. “I like to think of outsourcing as a tool to help me get to my goals faster and more efficient without burning myself out.” 

Outsourcing to support both organizations' short and long-term goals is another trend that companies will practice in the foreseeable future.

Tom Baker, Tom's Projects

The founder of Tom's Projects, Tom Baker, offshores his entire product and development. “Outsourcing means that we can scale the team up and down when need be.” Scaling the workforce through outsourcing is, yet again, among the trends that will remain prevalent.

Bobby Reid, Capitol Tech Solutions

For Bobby Reid, founder of Capitol Tech Solutions “Outsourcing has helped our business by being able to provide expertise for a service quickly. While these contracts are outsourced, they are incorporated into our company culture when possible, since they are working full time with our firm.” 

Lastly, outsourcing to fill in talent gaps and expertise is one of the key trends that more and more organizations will utilize in the coming years.

The future of work is digital, says Outsource Accelerator Founder and CEO Derek Gallimore.

The world has moved on from manufacturing and creating products to providing services. And as we enter the post-pandemic world, he says we are “moving towards a single global economy.”

The concept of work dramatically changed with COVID-19, and things have changed for good. These changes made us realize that technology is available for remote and digital work interfaces.

Once showed an unsteady growth, the global outsourcing market spiked to US$245.9 billion in 2021. The sudden surge of demand brought by the pandemic, along with the worsened talent shortage, has led companies to increase their outsourcing efforts.

In a podcast episode, Derek explained, “There are eight billion people on the planet, and they are now all increasingly connected digitally.

There are [also] four billion people who are highly qualified professionals sitting around the world, and they're not just virtual assistants and basic roles. You can find [people with] PhDs, architects, accountants, or whatever you need for your business.”

To conclude, Derek believes that the global economy and a globally-sourced workforce are the future, and it is not going away.

Leaders all over the world also know that outsourcing is here to stay. Former US President Barack Obama says that jobs that have been outsourced cannot be brought back to the country.

As a result, it is better to retrain and re-skill the workers who have lost their jobs on account of outsourcing.

Obama further suggests that community colleges could provide the necessary skills for a person to be gainfully re-employed in the workforce. He adds that this is a necessity that Americans look forward to in the future.

Looking back doesn't always make people feel good, so it is essential that they retrain for the ‘jobs of the future.'

How to choose a BPO provider

Over the years, outsourcing has been the go-to strategic practice for businesses looking to scale their operations effectively.

But just like any other venture, companies should be wary of the possible drawbacks of outsourcing before selecting bpo providers.

Risks of BPO outsourcing 

Despite its advantages, business process outsourcing done incorrectly leads to outsourcing risks that affect a company in one way or another.

Hidden charges

Some BPO vendors do not totally disclose the total fees they charge and their terms. Clients could experience “bill shock” upon seeing the hidden charges they get.

Compliance issues

Compliance is crucial, especially in handling financial information and dealing with intellectual property. BPOs that violate compliances could risk their clients' reputations and branding.

Problems with security

Lastly, BPO vendors with loose security compliance could risk getting their client's data exposed and used for malicious purposes.

Choosing the right business process outsourcing vendor

The key to successful outsourcing lies in choosing a suitable bpo company and working with them along the way. Here are some of the considerations to look for in a BPO vendor:

Expertise

A BPO vendor's expertise can be shown primarily through their approach to their clients. Even without getting too technical, they can comfortably discuss the initial solutions to provide according to their client's requirements.

Compliances

Especially when delegating functions involving sensitive information, a bpo company should be up-to-date and compliant with regulations relevant to their services.

Check for ISO, HIPAA, and PCI certifications as much as possible.

Employee satisfaction

A good BPO company also places employee satisfaction as its priority. Check on employee reviews online to see how the staff feels about their company.

Technology

The tools and equipment a BPO vendor uses largely affect their performance in general. Check to see if they use updated technology at work and how they train their employees to use them.

Top BPO companies in the world's top outsourcing hubs

A wide range of business process outsourcing companies in different parts of the world provide the utmost services to their Western and local clients.

Many of them even earned recognition by award-giving bodies due to their performance in both their roles and their level of care for the employees.

Check out the top BPO companies in several outsourcing destinations below.

Top BPO companies in the Philippines Top Indian BPO companies Top South African BPO companies Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) services

With the rise of new offshore outsourcing locations, companies can have better options in terms of location and services they can delegate.

However, finding a suitable BPO company can be a daunting task to be done on their own.

It's a good thing advisory services such as Outsource Accelerator are there to help them.

Outsource Accelerator is the most trusted source for independent information & advisory for Business Process Outsourcing (BPO). We have over 5,000 articles, 400+ podcast episodes, and a comprehensive directory with 3,000+ BPOs from different locations.

Outsource Accelerator's offerings make it easier for clients to learn about and engage with business process outsourcing companies worldwide.

Want to learn more about outsourcing? Check out the Inside Outsourcing book as well as the Inside Outsourcing book review today!

What is Idle Time?

What is Idle Time?

Idle time, sometimes comparable to waiting time, is the period of time when an employee, machine, or commodity is ready and available but is unproductive. Minimizing idle time is crucial if a company wishes to optimize productivity and efficiency over a long time.

Companies should learn and track down idle time to figure out the difference between the current productivity levels. Simply put, any minute the computer or employee is idle is a minute of wasted productivity. Idle time is costly because the company needs to pay its staff, who are at that point, did not make any profit or income for the company.

Types of Idle Time

There are two major types of idle time, Normal Idle Time and Abnormal Idle Time.

Normal idle time.  Normal idle time is the gradual shortage of productive working hours in the course of business. In any job setting, it is inherent and can not be removed. Normal idle time is inevitable, and the company must also pay the labor expense of this time. Yet, there should be every attempt to minimize it to the lowest extent possible. Abnormal idle time. Abnormal idle time is the time loss that is possible to reduce by using precautionary measures. For example, the time wasted as a result of excessive waiting for instructions.

What is Agent Occupancy?

What is Agent Occupancy?

Agent occupancy means that the percentage of time spent on answering inbound calls by a call center agent is against the available or idle time. It can be measured by dividing the workload time by staff time. It is a statistic used to measure the efficiency of a call center agent.

The agent occupancy is sometimes confused with the utilization of agents. Both metrics have the same numerator but they have different denominators. The agent occupancy denominator is the cumulative time the speech, text, or chat agent logs into the framework, far different from agent utilization. Meanwhile, agent utilization indicates the overall time consumed by an agent through chat, voice, and email.

How to calculate the agent occupancy?

Agent occupancy is a standard and significant service desk indicator for monitoring and trends. This is because it gives an example of how active agents are when logging into the system. However, for the reasons outlined. The Occupancy Rate and the Service Level will inform you whether the personnel level is set correctly for any given period.

Here is the formula for agent occupancy rate:

Agent Occupancy Rate = Handle time (talk time + after call work time) / time signed into a queue.

What is Staff Leasing?

What is staff leasing?

Staff leasing is where companies partner with a 3rd-party that will handle the administrative aspects of employment, such that the 3rd-party is the legal entity that employs the staff. This is similar to seat leasing where a company that already has the infrastructure in place, will lease the use of that infrastructure to other companies. In the case of staff leasing, that infrastructure is the HR, payroll, and other employment-related processes; in the case of seat leasing, the infrastructure is the IT and telecommunications equipment only.

Depending on the need of the client, staff leasing companies can either provide the employees using their pre-existing pool of candidates, or the client company can handle the recruitment efforts while the staff leasing company handles the compensation and other sundries. Thanks to the scale of staff leasing outsourcing companies, they are in a position to offer more competitive benefits, such as lower-cost healthcare plans, to which smaller companies would not have access to. In turn, clients not only save on administrative costs, but the cost of an employee turns into a single line-item for easier accounting.

Staff leasing in the Philippines

Staff leasing is arguably the most popular type of business process outsourcing, where both employee and infrastructure is provided by the outsourcing company. Lessening the financial risk to the client should they decide to scale their outsourced team in the Philippines.

Outsource Accelerator's directory lists over 700+ outsourcing companies in the Philippines. All of these are carefully selected for innovation, expertise, and technology that will benefit our clients. We also provide you with guidance on the best staff leasing options you can get in the Philippines for your business.

Get Inside Outsourcing

An insider's view on why remote and offshore staffing is radically changing the future of work.

Order now

Start your
journey today

  • Independent
  • Secure
  • Transparent

About OA

Outsource Accelerator is the trusted source of independent information, advisory and expert implementation of Business Process Outsourcing (BPO).

The #1 outsourcing authority

Outsource Accelerator offers the world’s leading aggregator marketplace for outsourcing. It specifically provides the conduit between world-leading outsourcing suppliers and the businesses – clients – across the globe.

The Outsource Accelerator website has over 5,000 articles, 450+ podcast episodes, and a comprehensive directory with 4,000+ BPO companies… all designed to make it easier for clients to learn about – and engage with – outsourcing.

About Derek Gallimore

Derek Gallimore has been in business for 20 years, outsourcing for over eight years, and has been living in Manila (the heart of global outsourcing) since 2014. Derek is the founder and CEO of Outsource Accelerator, and is regarded as a leading expert on all things outsourcing.

“Excellent service for outsourcing advice and expertise for my business.”

Learn more
Banner Image
Get 3 Free Quotes Verified Outsourcing Suppliers
4,000 firms.Just 2 minutes to complete.
SAVE UP TO
70% ON STAFF COSTS
Learn more

Connect with over 4,000 outsourcing services providers.

Banner Image

Transform your business with skilled offshore talent.

  • 4,000 firms
  • Simple
  • Transparent
Banner Image