Taking Expertise Out of Circulation

We needed to set up call centres to deal with enquiries about certain policy changes. But the way they set it up was completely unsuitable. The policy experts were physically separated from the call centre staff, and it could take weeks for a submitted question to be answered. The call centre staff were backpackers and casual workers, but they were really bright – they got very good at picking up the right kind of knowledge and how to answer the enquiries. But they had very high turnover. We lost so much knowledge. And it was essential that enquirers got an accurate answer, there was a lot at stake.