Employee relationship management, or ERM, software bills itself as a way to increase employee satisfaction and effectiveness. The counterpart to CRM, ERM allows workers to adjust their benefit packages, access training, and hook into performance-management methodologies more easily and efficiently. But can it address one of the most pressing personnel problems in the customer-service world -- the constant turnover in agents and representatives?

The short answer is yes, Anthony Deighton, Siebel's (Nasdaq: SEBL - news) senior director for ERM products, told CRMDaily.com. But the long answer, as always, is more complex.

Getting on the Same Page

"All enterprises are grappling with the fundamental problems involved in what it takes to build and leverage customer relationships," Deloitte & Touche partner Maria Grant told CRMDaily. And establishing that culture at all levels can be difficult.

Toward that goal, ERM applications can help enterprises reward employees for the behavior and skills that are most important in customer-centricity. They also can help highlight areas in which executives are not "walking the walk" of a customer focus.

"You can build the business strategy, vision, mission, goals and objectives into an ERM system," Grant said. Thus, more people are on the same page with what behaviors an enterprise (news - web sites) is encouraging and what skills employees need.

Solving Human Problems

But, of course, those strategies, visions, missions, goals and objectives must be developed and aligned to reward excellent customer service and retain effective employees. In that sense, "ERM has got the potential to decrease churn and increase management effectiveness," Richard Feinberg, director of the Purdue Center for Customer Driven Quality told CRMDaily.

But acquisition of a tool does not guarantee success. "A hammer in a skilled carpenter's hand will be very effective," Feinberg said, "but if it's in my hand, you better get out of range." In other words, enterprises cannot rely on technology to solve human problems, and many of the issues that contribute to call-center staff turnover are just that.

If middle and senior managers use ERM applications well, they can cut into turnover. But if they are looking for a quick fix to complex problems -- many of them their own making -- then an ERM investment may be wasted.

For instance, Feinberg cited his center's research, which found the top determinant of turnover in call centers is not -- as many people assume -- the hourly wage. Rather, it is that employees feel managers do not support them and their work. "You don't necessarily need expensive technology to address that," he said. "What you need is inspired leadership."

Inspiring the Leaders

What kinds of things make for inspired leadership? Well, having performance objectives aligned with organization problems is one. "Not one call center I know of uses turnover as a performance measurement for middle managers," said Feinberg. That is surprising indeed, when so many enterprises cite churn among customer-service representatives as a key challenge in their efforts to establish effective CRM programs.

ERM software can provide tools for aligning what an enterprise needs to get done -- like lowering agent churn -- with what all levels of employees are doing, said Deighton. It can identify high-performing employees and funnel information about how they do their jobs to others.

Another component of ERM systems that can help address churn is career planning. Agents might not leave a particular call center to take a five-cent hourly raise at a center down the street if they feel that management is interested in helping them to reach their career goals, Deighton added.

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