The six weeks to 3 months training on new hire training is what many of us had gone through in our days with the contact center industry. After which comes many hours of product training whenever there is a new product launched. Training in the contact center has become such a norm that we learn to expect and accept it daily. In fact it has been scheduled into the training calendar so we all knew the trainings that we had to attend the whole year long.

The main focus I want to touch on is that the fact that whether or not all the training was effective after all the many hours. I feel not as when dealing with operations, training tend to take a secondary role. They would want the trainees on the call floor soonest but training wants them prepared before they are on the floor. There is a constant struggle and the “Tug of War “ is there even on re-training and ongoing improvement training.

With the understanding when it comes to operations it is always a number game and at the end of the day performances is based on the bottom dollar. If not properly managed , training will be pushed further and further down the list and when finally problems occurs that relate back to skills development or lack of it , guess who gets the blame or the shorter side of the stick. There must be a balance of both as the need for training and development in the contact centers is an ongoing requirement.

From experience I would say that Training & Development should never be parked under operations and ideally be its own department running independently. This would help ease the friction as operations and training would be on equal par and both have a say to the development of the call floor. They would serve best if both reporting to the senior management directly. Another alternative is to park them under Human Resource so the development of staff would be under their care.

There must be an understanding that training & Development must be given a high priority in the contact center as to contribute to the performances of the center as a whole and not seen as something to do on a checklist.