Best Practices in Workforce Management: A National Study in Contact Centres

We invite you to participate in a study of best practices in workforce management in contact centres in Canada, a joint initiative by Danielle van Jaarsveld (Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia) and Ann Frost (Richard Ivey School of Business, University of Western Ontario). In 2006, we analyzed best practices in workforce management in Canadian contact centres as part of a larger global study. These results are available at http://www.gccproject-canada.com/reports.php. We are now in the process of updating this earlier study.

Benefits for participants: To date, 150 contact centres across Canada have already participated in the 2010 study. Don’t miss your opportunity to access valuable benchmarking data that will address common challenges encountered in contact centres such as:

• Lower Turnover and Absenteeism - What employment practices contribute to lower turnover and absenteeism?
• Innovative Work Practices - What types of new technologies and innovative work practices are being adopted?
• Pay and Compensation Strategies - What are the pay levels and compensation strategies for employees and managers?
• Improving Performance - What employment practices lead to improved performance?
• Changes Across Canada - How is the contact centre business changing across Canada?

The study involves a phone interview with the contact centre manager most familiar with the daily operations. For participating, you will receive an extensive report with our results. Once you complete the interview, you will also receive a complimentary movie ticket for use at any Famous Players, Cineplex Odeon, or Galaxy Cinemas across Canada.

This study is funded entirely by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. It consists of a random sample of contact centres – making it an unusually large and representative study of business practices in companies across the country.

How to participate: If you are interested in participating, please contact Danielle van Jaarsveld at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or by phone at 604-822-8441. If you have already received an invitation to participate, we encourage you to add your valuable input to our research.

If you are interested in completing a survey about Call Centre Reward and Recognition, please read below. 

Kim Vey is doing research for a book on Call Centre Reward and Recognition and how it has changed over the years. She is looking for things like new program ideas, fun on a budget, dealing with the different generations, what drives metrics and behaviours etc... Kim is lookin for Agents, Team Leads, Supervisors and Managers to complete the survey. The survey takes 5 minutes to complete and anyone who completes it will receive a full copy of the compiled results. All responses will remain anonymous with respect to name, company name and contact details.

If you are interested in completing this survey, please contact Kim directly at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Greetings to all of our Alberta Contact Centre Association members,

It is hard to believe that summer is over and September is already half-way behind us.  As your current President, I wanted to take the opportunity to share some key information with you.  Last year the board’s focus was the ‘Year of Change: Looking at Things Differently’.  While last year was not without difficulties, focus areas included the following initiatives.

• Executed an Annual General Meeting with quorum.
• Changed our name from Alberta Call Centre Association to Alberta Contact Centre Association to better align with the industry.
• Launched the new ACCA website, including but not limited to online payment capabilities.
• Offered successful site tours as stand-alone events versus embedded as part of a conference (thank you again to Scotiabank and EPCOR).
• Offered luncheons with industry speakers sharing their case studies.
• Executed a new initiative of luncheons geared around a focused topic designed to accommodate facilitated networking and sharing of ideas.
• Tried new initiatives of online facilitated agent-focused training, and webinars.
• Launched the Vendor Marketplace.
• Developed a new sponsorship package enabling annual or event-specific recognition.
• Continued to maintain strong relations with Contact Centre Canada.
• Continued to promote the association through Contact Management Magazine.
• Entered social networking through LinkedIn and Facebook.

This year we will continue to use to use our available resources to focus on initiatives that bring value to the membership.