I wasn’t surprised when I reviewed my blog over to the past few months to discover that the concerns facing contact centre professionals are mostly the same ones that we mull, discuss and talk about every time we meet as an industry. The issues just happen to be more inflated during a recession. At this time we should reflect on what has been, and acknowledge that we have good systems and structures in our industry and this has prepared us for tough times. Indeed, some issues that we thought of as frustrations and that were causing us great pain now seem mediocreBudgets are an issue that will never go away; they just change shape and size. For example, many contact centre managers who were comfortable with their budgets for the last three or four years, have found they’ve had to reduce them.For a new contact centre manager this would have been a rude awakening to real budgeting. This is not a bad thing. It makes everyone a better manager when they are forced to discover what really is important to maintain staff and customer satisfaction, and what they can afford to do without.Recruitment is still a hot topic as we realise that it doesn’t matter what is happening in the world, it is still hard to recruit quality staff for the contact centre industry. The larger city centres still note that they are spending more money on interviewing and assessment centres, which is creating excessive wasted time and money.  Contact centres can’t afford to get it wrong with the average cost of replacing a staff member around $13,000. Managers are always striving to get it right because less attrition equals less stress on the budget. Not forgetting the other side of the story either: good recruitment means quality staff on the floor. A contact centre manager noted to me recently that trying to save money in recruitment by doing it yourself just doesn’t pay off. They’d learned the hard way that they needed to hire an expert agency and make them accountable. Managers are also working harder to keep staff in the role, especially if the company has a ‘sinking lid’ policy, because it’s in the best interest for the centre and customers to retain staff numbers.The newest issue facing TUANZ contact centre members is lack of leadership development. In a structured environment such as a contact centre, development of any kind is very important; it helps sell the role to new staff that there is career progression available (and dispels perceptions of contact centre work) and for team leaders and managers, it is vital for ongoing professional development.The skill-set to be a great leader within a centre is wide – they need to understand the in-house systems, the bigger picture of the business, and come to grips with the difference between how to balance day-to-day management with long-term strategy.The current recession means we have a limited offering of networking and training opportunities for general staff and up-and-coming leaders. One of our committee members has noted that in the past networking, and conferences, were the best ways to introduce new leaders and managers into the next stage of their development.  But we now have to develop and train staff differently, for example through conference calling, web-based training and virtual interaction with other people in the industry.  Contact centre managers are aware that reviewing and changing what they do during these times has to be top of mind, and they realise they need to ‘man up’ and manage what is controllable.When it’s not controllable, then work smarter and think of a new ways to tackle persistent problems. No centre is going to survive doing what they have always done and expecting a different result.  Megan Lacy writes the Mouthpiece blog for the TUANZ website. She has previously been a contact centre manager for LIC and Telecom.