Better benefits without a bigger budget, and a reason to stay.

A contact center competes for agents against every other center, every warehouse, and every retail employer paying a similar wage, and the revolving door is expensive. Optiv Advantage gives your agents a measurable increase in take-home pay without a raise. It adds real coverage they can actually use, coverage that sets your offer apart in a crowded hiring market. And the center funds all of it by recovering payroll tax it was already overpaying on every payroll run, so none of it lands as a new expense.

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$5 a week to over $100 a month

added take-home for the agent

No copay, no deductible

virtual care for the employee and family

Up to $957

employer recovery per enrolled employee per year

Winning the hire in a market where everyone pays about the same

Agents choose between your center and a dozen other employers offering a similar wage, and pay alone rarely wins. A center cannot always raise the base rate to stand out, but it can offer more in the same paycheck and coverage the employer down the street does not. That is what turns a maybe into a yes at the offer stage, and it is what keeps a trained agent from leaving for a few cents more an hour. In an industry where turnover runs far higher than most, holding on to trained agents is where the money is.

Agents weigh similar wages across many employers. More take-home in the same paycheck is a concrete reason to choose you over the center down the road.

Coverage most hourly employers do not offer, virtual care at no copay for the whole family, sets your offer apart at the moment a candidate is deciding.

Turnover in contact centers runs 30 to 45% a year, roughly three times the all-occupation average, and average agent tenure is only about 14 to 15 months. Every trained agent you keep is money saved.

What makes a good agent choose you, and stay

Agents weigh two things when they compare offers: what lands in the paycheck and what the coverage actually does for them. Most hourly employers offer little on either front, so a center that offers more take-home and real coverage stands out before the first shift. The same two things keep a trained agent from walking across the street for a few cents more an hour. Recruiting and retention are the same lever pulled at two moments, and there is a fuller recruiting playbook in the resources below.

A measurable take-home increase gives a candidate a concrete reason to choose you, and a current agent a reason to stay through the first hard months.

Real coverage most hourly employers skip, virtual care at no copay for the whole family, signals the center values the people on the phones.

The recruiting edge and the retention edge come from the same benefit. See the recruiting playbook at /resources/recruiting.

How Optiv Advantage works for a contact center

Optiv Advantage uses a Section 125 structure, which means qualifying benefit premiums come out of pay before payroll tax is calculated. That lowers the wage base the center and the agent are both taxed on. Here is where the saving becomes concrete, and how it reaches your bank account. Each pay period, whoever runs payroll drops your payroll report into a calculation engine we provide. The engine returns an updated payroll with the benefits already calculated, and it flags new hires and terminations so people are added to or removed from the plan and enrollment outreach starts on its own. Because each agent's qualifying premium is now taken out before tax, the wage base is lower, so the FICA you deposit with that payroll is smaller. You keep the difference. It is not a rebate you wait for and not a check that arrives later. It is simply a smaller FICA deposit on the very next run, which means the cash stays in your account instead of leaving it. That drop-in step is what calculates your reduced FICA each cycle. It adds about five minutes and five clicks, and everything after the drop is handled for you. That is what we mean when we say we do the work. Coverage is provided by an A-rated, state-licensed insurance carrier. Implementation and the full mechanics are covered on the How It Works page.

WORKED EXAMPLE

Take one agent who elects pre-tax premium under the plan. The center calculates its FICA deposit on that agent's wages after the premium is taken out, not before. The result is a smaller FICA deposit for that agent on the very next payroll, and up to $957 less over the year. Across a full floor of enrolled agents, that recovery adds up to real money the center keeps each year. The figure is illustrative. The exact amount is modeled to each center's census and depends on participation and election levels.

What the math looks like across your workforce

Modeled on a 100-agent center at the industry turnover rate, with a conservative reduction in line with what meaningful financial benefit programs are associated with in retention research. The turnover figures are industry data and are cited below. The Optiv savings are shown as a range. The exact figure is modeled to your census in a gated proposal.

Without Optiv Advantage

turnover at the industry rate — replacement cost of roughly $10,000 to $20,000 per agent across recruiting, onboarding, training, and lost productivity — no payroll tax recovered.

With Optiv Advantage

fewer replacements as retention improves — plus recovered payroll tax on every participating dollar.

Net annual value for a 100-agent center

a range combining recovered payroll tax and reduced turnover cost — exact figure modeled to your census.

Turnover figures are industry data, cited below. Optiv savings reflect program averages and are modeled to each center's census. Individual results vary. A 5 to 20% turnover reduction is consistent with documented outcomes when employers add meaningful financial benefit programs.

What the agent actually receives

The plan is built to be felt in the first paycheck and the first time an agent needs care. It pairs a measurable take-home increase with coverage this workforce rarely gets. Virtual Urgent Care connects the agent and family to a board-certified physician around the clock, usually in under 15 minutes, and Virtual Primary Care gives them a dedicated PCP, both with no copay and no deductible. Their Health Maintenance Benefit is included. Optiv Access pairs with the Advantage plan to bring entry-level virtual care to part-time and contingent agents, and its cost nets against the center's payroll-tax recovery rather than adding an expense.

A measurable increase in take-home pay, modeled to the agent's situation.

Virtual Urgent Care and Virtual Primary Care with no copay and no deductible, for the agent and their family.

Mental-health support through the EAP, which speaks directly to the burnout and high stress the role is known for.

Supplemental accident, critical illness, and cancer coverage for staff who rarely receive it.

Work Shield workplace-misconduct resolution as a bundled bonus, resolving issues about 80% faster than the national average.

Indemnity payments are potentially taxable on the excess.

The value compounds with every agent you keep on the floor

The payroll-tax recovery scales with the number of enrolled agents, and the turnover savings scale with how many stay. Across a 50, 100, or 250-agent operation, both move in the same direction and compound every year the plan is in place. Larger floors see larger recovery. The per-agent logic does not change.

50 agents

recovered payroll tax plus reduced turnover cost, modeled to census.

100 agents

a combined annual range, modeled to census.

250 agents

the same logic at greater scale, modeled to census.

Questions center operators ask

When wages are close to identical across employers, the offer that gives an agent more in the same paycheck and coverage the others do not wins. Optiv Advantage does both, more take-home pay and virtual care at no copay for the whole family, without raising your base rate. It is funded by recovering payroll tax you already overpay, so you can lead with a stronger offer without adding a benefits expense.

Yes. The added take-home is figured on each agent's own pay and election, so it scales with what they earn, from as little as $5 a week to over $100 a month. For agents whose hours change with the season or the schedule, the plan is built to keep pace, and we model the range against your actual roster before you decide anything.

The plan can pay a fixed cash benefit when a covered medical event happens. Those payments are potentially taxable on the excess above what an agent paid in, and the question of how that excess is treated for wage purposes is genuinely unsettled. We do not describe the benefit as free of tax. The full analysis is available in a gated white paper for operators who want to see it before enrolling.

The entire process only adds about five minutes and five clicks to your regular payroll. Each pay period, whoever runs payroll drops your payroll report into a calculation engine we provide. That returns an updated payroll with the benefits already calculated, and it flags new hires and terminations so people are added or removed and enrollment outreach starts on its own. That same step figures your reduced FICA for the cycle, so the savings show up as a smaller FICA deposit on that run. Everything after the drop is handled for you. That is what we mean when we say we do the work.

SOURCES

Industry benchmarking (Insignia Resources, Giva, SQM Group, 2025 and 2026). Contact center turnover commonly 30 to 45% a year, several times the all-occupation average.
Contact center industry data. Average agent tenure about 14 to 15 months.
Industry replacement-cost estimates. Replacing a single agent commonly costs $10,000 to $20,000 including recruiting, onboarding, training, and lost productivity.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (2025 annual averages). Call center quit rates run well above the all-occupation average.
Optiv Advantage program data. Employer FICA recovery of up to $957 per enrolled employee per year; employee take-home increase varies from as little as $5 a week to over $100 a month.

Know your numbers, before you make the call

The plan is engineered. The math is yours. Calculated, not recommended.

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