The way call centers approach their teams is shifting in a big way. While the "Great Resignation" is mostly behind us, it’s been replaced by something new: the "Great Detachment." Workers might not be quitting en masse anymore, but plenty are feeling stuck and disconnected from their jobs—a quiet but serious threat to productivity and morale.

In 2025, the focus is shifting from just holding onto employees to truly re-engaging them. Call centers are zeroing in on what matters most: giving agents clear goals, showing them how their work makes a difference, and creating a workplace where they can thrive.

This trend article is part of the series, “Contact Center Trends,” helping you stay current with issues, technologies, best practices, and strategies that impact your business. Our aim is to provide tools and guidance that will improve productivity, efficiency, and sustainable profitability for your sales and lead generation team.

From burnout to engagement: Why call centers must zero in on their workforce’s needs

Call centers are no strangers to high turnover rates. Burnout and agent stress have long been significant challenges, with 59% of contact center agents at risk of burnout. Turnover in call centers remains around 35%, and the financial toll is substantial. Replacing agents can cost 30-50% of their annual salary when factoring in hiring, training, and lost productivity.

As businesses prepare for 2025, addressing these high attrition rates is critical—not just to stabilize employee headcounts but to protect overall business performance. 

Call centers are placing greater emphasis on agent retention and engagement by improving work environments, refining benefits and compensation strategies, and addressing employee well-being and satisfaction. These efforts are essential for reducing costly turnover and driving team performance to new heights.

Why agent engagement still matters for call centers this year

Why is this focus still so important in 2025? Because despite the drop in resignations across the economy at large, attrition rates at call centers remain historically high, reaching 38% or more.

By placing a focus on the needs of their agents, call center leaders can drive greater agent engagement and, in turn, greater performance. Don’t take our word for it—see what other experts have to say.

As Convoso client Matt Bowers of Dynamic Insurance Services puts it, these boosts engagement frequently drive a turnaround in performance, too:

“Acquisition cost matters, but I think agent morale and agent preparedness is every bit as important as that…It really doesn’t take long to figure out that if you’re talking to more people consistently, your agents are better prepared to take a transfer, and in a better mood to sell. [As a result,] your acquisition cost goes way down.”

How call center can improve agent engagement in 2025

So, how will businesses achieve this improved agent engagement in the year ahead? These five strategies are a great place to start.

1. Establish clear lines of communication

A lack of communication and support from one’s manager has been cited as one of the top causes of burnout. To develop stronger relationships and build trust and rapport, managers and decision-makers should double down on transparency and establish open lines of communication between all levels of their call centers. In addition to regular interactions and team meetings, managers can encourage openness by scheduling consistent one-on-one meetings with agents, including some dedicated to work-related topics and some that can offer a more casual break time. 

2. Provide a clear path forward

One of the biggest benefits of employee-manager communication is—or should be—the ability to establish clear expectations on both sides. Managers can make clear the sort of work they expect. And perhaps more importantly for driving call center agent engagement, said agents can gain an understanding of what they can achieve in return for that work.

Using a template such as a 30-60-90 day plan, teams can work out learning goals and training priorities. In addition, businesses should be able to provide a clear vision of what lies beyond those first months, being transparent and laying out all available opportunities for advancement.  

Call center consultant Heather Griffin says a well-developed career progression program is crucial for holding onto your most efficient agents. “[A good program] gives people hope, and it helps with retention.” Establish clear timelines and expectations for agents to take on more responsibilities and move up the ladder. “For example, if you’re here for six months and you meet these expectations, you’re eligible to lead a training program.”

3. Offer the right kind of incentives

There’s no escaping the fact that you’ll need more sound communication and clear expectations to improve call center agent engagement. The right kind of incentives can also motivate agents to be at their best—and drive results for your call center as a whole:

• Make leaderboards. Turn the average workday into a friendly competition with leaderboards that show off top agent performances.

• Create competitions. Supplement this with regularly scheduled sales competitions among your team. Get creative and mix things up over time: Pick a KPI you need to improve and hold a day-long competition that rewards the top performer. Offer mystery prizes for monthly sales leaders. Group your employees into teams to increase cooperation and give a leg up to new agents. The choices for friendly competition at your call center are practically endless.

• Incentivize compensation. Craft a compensation plan that includes rewards for performance against productivity metrics as well as QA and utilization scores. Use other tools like fast start bonuses and spiffs to give out on-the-spot awards.

4. Focus on building a successful culture, not just successful sales

The approaches above are part of it, but in some cases tackling issues of call center agent engagement, stress, and burnout can require an overall reset of company culture. Not nearly enough organizations appear to have a culture that is truly employee-first when just 24% of employees feel strongly that their organization cares about their overall well-being.

Developing an employee-first culture that’s built on care and camaraderie should be item one on the agenda of every call center looking to better their engagement. 

So, beyond setting expectations and offering the right compensation, an employee-first culture is one that invests in its employees’ education and progress. This is the sort of investment that pays dividends: according to LinkedIn’s Workforce Learning Report, 94% of employees say that they would stay at a company longer if it simply invested in helping them learn.

To do this, sales expert Jason Cutter of Cutter Consulting says to start by making company culture a core part of your agent onboarding. Your agents need to be sold on more than just their day-to-day tasks and responsibilities; they need to be able to buy into your company’s vision.

“Make sure your training and new hire curriculum includes onboarding into your company culture. It’s your mission, your vision, your core values. It’s why agents work for your company. And it’s why the company does what it does.”

Beyond the initial onboarding period, devise dedicated training for individuals and larger groups that focus on both hard, on-the-job skills as well sas oft skills and team-building. Add to this powerful call center reporting tools that aren’t just trained on essential call center KPIs but are used to identify coaching opportunities. 

5. Using software to drive greater call center agent engagement

While a certain degree of frustrating repetition—not to mention a certain number of angry customers—is unavoidable in the call center industry, today’s software has the ability to eliminate tedium and friction through call center automation. 

AI-driven tools like accurate answering machine detection and intelligent virtual agents are making agents’ lives easier and increasing operational efficiency simultaneously. Meanwhile, essential capabilities like omnichannel outreach and workflow automation are increasing the opportunities for call center agents to do what they do best: connect with customers to solve problems and close sales.

A stable, engaged, and happy workforce, means investing in the training, tools, and support they need to be successful.

Ultimately, it’s that simple—and that’s how it will be done in 2025. By shifting a focus back onto the needs of their employees, call centers will drive the engagement and the performance they need to chart a better course in 2025 and beyond.