Our collaborators share with us their trajectory at CallFasst

In a previous post we have talked about how it is more profitable for a company to build loyalty than to acquire new customers. It is estimated that attracting new clients is up to 5 to 7 times more expensive than keeping them.

Something very similar happens with human capital: ignoring high levels of turnover can be very expensive for companies; according to SHRM, to replace each hourly worker costs an average of $1,500 each month.

In addition to this, new generations seek to have less permanence in the same workplace.  43% of millennials surveyed worldwide plan to leave their workplace in less than 2 years and the percentage rises up to 63% with centennials.

While it is true that a moderate level of labor turnover can bring new ideas and approaches from new members, the reality is that the talent of workers is an irreplaceable value that grows as they gain experience and knowledge within the organization.

At CallFasst we are very aware of this. Therefore, we believe it is very important to recognize the work done by our team, as well as the permanence of employees who have grown with us. For this reason, we celebrate every year the Seniority Awards Ceremony. The event consists of a breakfast where, in addition to the employees to be awarded, they meet with our directors, managers and the CEO of the company, who addresses a few words.

The award ceremony is part of the Annual Recognition Program (PAR), which includes various strategies and activities aimed at valuing the efforts of employees. According to Natalia Avilés, Institutional Communications Manager, the event is not only to thank the permanence of people within the company, but it is also a very good opportunity for CallFasst members to have a closer relationship with the board of directors.

“The fact that, somehow, a place where you spend even more time than at home is thanking  you for this time together, is making people feel that their work for so long has been worthwhile and that it is important to the company,” says Natalia. “At the end of the day, they have contributed to the growth of the organization.

With the arrival of the pandemic, the event had to be modified to meet healthy distance standards. “The advantage of this new format is that we have been able to join together the centers from different cities in the same event,” says Natalia. This has allowed members from Queretaro and San Luis Potosi to get to know each other and have a clearer picture of who makes up the company in their different locations.

This year we spoke with some of the employees who received a seniority award to learn about their experience at CallFasst.

Marlen Gachuz currently works in the Quality area, she found her first job at CallFasst seven years ago and, throughout this time, she values the facilities in schedules that the company provides: “I have a three year old toddler and, as a mother, many companies do not allow you to leave in case of an emergency but, in this case,  CallFasst has been unconditional”. Marlen plans to start an English course to take advantage of the bilingual campaigns that the company currently has in order to continue adding new experiences and achievements within the organization.

When Angelica Gonzalez joined this contact center, she did not think she would be today receiving the recognition for ten years of seniority: “Many of us sometimes enter CallFasst as a while: while I finish school, while I change cities… However, this place must have something for many of us to become the place where we decided to stay”.

Among that something, she has found more than one reason. On the one hand, it has allowed her to make a career: from quality analyst she became a training instructor and is currently a leader in that area thanks to her efforts, but also to the facilities and tools provided. On the other hand, she also recognizes that the relationships she has created with her team are a fundamental factor of permanence, since a workplace becomes our second home and the people with whom we work, a second family.

In this regard, Fernando Perez, Project Manager at the San Luis Potosi center, believes that the main characteristic of a contact center is that you work very closely with people: “I had other jobs before, but from none of them I can say that I had the growth and knowledge, especially in terms of human capital management and leadership, that I have found at CallFasst”.

He mentions that, since his arrival more than fifteen years ago until this 2022, he has not stopped learning new things and updating, but the most important factor has always been the contact and follow-up with his work teams and colleagues:

There are three very important things that I value here: one is that they have always respected my work and have given me opportunities for growth. Another is that here I met my wife with whom I formed my family, which is the most valuable thing I have and is related to this company. Finally, the realization that, throughout all these years, you have left a positive mark on the lives of the people you have worked with.

Claudia Janette Gonzalez recalls that she was very nervous on her first day at CallFasst, as she had never worked in customer service before. She did not imagine it would be part of her day-to-day for more than twenty years, being one of the few who have received this recognition in this business area of FASST IT, which has been in operation for a little more than 22 years. For her, the most important thing is the work environment, the friendships she has forged, the facilities she has been given to manage her schedule and to be able to choose the area or campaigns where she wants to work.

Teresa De Jesús Esparza, Director of Administration and Finance, remembers perfectly how she joined FASST IT as an accountant, when the company was very small and the call center area that would later become CallFasst did not yet exist.

From 1991 to date, Teresa has had to combine an area of great stress and responsibility  with her personal life, but her biggest challenge has been to revolutionize her way of working to adapt it to the IT field to which the company belongs. She admits that it was hard to adapt to this because she came from another era where this issue was not so important, but in return, she has had a lot of growth in her work and considers that her superiors have somehow respected her time so she could  be able to develop herself at a personal level.

What she appreciates the most is that the company has given a lot of importance to the issue of values: “I have worked these thirty years with a lot of respect towards me, from my bosses and subordinates and in general the coexistence among all has been very good, with a lot of adaptation”.

“We went from ten or fifteen employees to nearly two thousand,” Teresa adds. The awards ceremony is also a timely moment to look back and see how far we have come.

“During this breakfast we show them a video semblance so that they can see what their stay has been like during all the years they have been in the organization”, mentions Natalia, “I feel that it is a very emotional moment because there are people who in five, ten or fifteen years have married, changed positions, finished their studies”. In this regard, Angelica recalls: “It is very curious to see how we have changed over time and what we were doing at that time in our lives.

For Marlen, this type of event is another factor that makes her want to stay with the company: “that you feel that you are important to them”. For Fernando, “with this event, the company pays attention to the most important thing, which is the people and the time they spend giving their knowledge and effort”. “In the contact center industry, turnover is extremely high, so having people who have completed five, ten, thirty years is very satisfying. Knowing that the company is doing things right so that people decide to stay so long and every year more and more seniority awards are given is a good sign that workers are staying longer and longer”. Natalia concluded.