Disability Management Employer Coalition Notes ‘2005 Call Center Leadership Series’

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Benefit and risk managers responsible for the more than 2.8 million call center employees in the U.S. reportedly face a great challenge: managing higher than average absence, turnover, disability, and
workers’ compensation costs.

That’s the spark behind the “2005 Call Center Leadership Series” announced this week by the Disability Management Employer Coalition (DMEC). The series, developed in partnership with Liberty Mutual, will bring together call center experts, risk managers, and benefit managers to discuss what drives these absence costs and the best ways to manage them.

Three regional meetings this spring – in Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles – will feature a panel presenting specific absence challenges and solutions. Additionally, participants will interact with cross-industry peers about shared challenges and best practices for cost management. The findings will be presented at the National DMEC Conference in Orlando in July 2005.

“Domestic call centers – whether part of a larger company or an
independent vendor – are under unprecedented pressure to add value to their parent companies or clients,” said Joseph Wozniak, DMEC national board member and director of the series. “Providing cost effective service is critical. And a key part of this is managing absence costs, particularly since these appear to be higher for call centers than for other areas of their parent organizations or industries.”

Understanding these cost drivers is the first step in managing them, according to Jean Scarrow, who heads the area of Liberty Mutual that provides group disability and life insurance products. “The silver lining is that these cost drivers can be controlled. The key is for call center managers, and the benefits and risk experts that support them, to identify their top absence- related costs and to focus deliberately on managing them The Call Center Leadership Series will offer practical solutions for doing so.”

For more information, visit www.dmec.org .

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