2 Responses

1. Contact time
   Adele
   I cannot give you definitive current figures but I hope I can give you a steer from my own survey of surveys.
   Firstly, the mean average is around 110-120 days a year or about 50-55% of a trainers time which goes as contact or training delivery time. But don’t be lured in to thinking that this might be a good figure to use as a benchmark. The range is very broad and a number of factors need to be considered.
   Some trainers work in areas of high change so spend more time on development work. Some have a broad role – doing needs analysis, design, evaluation and consultancy projects. Many are involved in other development roles, not just course delivery, such as being an on-line mentor. For some of these roles it is hard to define and/or measure contact time. Some run residential events or travel extensively. I have met trainers who primarily focus on delivery – they can do up to 180 or more days (which I personally find staggering). I have also met people who do a mere handful of days. The picture is a complex one.
   In a call centre environment you would first of all need to decide whether you are talking of one-to-one training or group training. You should also consider whether the trainer works on one shift or has to deal with all shifts. From those I have spoken with, the contact time is above average in call centres but I don’t have the data to be more specific than that.
   Hope this helps.
   Graham

2. Contact Centre Training
   Having working in contact centres for many years, I have noticed the amount of time a trainer spends in the class room delivering training will depend on their role within the organisation. For example, a previous company divided their trainers in 3 sub groups which were Induction Trainers, Sales Trainers and Technical Trainers.

   The Induction trainers would spend vertically every day in a training room delivering the corporate induction. Each induction lasted two weeks and depending on the recruitment plan some of these trainers (there would be 4 in total) could spend 8 to 12 weeks delivering back to back inductions without a break.

   The Sales trainers spent 80% of their time on the call centre floor delivering one to one coaching sessions and mini workshops. Again these would vary depending if the contact centre was inbound or outbound.

   The Technical trainers would spend the majority of the time either delivering the systems part of the induction programme (this lasted 3 days per induction group) or designing and developing training programmes for the companies new systems.

   Adele, trust this is of some help? Please feel free to contact me at [email protected] if you require any further help or information.

   Neil