Case Studies

Sykes speeds-up onboarding without compromising on competency

SYKES Enterprises’ Latin American unit provides customer engagement services for the Global 2000. It needed to modernize onboarding, raise learning effectiveness, learner satisfaction, and improve KPIs. A Centrical solution cut the time to onboard new hires by 2 days. Employees gave the program a 92% satisfaction score while demonstrating a higher level of competency.

40% Faster onboarding

92% Learning program NPS

"When I enter the classrooms, the difference is immediately noticeable. You can actually see people are having fun"

Allan Morales Regional Training Manager

Getting new employees ready faster, better

Feedback from new employees on SYKES LATAM’s onboarding program indicated low satisfaction. It turned out the facilitators felt the same way.

Initially, SYKES’s On-Boarding program consisted of five Instructor-Led Training days “We were using very long slide decks and training was flat and monotonous” says Allan Morales, Regional Training Manager at SYKES LATAM. Allan also felt there was no real way to know whether learning was effective at all. Were people just clicking through slides?

For an organization that recruits and trains thousands of people annually, a better way had to be found and implemented. SYKES LATAM decided it needed to modernize their learning program and do so in a way that would cater to its Millennial hires’ expectations and better fit them.

“We felt that Centrical’s gamified microlearning could work well when combined with its Learner-Centric approach” says Morales. “We believed it could shorten the time we needed for On-Boarding and that it would help remedy the poor learner satisfaction results we were seeing”.

One of the main challenges Allan’s team was concerned about was the time that would be required to modernize course materials. SYKES found that Centrical’s built-in, simple to use content authoring tools advanced this effort considerably. It modernized onboarding overall by transforming from long-form, flat training materials to learner-friendly bite-sized microlearning.

As part of their solution, SYKES is providing learning items within a gamified narrative with strong social and collaborative elements that are perfect for a classroom. They upgraded the learning materials to use multimedia, blended learning, simulations, SCORM-based courses, quizzes and assessment – all of which come built-in with Centrical’s platform.

Today, SYKES LATAM is using Centrical for all of its On-Boarding sessions. “When I enter the classrooms, the difference is immediately noticeable: you can actually see people are having fun. In fact, they suggest that we use the same approach with all learning activities, since it’s so much better” says Allan.

As a result, the onboarding process was shortened from 5 to 3 days. Further, completion of learning activities was 100%. And the once-dismal satisfaction level rise to 92% along with a shorter time to competency.

Continuous learning yields continuous improvement

Employees who learn well perform better

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Sykes speeds-up onboarding without compromising on competency

Getting new employees ready faster, better

Continuous learning yields continuous improvement

“CX leaders should stop isolating contact centers from other departments. Customer experience is increasingly cross-functional. In 2025, integrating CX insights across the organization will be critical to delivering seamless and cohesive experiences.”

“To start, give customers a choice: digital or live support. And if they go digital first and can’t get what they want, make it super-easy for them to connect to a live agent.”

“Knowledge Management: It is not exactly underrated but it will be bigger than what it is in 2025. Vendors are likely to boost R&D investment in knowledge management for contact centers in 2025.”

“Human-centered AI, where AI is used not just to automate and drop money to the bottom line, but used to service up insights to support team members and delight customers. I see generative AI with conversational context and tonal analysis as pretty critical here.”

“The myth that technology/AI is a quickly implemented CX superpower. Companies will realize that we can’t harness a lot of these gains without quality data that is clean and well-organized.”

“By 2025 the buzzword omnichannel may be on its’ last leg.  Customers want their issues resolved quickly and accurately and they would prefer not to need to contact us in multiple channels that we can see at one time.”

“For 2025, the main trend I’m watching is ‘AI agents’—bots powered by AI that are becoming more autonomous. Unlike basic responses, these AI agents can handle end-to-end customer interactions, reducing the need for human intervention. Expect significant developments from vendors.”

“Stop talking about AI. It’s like talking about the internet being a thing. It’s here. The better focus is start thinking about how AI enhances the lives of your team. So stop talking about AI and start doing something about it.”

“AI and CX will drive hyper-personalization, using consumer data to segment customers, deliver key messages, and provide fast, accurate responses. Technologies like chatbots and predictive analytics will close the gap between brands and consumers.”

One myth that will be debunked in 2025?: “Customers are on the edge of their seat waiting to hear what you have to say. We need to learn about what’s important to customers by asking more questions.”

Sykes speeds-up onboarding without compromising on competency

Getting new employees ready faster, better

Continuous learning yields continuous improvement

Request a Free Demo