Centrical

We expect managers to be coaches. But we’re not setting them up for success. Here’s what’s happening. Frontline managers are drowning in data without clear, actionable insights. They’re juggling dashboards for AHT, CSAT, Conversions, Quality, but they can’t quickly tell which agent needs coaching, what kind of coaching they need, or what exactly to coach them on. Add the time crunch. Between admin tasks, escalations, and reporting, there’s barely room for meaningful coaching conversations. So coaching becomes reactive. A checkbox instead of a growth opportunity. We all know the result: Managers burn out. Agents disengage. Performance becomes stagnant. Add AI agents to the equation, and things get even more complicated. Your best managers might turn to ChatGPT to coach better, but without the right context or integrations, ChatGPT can only help so much. That’s what we’re solving with Centrical’s AI coaching. AI surfaces the right insights at the right time. It guides managers to prioritize the most urgent conversations. And it can personalize coaching in ways that make it more human, like tailoring feedback to an agent’s personal interests or communication style. It works because it connects to existing operational systems to surface insights and can take action, whether that’s sending a relevant learning activity, assigning a goal challenge in Centrical, or scheduling a 1:1 through WFM integrations. When we give managers the support they actually need, coaching transforms from a dreaded task into a performance multiplier. Managers want to coach their team members more. They just need help doing it.

One of my employees just shared this story about Beyoncé that stuck with me. Apparently, when she was in high school and training to become a pop star, she practiced singing while running on a treadmill, sometimes even in heels. She knew that performing under pressure, on stage, while dancing and moving around, requires practice in conditions that mimic the real thing. Yet in contact centers, we expect agents to handle objections, manage upset customers, and navigate complex scenarios without ever practicing them first. The result: Burned-out agents. Low CSAT. And high attrition. Knowledge without practice doesn’t build confidence. And without confidence, performance suffers. That’s why we built AI role-play simulations at Centrical. Agents practice lifelike conversations with AI personas that act as customers, complete with objections, emotions, and real-world complexity. Every interaction is scored and coached in real time, turning practice into measurable skill development. When you give people the chance to practice in a safe environment, they perform much better.

Your onboarding program is training people to quit. Here’s what’s wrong: You bring in a new hire who’s worked in three contact centers before. They sit through the same training as someone who’s never touched a headset. They’re bored. They disengage. They leave. Meanwhile, the first-time agent is drowning. Too much information. Too fast. By the time they hit the phones (if they even make it to nesting), the shock sets in. “Did I really sign up for this?” I don’t need to do the math for you. Poor training and early attrition cost companies thousands or dollars per agent. We can’t expect to dump information on people and hope it sticks. Research shows that without reinforcement and personalization, most of what’s taught in the first week is forgotten by week two. Companies using Centrical’s AI microlearning are proving there’s a better way. By using AI-powered personalization and data-driven learning paths, they cut training time while improving performance metrics. On average, by 50%. AI assesses what someone already knows and skips it. It identifies knowledge and skills gaps in real time and reinforces them immediately. It adapts the pace to each learner's needs. With AI role-play simulations, agents can practice real scenarios in a safe environment before taking their first live call. It’s pretty simple after all. By meeting people where they are and teaching them what they actually need to know, companies see lower early attrition, faster time-to-proficiency, and better long-term performance.

Supported agents. Supercharged outcomes. Just ask Purpose Financial.

We’re making massive tech investments while treating our workforce as disposable, and that’s backwards. 11,000 people lost their job at Accenture as part of an AI-led restructuring program because they couldn’t be reskilled fast enough for AI. Not sure it adds up. Meanwhile, data shows that 58% of companies are adopting AI because of pressure from competitors, not because they have a real strategy. Accenture’s CEO said: “We are exiting people where reskilling is not a viable path for the skills we need.” I get it, not every organization can reskill everyone. Some roles will disappear, and some people won’t be able to transition. Companies are trying to seize an opportunity to do more with less. That’s reality. The tech alone isn’t the answer. You need to reshape workflows, invest in your people, and prepare them to work alongside AI. When you have 11,000 employees and you help them adapt to new roles, you end up with the best people for the job AND you preserve institutional knowledge AND reduce costly onboarding cycles. Google research shows that AI acts as either a “mirror and multiplier” depending on whether businesses actually adjust their structures and culture. Organizations need to give employees real opportunities to grow and evolve. At the same time, we need to build AI-first organizations where people think like engineers: constantly building, testing, and iterating. (Subscribe to my newsletter for more on this) The stakes couldn’t be higher, and the skill gaps will only widen. We have the tools and technology to create better workplaces than we’ve ever had before. The companies that invest in reskilling their people, not just replacing them, will be the ones that win. Ronnie Dungan Benjamin Broomfield HR Grapevine

Too many companies treat Voice of the Employee like a box to check. An annual survey. Generic questions. A vague promise to “do better next time.” Managers sometimes don’t even see the feedback, and nothing changes. And here’s the problem: beyond just being surveyed, employees want to be seen, heard, understood, and most importantly, they want their feedback acted on. Too often, traditional VoE feels like a formality, and it’s no wonder employees stop speaking up. I’ve always advocated for VoE programs to be drivers of performance and engagement, rather than delayed listening exercises. It’s how I built it into the Centrical platform and how I run our company. It looks like short, targeted pulse surveys about what actually affects people’s day-to-day work: → Are priorities clear? → Is the workload manageable? → Do they feel confident in their knowledge of newly launched processes or initiatives? → Is coaching effective? → Are they okay? And when someone signals something’s off, managers get alerted, coaching triggers, and conversations start. It all happens in the flow of work. Feedback without action isn’t listening. When employees see that their voice leads to action, trust grows, engagement deepens, and performance improves. We need better, faster, more human feedback loops, powered by technology, but driven by empathy. #VoiceoftheEmployee #VoE #EmployeeExperience