Diversity in Contact Centers – OEX VCC’s Strategy and Experience

Why is diversity so important for business organizations? Diversity in the workplace is not only the right thing to do ethically; it plays a crucial role in fostering creativity, innovation, and problem-solving by bringing together individuals with different backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences.

It enhances decision-making processes, boosts employee engagement, and promotes a culture of respect and inclusion. Embracing diversity also enables organizations to better understand and serve diverse customer bases, leading to improved business performance and a competitive edge.

In this article, we delve deeper into the advantages of diversity within business environments, highlighting the significance of diversity specifically within contact centers. To illustrate this, we’ll draw upon several examples from the OEX VCC workplace.

The Power of Diversity in the Workplace

Diversity can influence various facets of business operations and performance, yielding positive effects in several key areas.

Decision-making

According to the research Hacking Diversity with Inclusive Decision-Making by Cloverpop, embracing inclusive decision-making significantly enhances company performance and provides a clear competitive advantage. Inclusive decision-making results in better business decisions up to 87% of the time, with business teams driving decision-making processes twice as fast and with half the meetings. This approach can lead to a 60% improvement in decision outcomes.

Inclusive decision-making goes beyond simply having diverse perspectives within a team; it involves actively integrating those views into the decision-making process. This applies to both the initial stages of framing and making decisions, as well as how teams subsequently implement those decisions.

Cloverpop explains that in companies with low diversity where teams are predominantly male, decisions tend to be ineffective. Only 28% of these decisions were both better upfront and yielded results meeting or exceeding expectations, performing 15% worse than average. In contrast, the decisions made and executed by gender-diverse teams performed 6% better than the average.

Productivity

Diversity can also positively impact productivity. Having racial diversity at both upper and lower
management levels contributes to enhanced strategy formulation and implementation, ultimately leading to increased productivity within the organization, according to the Network for Business Sustainability.

Diversity is recognized as a valuable “knowledge-based asset,” offering tangible benefits for strategy and implementation. It encourages individuals to embrace multiple perspectives, leading to the development of more comprehensive and sophisticated approaches.

In senior management, this translates to heightened creativity, innovation, and adaptability when formulating strategies.

At lower management levels, diversity fosters enhanced problem-solving during implementation and the generation of original ideas that can be shared with senior management.

Diversity in Contact Centers

A contact center can indeed be a diverse workplace, encompassing a range of age groups, from young students to representatives of the “silver generation.” Additionally, they often comprise individuals from various ethnic and linguistic backgrounds. This diversity can contribute to a rich tapestry of perspectives, experiences, and skills within the workplace, fostering creativity, innovation, and enhanced problem-solving.

It also enables contact centers to effectively cater to a diverse customer base, providing more personalized and culturally sensitive service. Overall, embracing diversity in contact centers can lead to a more inclusive and dynamic work environment.

Different Projects, Different Skill Sets

In the contact centers offering services for sectors such as e-commerce, retail, telecommunications, healthcare, and finance, projects encompass a wide range of services, including customer service, help desk support, sales, and more. Each of these projects requires different skill sets, including tech-savviness, empathy, patience, analytical skills, and communication abilities.

The value of diversity becomes apparent in this context, as individuals from diverse groups bring a variety of skills to the table, contributing to an excellent customer experience.

For instance, a young student may possess technical expertise that can be leveraged in a mobile app support project, while representatives of the “silver generation” are often characterized by patience and bring years of experience that are valuable in customer service projects for finance or insurance companies, where agents frequently deal with complex and challenging cases.

Individuals with a high level of empathy are incredibly valuable in supporting patients of medical companies. Dealing with health issues and navigating difficult life situations can be immensely challenging for patients.

Empathetic individuals can provide not only practical assistance but also emotional support and understanding, which are vital in such circumstances. Their ability to connect with patients on a personal level, listen attentively to their concerns, and offer genuine care and compassion can significantly improve the patient’s experience and overall satisfaction with the medical company’s services.

By harnessing the unique skills and experiences of individuals from diverse backgrounds, contact centers can effectively meet the diverse needs of their clients across different sectors, ultimately driving customer satisfaction and business success.

Diversity in OEX VCC

At VCC, we believe that in a contact center setting, diversity is key. In our operational centers, you will find people from all walks of life, each bringing their skill sets and qualities to the active projects. Diversity shapes our everyday experience; we assemble teams with agents from diverse backgrounds and interests, creating a genuine tapestry of diversity.

Our contact centers thrive on this diversity, embracing people from different demographics, genders, cultures, and language backgrounds.

At VCC, diversity isn’t just a buzzword; it’s the cornerstone of our contact center culture. Step into our operational centers, and you’ll encounter a vibrant mix of individuals from diverse backgrounds, each characterized by unique skill sets and qualities. This rich tapestry of diversity shapes our everyday experience, decision-making, and processes.

Voice Contact Center in Numbers

In our leadership roles, we have a balanced team with 6 men and 5 women among our directors, and a managerial team comprising 14 men and 15 women. Moreover, our agent team includes 863 women and 493 men, showcasing the strength and diversity of our workforce.

But diversity at VCC extends beyond gender; it encompasses age as well. The team spans various age groups, from our youngest member at 19 to our oldest at 72. To be more specific, we have 719 agents in the age group 18-29, 152 agents in the age group 30-39, 65 agents in the age group 40-49, 23 agents in the age group 50-59, and 12 agents in the age group 60+.

These diverse age groups bring unique perspectives and experiences to our company. For instance, younger agents, often students, find our flexible job opportunities accommodating their university schedules, while older agents appreciate the part-time roles that suit their other responsibilities. Their valuable skills and experience, including communication prowess, problem-solving abilities, and patience, enrich our contact center environment.

Ethnic and Cultural Diversity

Moreover, our company celebrates diversity in ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Take our LinGo department, for instance, which offers multilingual and multichannel services. The team comprises individuals from a multitude of countries, including Ukraine, Zimbabwe, India, Philippines, Tanzania, Camerun, Jordan, Azerbejan.

But diversity at VCC isn’t just about demographics — it’s about passions and interests too. Our team members are as varied as they come, with interests ranging from sports and animal rescue to poetry, singing, and dancing.

To foster a sense of community among individuals with diverse passions, we regularly organize
initiatives such as the OEX VCC bike and run challenges. We recognize the creativity within our team and provide platforms for the expression of it, like our competition to create the company promotional videos.

To foster a sense of community, we host events such as lemonade competitions, where everyone is encouraged to craft their own unique lemonade creations, spend time together, and build relationships.

Collaboration with External Organizations

As a team that thrives on diversity, we actively participate in various initiatives beyond our company’s walls and collaborate with local organizations to promote and encourage diversity. Recently, our trainer, Gabriela Żebrowska, led a workshop titled Diversity Is a Value – How to Find Your Way in It? as part of the “Kawiarenki” project initiated by the Lublin City.

During the workshop, Gabriela discussed crucial topics such as team dispersion, cultural differences, and generational diversity with students from universities in Lublin, fostering meaningful conversations and promoting understanding in our community.

Embracing Diversity in Contact Centers

At VCC, diversity isn’t just a checkbox—it’s our daily bread. It’s what fuels our creativity, drives innovation, and strengthens our bonds as a team. Together, we’re not just building a company; we’re building a community where every voice is heard, and every individual is celebrated. Join us on this journey of diversity, where together, we’re building the future.

Be yourself.

Author: Paulina Zając, HR Director at OEX VCC