CCI Kenya on the Importance of Effective Training and Development for Contact Centre Staff

CCI Kenya is successfully disrupting the BPO landscape in Kenya. Here they explain the importance of effective training and development for contact centre staff.

CCI Kenya is part of CCI Global, which is now one of the leading business process outsourcing providers in sub-Saharan Africa.

Since launching in 2006 in South Africa, CCI Global offers international outsourcing services for every stage of the customer lifecycle from sales all the way through to retention, and everything in between.

Rishi Jatania is CCI Kenya’s CEO and operational lead, creating value across service channels, highlighting the importance of our people and their development: ‘’CCI Global values its people and sees our staff as our most prized asset. We elevate our service delivery by investing in their training and development as well as pioneering in impact sourcing across Africa to invest in the future of the region and elevate our people to new career heights.”

Developing the kind of digital customer management strategies that work

In 2016, CCI Kenya became the 2nd operating market for CCI Global. Since then, its business process outsourcing operations have grown rapidly to a workforce of over 3,000 employees. This rapid growth resulted in CCI Global investing more than $20 million to build a new custom designed contact centre offices in Tatu City, on the outskirts of Nairobi.

With a growing workforce of thousands of employees, CCI Kenya recognised early on that investment in skills and career development was a key corner stone to delivering a sustainable business model. Investing in their employees via ‘Step Up’ and ‘Empower’ programs not only helps with staff retention it also future proofs the company’s requirement for future leaders as growth continues.

So, what makes the kind of training that CCI Kenya has implemented for new employees? And how does it help to sustain specialist capabilities necessary to provide a cost-effective service in a highly effective way?

Training and development for business process outsourcing staff

Rishi Jatania from CCI Kenya says: “At CCI Kenya and within the wider group working in the offshoring industry, we have robust and innovative training and development practices in all of our centres.

“We’ve demonstrated the success of these training and development processes by successfully disrupting and now leading the sub-Saharan Africa BPO landscape – something that is adding true value not just to our client’s bottom line, but to the communities within which we’re located.

“For example, CCI Kenya is firmly aligned with the Kenyan Government’s Kenya Vision 2030, which aims to transform this country – with all of its enormous potential – into a safe, forward-thinking middle-income powerhouse by the end of the decade.

“CCI Kenya is contributing directly towards this by providing the kinds of jobs that young, educated people in Africa are looking for. We ensure that the qualifications of our employees – whether gained in Kenya or elsewhere in Africa – are used to develop a deep understanding of our business sectors and the CCI level of service we offer.

“As they progress within CCI Kenya, they work with all kinds of companies from as far afield as the UK and Australia, as they hone their skills. We’re in the best location to access a workforce with endless potential and integrating with our sister company CareerBox, we can ensure they benefit from our impact sourcing investments as well as training and development programs. ”

CCI Global Training & Development Programs

Rishi Jatania says: “CCI Global has designed and built an operating model that supports a blended training delivery solution. We have over 100 members in our training team, among them a Training Manager, Process Trainers, Soft Skills and Service Trainers supported by infrastructure and a training methodology that enhances our delivery of service excellence with outputs that match our training philosophy. Our training infrastructure ensures we can effectively mobilize high quality agents that are fully immersed in the client’s company culture and brand requirements whilst ensuring they flourish and develop through our various career development programs.”

“CCI invests in its personnel because their growth directly correlates to the success of our business and in the performance of our campaigns for clients through the retention of high quality, capable employees. Our Human Resources department has developed 4 programs that follow their annual review and assessment process offering our staff opportunities to shine, develop and excel in their careers, ensuring that they have clearly defined progression plans as well as feedback systems that allow them to improve and invest in their own futures.

“STEP UP, LEAP, ASPIRE and SPARK provide the full breadth of development opportunity for operational staff while we have 7 additional /initiatives we deploy to raise capability and empowerment on site.”

Benefits of effective training and development for CCI

Effective training for those dealing with customer management services for clients across different sectors is absolutely key to the success of a service provider such as CCI.

Without the right kind of training, there is no way for contact centre staff to find the best possible solution for the company’s clients, whether they’re in retail, mobile technology or leisure sectors.

Each different business sector needs staff to work with specialist partners to get the job done, and as such a thorough understanding of all kinds of subject areas is necessary.

Underpinning this, of course, is the need to understand the technology and platforms that are necessary to derive true value across the market.

CCI training and development increases employee engagement

Across the wider CCI network of companies, including CCI Kenya, training and development for employees is taken very seriously.

Rishi Jatania from CCI Global explains: “We need our staff to be able to work for a UK client in retail, for example, and how to get the best out of our agents and through collaboration with our client partners.

“We employ highly educated young people who are keen to progress in their career. Our training includes multiple learning elements, and is carefully developed to ensure that we do our best for CCI clients and staff alike.’’

“Effective training reduces the likelihood of negative employee turnover – that is losing trained staff to other BPO providers. We do have excellent opportunities within CCI for employees, and this is reflected in our low attrition levels and highly experienced senior staff members.”

To find out more about CCI click here.