Nearly 400 participants in the Call Center Learning Center online poll identified their top three management challenges for 2006.  Over 1150 votes were cast in the recent online poll conducted by the Call Center Learning Center to reveal the top management challenges for call centers in preparing for 2006.  This series will focus on the top five challenges identified by participants.  The complete results of the online poll are also available.

#5 Challenge:  Best practices in call center recruitment and hiring

Organizations with effective recruitment and hiring select candidates who will enjoy the job, do it well, and stay on the job long enough for the organization to recoup the expense of training them.  To accomplish this, you must:

• Use tailored and targeted recruitment strategies.
   
• Screen the candidates carefully to make sure they are suited to the job.
   
• Make sure candidates are fully aware of all the aspects of the job.  Once they are on the job, you don't want to hear: "I didn't know I would have to. . ."

Recruitment strategies

Recruitment takes time.  For many contact centers, it takes over six weeks to get candidates through the process.  Consider the following ways to make the job-seeking public aware that you are recruiting:

• Contract with a call center recruitment specialist.
   
• Use government employment agencies and economic development agencies to identify suitable employment pools.
   
• Place advertisements in local newspapers.
   
• Advise appropriate college career counselors.
   
• Reward current employees for each successful hire they initiate.
   
• List job openings on employment Web sites (some, such as CallCenterCareers.com, specialize in call center recruitment) and your own organization's Web site.

Skills and competencies required in agents

Based on the job description for the position, you should define selection criteria based on:

• Phone skills (includes voice quality, enunciation, grammar, listening skills)
   
• Writing skills, especially if they will be handling email responses or text-chats
   
• Computer skills in typing and navigation (speed and accuracy)
   
• Customer focus and problem-solving skills
   
• Time and stress management skills
   
• Ability to work as a team
   
• Motivation
   
• Education
   
• Languages spoken (where appropriate)
   
• Aptitude for handling mixed media (phone requests, email responses, text-chat and both inbound and outbound calling, when appropriate)
   
• Certification in the subject areas appropriate for your organization (for example, Microsoft networking certification or state insurance licenses)

Tailoring the recruitment process

The skills and qualities to be tested in the recruitment process need to be carefully tailored to the job for which the candidate is being considered.  The chart in Figure 1 illustrates sample "skill-to-job" correlations.

Figure 1 - Skill-to-job correlations

Screening techniques

With successful recruiting for your job openings, you will have many applicants.  The next step is to narrow the large pool of applicants into a smaller group of potential employees who meet certain criteria.  To determine whether candidates are suited for the job, you should conduct the following with potential call center agents:

• Telephone interviews
   

• Specialized aptitude tests for:
   

  • Email composition
     

  • Customer focus
     

  • Teamwork
     

  • Multi-tasking
     

  • Specific technical knowledge required in your industry
     

• Role plays
   

• Reference checks

As part of the screening process, you must make sure that the candidates are fully aware of the job responsibilities and the administrative procedures.  Have a candidate sit with an experienced agent for one or two hours to see the job role in action if at all possible.  Role plays can also be a suitable approach for the candidates to "experience" the job and understand all that it entails during the screening process.

To avoid potential discrimination issues, human resources and your legal department should review any screening tests.