EWS Live · 265 Tanks Monitored

We Watch the Tanks.

Intelligence-driven executive search for call centre and contact centre leadership. We don't just fill seats — we've spent 27 years studying which leaders make tanks thrive and which ones let them fail.

27
yearswatching
703
executivestracked
9
industriescovered
265 contact centres monitored across Ontario and Texas
The Fish Tank

Imagine you have a fish tank.
A really big one. Hundreds of fish.

Every day, the fish swim around and everything looks normal. The water is clear. The fish are eating. The temperature looks fine.

But one day, you notice the fish are swimming a little slower than yesterday. Not a lot. Just a little. And the water is almost the same colour, but not quite. And one of the big fish that usually swims in the front has moved to the back corner.

Nobody else in the room notices. Everything still looks fine.

But the person who has been watching this exact fish tank, and hundreds of fish tanks just like it, every single day, for 27 years? He sees it.

He knows that when the big fish moves to the corner, and the water shifts colour slightly, and the swimming speed drops by just a little, something is about to change. Not in a month. Not in a year. Soon.

He saw this same pattern in another fish tank three years ago. And five years before that. And eight years before that. He has seen it so many times that he doesn't even have to think about it anymore. He just knows.

Your call centre is the fish tank. Your executives are the fish.
And I have been watching. Not just your tank, but 265 of them across Ontario and Texas. Every single day. For 27 years.

We don't start by finding you a new fish. We check the water first.

Because sometimes the tank doesn't need a new fish. Sometimes it needs the water changed. And if you put a healthy fish into bad water, that fish gets sick too.

That is what 27 years of watching teaches you.

Check the Water First

Roster Readiness Assessment

Before a name leaves our desk, we run a full diagnostic on your contact centre leadership team. Fourteen business days. Nine deliverables. Every seat mapped, every competitor benchmarked, every risk quantified — so when we do recommend a fish, we already know your tank.

01

Leadership Roster Map

Complete inventory of every leadership seat. Who is in each seat, how long, what persona type.

02

Persona to Tank Fit Analysis

Each executive classified against five persona types. Mismatches identified with replacement priorities.

03

Compensation Benchmarking

Real placement data from 27 years. Not survey averages. What the person you need actually costs.

04

Competitive Staffing Intelligence

What competitors pay, who they hired, where they recruited from.

05

Vacancy Risk Forecast

Which seats are at risk of opening in 6 to 12 months based on tenure, comp gaps, and stress signals.

06

Succession Depth Score

For every critical seat: how many qualified internal candidates exist?

07

Empty Seat Cost Quantification

Dollar impact of every vacant or at-risk seat.

08

Hiring Specification

Exact persona, comp range, time to fill, available pool. A hiring blueprint, not a job description.

09

Executive Summary

Two-page board-ready document. What you need. What it costs. What happens if you wait.

Cost of the Empty Seat

Cost of the Empty Seat

Every day an executive seat sits empty, your operation pays in forecast accuracy, overtime, and attrition.

Configure Your Scenario

$180,000
$80K$400K
60 days
15 days180 days
Estimated Vacancy Cost
$70,615

Based on 1.7x daily comp rate over 60 days

Daily rate: $692Daily cost: $1,177

Industry multiplier includes service degradation, overtime, recruiter fees, onboarding costs, and productivity ramp.

Vacancy Cost Over Time

Cost compounds — the longer you wait, the more it hurts.

Tank Health

Tank Health Barometer

After watching 265 tanks, we know what a healthy one looks like — and what a failing one looks like. Where does yours fall?

Healthy Tank

Leadership in place, centre thriving

All 5 key seats filled
Succession plan for each seat
Compensation within market range
Leadership tenure > 2 years avg
Active talent pipeline
Defined persona-to-role mapping
92%

Tank readiness score

Unhealthy Tank

Leadership gaps, centre struggling

Multiple seats vacant > 60 days
No succession plan in place
Below-market compensation
Leadership turnover > 30%
Reactive hiring only
Wrong persona in wrong seat
31%

Tank readiness score

Five Types of Fish

Every Contact Centre Executive Is One of Five

After 703 executives placed, we've identified five distinct types. Every seat demands one of these. Put the wrong type in the wrong seat, and the tank suffers.

The Anchor

Stability in complexity.

Director CC OpsWFM ManagerVP CC Ops (steady state)

The Forecaster

Pattern recognition at scale.

Director WFMWFM ManagerSr. WFM Analyst stepping to leadership

The Builder

Zero to one.

VP CC Ops (turnaround)Director WFM (new function)Head of CX (greenfield)

The Operator

Volume under pressure.

Director CC Ops (high volume)WFM Manager (real time)

The Translator

Boardroom to operations floor.

CCOVP CXVP CC Ops (strategic)

Which Personas
Does Your Tank Need?

Our assessment maps the right persona to every seat in your centre.

Roles & Compensation

The 5 Key Seats in Every Tank

Dual-market compensation intelligence from 27 years of placements. These are the 5 key seats every call centre must fill correctly.

CCO / VP Customer Experience

C-Suite / SVP
USD
$200K–$350K+
CAD
$175K–$300K+

VP Call Centre Operations

VP
USD
$160K–$240K
CAD
$140K–$210K

VP / Director WFM

VP / Director
USD
$125K–$220K
CAD
$115K–$190K

Director CC Operations

Director
USD
$120K–$175K
CAD
$110K–$160K

WFM Manager

Manager
USD
$90K–$135K
CAD
$85K–$125K

Ranges reflect base compensation. Total comp (bonus, equity, benefits) varies by industry, centre size, and market. Data sourced from 703 placements across Ontario and Texas.

27 Years Watching

The Timeline

Michael Duncan has spent 27 years with one focus: contact centre leadership. Not as a chapter of a broader career. As the whole thing.

1999

Started watching the tanks. Specialized exclusively in contact centre leadership from day one.

2003

Crossed 25 tanks. Started tracking leadership patterns across industries.

2007

Recognized the 5 persona types. Anchor, Forecaster, Builder, Operator, Translator.

2011

Expanded into Texas. Dual market compensation intelligence begins.

2014

Built the Roster Readiness methodology. 15 years of signals turned into a system.

2018

Cross-border placement model refined. Ontario and Texas as one connected market.

2021

Remote and hybrid transformation. Helped centres redesign leadership for distributed ops.

2024+

265 tanks. 703 executives tracked. CallCenterTeams.com launches.

By the Numbers

265 Tanks. 703 Fish.

Two and a half decades of watching tanks, studying patterns, and placing the right leaders in the right seats.

27
Years Watching Tanks
265
Tanks Observed
703
Executives Placed
9
Industries Covered

Markets Served

🇨🇦
Ontario, Canada
Toronto, Ottawa, Hamilton, London, Waterloo
🇺🇸
Texas, USA
Dallas, Houston, Austin, San Antonio

Industries Covered

InsuranceBankingTelecomHealthcareUtilitiesBPORetailTechnologyGovernment

Placements by Industry

Distribution across 703 executive placements

Begin

Check the Water First

The Roster Readiness Assessment starts with a conversation. No obligation. 15 minutes.

Send Us a Message

Tell us about your centre. We'll tell you what we see.

Direct Contact

Markets Served

Ontario, Canada
CAD compensation data
Texas, USA
USD compensation data

Ready to Start?

9 deliverables. 14 business days. Complete roster intelligence.