The Call Centre Staff Shortage: Why Ready Agents Are Scarce

Demand is growing faster than ready agents

The business process outsourcing sector is expanding. BPESA, the national industry body, reported 26,346 new business-services roles for international clients in 2025, the highest annual total since 2018. About 90% of those roles went to young people. BPESA's industry target is 500,000 new jobs by 2030, and it reports export revenue rising from USD 1.04 billion in 2019 to USD 2.91 billion in 2024.

McKinsey has projected that the sector could reach more than 775,000 jobs by 2030, with up to two-thirds serving overseas markets. Technavio projects the global BPO market to grow by $88.8 billion between 2024 and 2029. That is growth added over the period, not the size of the market, and it is a global figure.

Every new campaign needs people who can take calls on day one, and most of them need to be trained by someone who already knows the floor. That is where the pressure starts.

Applications are not the problem. Ready agents are.

Entry-level call centre roles attract high application volumes. Bizcommunity has reported that many applicants for call centre operator roles are overqualified, and that a substantial share hold degrees or diplomas. Headcount is not the constraint.

The gap is between the people who apply and the people who can perform on a live campaign. A large applicant pool does not solve that. It makes the screening harder, and it means an operator can fill seats quickly and still struggle to keep the agents it has hired.

Why experienced agents are contested

Experienced agents are the people every operator needs to train new starters, run the floor and hit sales and service targets. They are also the people every operator is competing for.

Three forces make that competition tighter. The sector is growing, and BPESA's chairperson has reported ten new international operators choosing to invest in South Africa in a single year. Established operators keep growing their campaigns. And the work has high churn: published estimates of annual attrition range from about 16% to 40%, depending on the study, and many agents move between employers several times before they leave the industry.

Why people leave in their first months

Industry commentary consistently reports that a large share of call centre exits happen in the first few months. Published research on the causes is limited, but the same patterns recur across the sector:

• Recruitment is under volume pressure. When seats need filling, induction can be shortened, and agents reach live calls sooner than is ideal.
• Targets arrive before agents are ready. KPIs set in the first weeks are a common early source of pressure.
• Agents are placed in teams or campaigns that do not suit them. A poor match tends to show up as early exits, whatever the agent's ability.
• International campaigns raise the bar. Different hours, accents and products make the move between local and overseas work harder for agents who are not prepared for it.

None of these is new. What changes the outcome is what happens before the first live call.

What operators can do about it

The practical answer is to make sure the people who reach the floor are ready for it. That means four things.

Assess at the point of recruitment

Test candidates for the skills the job needs: reasoning, memory, following instructions, and learning a system quickly. ShiftMate's online assessment does this before an operator spends time interviewing, and an AI interview adds a view of each candidate's experience and capabilities in their own words.

Match to the right team and campaign

Fit is a major driver of early exits. Matching on skills, campaign and shift pattern before placement means fewer agents start in a team or campaign that will not suit them.

Prepare before the floor

Practise the calls before the calls are live. Role-play exercises, AI training simulations and KPI practice give agents a steadier first month than induction alone can, and they show the operator early which agents need more support.

Measure what happens after the first month

Track time to first live call, first-month targets and 90-day retention for each cohort. Those three numbers show whether the preparation is working, and they are the figures operators need to make the case for investing in it.

Building the pipeline for people with no experience

Ready agents will stay scarce while most of the sector's growth depends on people who already have experience. The longer-term answer is to build a pipeline from people who do not. ShiftMate is building a call centre academy and online training for people with no call centre experience, so that operators have a supply of agents who have been prepared for the basics before they reach the floor.

Enrolment is not open yet. We will publish the programme, the price and the start dates before anyone is asked to pay, and we will not describe the academy as accredited until any accreditation is confirmed.

What we are measuring

The figures in this article come from published sources, and the pattern descriptions come from our work with operators. We are recording time to first live call, first-month targets and 90-day retention with the operators we work with, so that the trend can be shown with numbers rather than only described. We will publish those figures, with the period and the sample, when they are reliable enough to stand on their own.

Frequently asked questions

Is there a staff shortage in South African call centres?

Demand for call centre agents is growing fast, and experienced agents are contested between employers. Entry-level roles still attract high application volumes. The shortage is most acute for agents who are ready to perform on a live campaign.

Why do call centre agents leave so early?

Published research on the causes is limited. The patterns most often described across the sector are shortened induction, targets set before agents are ready, poor fit between agent and campaign, and the added pressure of international campaigns.

What can call centre operators do to keep agents longer?

Assess candidates at recruitment, match them to the right team and campaign, prepare them with realistic practice before the floor, and track time to first live call and 90-day retention so the results can be measured.

How big is the call centre industry in South Africa?

BPESA reported 26,346 new business-services roles for international clients in 2025, and its industry target is 500,000 new jobs by 2030. Figures for total headcount vary by source, so check the most recent BPESA report before quoting one.