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The Call Center Model: Module 6 of 8
Call Center - Human Resources

Call Center Model Tutorial Series

The first step toward delivering world-class customer service in today’s environment is to separate the different components that contribute to a successful call center. Module 1 introduced the Contact Center Model, which breaks the call center into its five key components – Strategy, Processes, Technology, Human Resources and Facilities.

Modules 2-8 will examine each of these components separately. The final module, Module 8, will address the project planning and change management needed to make the most of your contact centers. Each component comes from Centerserve's Planning and Design eToolkit. The Call Center Model acts as a basis for ensuring cost effective, strategically aligned, world-class customer service. Click here to reexamine Module 1, Module 2, Module 3, Module 4 and Module 5.

Human Resources Overview

This tutorial will examine some of the key areas of human resources, including:

Organizational design
Recruitment and hiring
Training

For in-depth information on how to plan and design the human resource facet of your call center, see Centerserve's Planning and Design eToolkit

Organizational Design

Successful organizational design must be tied to your business processes and is driven by the accountability model. Your call center will need an accountability model in place to ensure successful performance of the contact center. To begin, consider the following operational and support roles that are typical for a contact center.

Operational Roles:

Manager – The Contact Center Manager has overall responsibility for running the center on a day-to-day basis and for ensuring that the center meets its strategic goals. Additionally, this person is the liaison between the contact center and the rest of the organization.

Team Leaders/Supervisors – Team Leaders/Supervisors are responsible for a small group of CSRs within the call center (the size depends on the number and complexity of contacts handled, usually between 5 and 20). They offer CSRs ongoing mentoring, coaching and other feedback for professional development.

CSRs – CSRs are your organization’s front line to your customers. They handle inbound and outbound contacts through phone calls, email, postal mail, text chat and/or faxes.

Support Roles:

Workforce Scheduler
Technology Coordinator
Process Designers
Trainers
Systems Support Staff
Business Analyst

*see a full description of these roles in the Planning and Design eToolkit

Job Descriptions:

Next, consider the job description for the roles above. A well-written job description allows you to attract the right candidates. An ideal job description should contain the following information:

Organizational overview and job context
What are the call center’s goals/objectives?
Description of position
Why does the role exist and what are the key responsibilities?
Relationships
How does this role relate to other roles in the contact center? Where and to whom does this position report? Are there any reports to this position?
Skills
What skills and experience are required?
Level
What is the salary range/grade of the position?

Recruiting and Hiring

To recruit and select candidates who will enjoy their jobs, do it well, and stay on the job long enough to recoup the training expense, 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

In this tutorial, we will only focus on the first two aspects of recruitment and hiring: tailored and targeted recruitment strategies and candidate screening.

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 below illustrates sample ‘skill-to-job’ correlations. Creating a 'skill-to-job' correlation for your call center will provide a roadmap for tailoring the recruitment process.

Skill to test	CSR on Phones	CSR in Text Chat or email Group	Team Leader	Customer Service Manager
Voice quality	Ö		Ö	Ö
Spoken communication skills	Ö		Ö	Ö
Writing skills		Ö	Ö	Ö
Leadership			Ö	Ö
Desktop application knowledge	Ö	Ö	Ö	Ö
Problem solving	Ö	Ö	Ö	Ö
Keyboard skills	Ö	Ö	Ö	Ö
Customer focus	Ö	Ö	Ö	Ö
Organizational skills	Ö	Ö	Ö	Ö
Call Center best practices			Ö	Ö

Screening techniques

To determine whether candidates are suited for the job, conduct:

telephone interviews
specialized aptitude tests for:
- email composition,
- customer focus,
- teamwork,
- prioritizing,
- specific technical knowledge required in your industry
role plays
reference checks

Important tip for retention

As part of the screening process, you must make sure the candidates are fully aware of the job responsibilities and the administrative procedures. Have a candidate sit with a CSR for two hours or more to see the job role in action, if at all possible. This will ensure that there are no surprises once they start training. For more on CSR retention, see Centerserve's Motivating Agents eToolkit.

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

Training - Key Skills

Agent training is essential to top performance in your call center. For more on agent training, see Centerserve's Call Center Training eToolkit.

While designing training, keep in mind the two aspects of the job that your training should cover: hard skills and soft skills.

	Hard skills are specific to your organization and the job itself: product/service information business processes escalation procedures systems media type: -incoming and/or outgoing phone contacts -email requests and text chat -web calls -mail, fax
	Soft skills are interpersonal "people" skills: Soft skills cover the manner in which you want customer contacts to be handled and how you want your CSRs to manage their work. customer handling skills listening skills étiquette and “netiquette” contact control techniques sales skills corporate ‘message’ time and work management

Training sequence

Equally as important as what to teach or train is how to train. Each module of training should contain some classroom and computer time, followed by role-play and a test. If the candidate does not pass the test, provide more instruction in weak areas. After an opportunity to handle real customers with the help of a coach, there should be a final exam. If students fail the final exam the first time, they should be given the opportunity to receive additional training before a second attempt at the test. Your organization may establish different guidelines for your CSRs.

There is more to the human resource aspects of your call center than the topics we discussed in this weeks tutorial. Ensuring your call center's manpower is as healthy as your strategy, process and technology, check out the Planning and Design eToolkit.

The Planning and Design eToolkit is packed with much more about the human resource aspects of your call center, such as:

-ongoing performance management
-benefits
-short term goal -staff performance
-long term goal- professional development

Other Call Center Management Resources

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Coming next week - Module 7: Call Center Facilities

2010 Benchmarks in Call Center Operations now available! Click here to learn more.