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The success of the call center software industry depends on agents being available to handle calls promptly.
Since an agent can assist only one customer at a time, understaffing leads to longer hold times or missed calls. This results in frustrated and dissatisfied customers.
Even with accurate scheduling based on call volume, not all agents may be available when needed. That’s why it’s essential to monitor and manage shrinkage effectively.
Let’s understand more about contact center shrinkage.
What is Call Center Shrinkage?
It refers to the portion of an agent’s paid time when they are not actively handling customer calls. It measures the difference between total paid hours, and the actual time spent on direct customer support. This includes time spent on breaks, training, meetings, paid leave, or when agents face technical difficulties.
There are two main types of shrinkage in call center:
- Planned shrinkage: This includes scheduled and work-related activities like training sessions, team meetings, breaks, and approved amount of time off. These are accounted for in workforce planning.
- Unplanned shrinkage: This occurs when agents are unavailable without prior notice due to factors like unexpected absences, sick days, or technical issues.
Monitoring shrinkage in call center is essential for effective call center management. Excessive shrinkage in call center can lead to staffing shortages during busy periods, increased wait times, and poor customer service. However, when managed properly, shrinkage helps balance workloads, prevent agent burnout, and maintain consistent service quality and customer satisfaction.
| Aspect | Planned Shrinkage | Unplanned Shrinkage |
| Definition | Scheduled non-call work time for agents | Unexpected agent unavailability during working hours |
| Examples | Breaks, training sessions, team meetings, scheduled PTO | Sick calls, unscheduled absences, system outages |
| Predictability | High – incorporated into workforce planning | Low – disrupts staffing and call handling unexpectedly |
| Management | Optimized through shift planning, staggered breaks, cross-trained agents | Managed with real-time adherence tracking, on-demand staffing, and alerts |
| Impact on Operations | Planned and absorbed into call volume forecasting; minimal effect on service levels | Leads to understaffing, increased hold times, and potential SLA breaches |
How to Measure Call Center Shrinkage Rate?
While calculating shrinkage in call center the managers must consider both external and internal sources. Likewise, they must focus on both in-center and out-of-center components while implementing a plan to reduce contact center shrinkage. The percentage is normally expressed over a period of 12 months and calculated using the following formula.
The manager cannot calculate contact center shrinkage without collecting information about shrinkage amount per agent over a period of 12 months. The average shrinkage rate for call center industry ranges from 30% to 35%.
The manager needs to explore ways to reduce contact center shrinkage if the shrinkage percentage exceeds 35%. However, they must remember that the shrinkage rate keeps changing across the day or year. Hence, they need to measure and monitor on a regular basis.
How Does High Call Center Shrinkage Rate Impact Call Center Efficiency?
The managers use call center shrinkage rate as a key metric for evaluating the efficiency and performance of the call center. They cannot boost Call Center Metrics performance and deliver superior customer service without reducing high shrinkage rate.
The shrinkage rate also helps managers to decide the number of staff agents required to handle specific incoming call volumes and meet predefined service goals. Hence, it becomes essential for managers to monitor and track call center shrinkage on a regular basis.
How to Minimize and Manage Shrinkage in a Call Center?
The managers cannot boost call center productivity and efficiency without reducing the shrinkage rate. They must keep in place a robust strategy to reduce shrinkage rate on a regular basis. The strategy must focus on implementing some of the commonly used best practices for reducing contact center shrinkage.
1. Measure Shrinkage Rate Continuously
No manager can boost call center performance without measuring and monitoring shrinkage rate regularly. The new age outbound contact center solutions enable managers to measure call volume, service level and average call handling time. They even make it easier for managers to monitor fluctuations in call center shrinkage and identify the factors increasing them.
2. Track and Improve Schedule Adherence
Cloud-based contact center solutions enable managers to monitor and assess agent productivity based on real-time data. The managers can use the dashboard provided by the cloud-hosted call center solutions to check schedule adherence by generating reports. The managers can easily reduce shrinkage in the call center by generating reports and sharing the reports with agents on a regular basis.
Recommended Read – Types Of Call Center
3. Keep in Mind Unproductive Time
As noted earlier, the shrinkage can be caused due to both internal and external components. The managers can reduce shrinkage rate by keeping in mind some of the components while forecasting or planning schedules. For instance, while planning call center schedules the managers must consider important components like breaks, meetings, training, coaching and after call work time.
Read our blog “What is an Inbound Call Center?” here.
4. Monitor and Address Absenteeism
Absenteeism is one the controllable components of call center shrinkage. The managers can easily identify the agents who remain absence frequently. They must identify the root causes of the frequent or habitual absences.
The managers also need to discuss with the agents to determine the measures required to minimize absenteeism. They can even implement a strategy to boost agent productivity by reducing absenteeism.
5. Keep Agents Competitive
The managers can easily reduce shrinkage in the Hosted Contact Center by keeping agents competitive. In addition to providing coaching and assistance to agents, they need to reward the agents with minimum hours of shrinkage.
The incentive program will motivate agents to explore ways to reduce hours of shrinkage. However, the manager must remember that certain causes of call center shrinkage cannot be controlled or eliminated.
Make Shrinkage Management an Ongoing Process
As mentioned earlier, shrinkage in a call center changes from time to time. The decision-makers need to measure, review, and minimize the shrinkage rate on a regular basis. The managers must make shrinkage management a continuing process by creating a shrinkage forecast for a month and comparing the forecast with actual results.
Call Center Shrinkage FAQs:
The average shrinkage rate in call centers typically falls between 30% and 35%, a widely accepted benchmark across the industry, measured over a 12-month period. This figure covers time when agents are on paid duty but not handling calls, due to factors like breaks, meetings, training, and absenteeism. The 80/20 rule, or Pareto Principle, states that roughly 80% of outcomes come from 20% of causes. In call center parlance, it often means that 20% of customers generate 80% of support requests—a key insight for prioritizing high-impact segments. Shrinkage refers to the percentage of paid time when agents are not available to take customer calls, due to breaks, training, or absenteeism. Utilization measures the time agents are actually productive, handling calls, divided by paid hours. They are inversely related: Shrinkage + Utilization = 100%. For example, 30% shrinkage equates to 70% utilization. Yes, shrinkage can differ based on the size of the call center. Larger centers typically face more complex shrinkage patterns because of a wider range of activities and a greater number of agents to manage. AI helps reduce call center shrinkage by accurately forecasting call volumes, streamlining agent scheduling, tracking real-time adherence, and delivering actionable insights for proactive staffing and operational adjustments.
