This module will
answer the following recruitment and hiring questions:
-
What skills should I look for when I want to hire the best?
-
What are the keys to a
successful hiring program?
“What skills should I look
for when
I want to hire the best?”
As seen in
Centerserve's Call Center 2007 Best
Practices Report, customer service skills
were the top quality for hiring agents, with nearly three-fourths of
participants citing this criteria. Industry knowledge ranked low
in importance when compared to other key qualities such as
professional attitude and interpersonal skills.
The following is more
specific information regarding the
primary skills to consider when hiring agents.
ustomer focus
and problem solving skills
P hone
skills: voice quality, enunciation, grammar, listening skills
P ersonality
traits: time and stress management skills, ability to work
within a team, motivation
W riting
skills (especially if they will be handling email responses or
text chats)
C omputer skills:
typing and navigation (speed and accuracy)
E ducation
L anguages spoken
(where appropriate)
A ptitude
for handling mixed media: phone requests, email responses, text
chat and both inbound and outbound calling (when appropriate)
C ertification in
the subject areas appropriate for your organization (e.g.,
Microsoft networking certification, state insurance licenses)
What
are the keys to a
successful hiring program?
A successful call center begins with hiring the
right agents. An effective hiring process is a main component to
ensuring your call center is staffed with the best agents.
Centerserve's Training Development Toolkit offers a variety of tools
and techniques to assist you in hiring only the best. The following
is an outline of an effective hiring program from
Centerserve's
Training Development Toolkit.
1.
Excellent interviewing
techniques.
-
Multiple
interviews with different members of staff (managers, agents,
out of department partners)
-
Sharing
“worst-case” and “best-case” calls (recorded) to give candidates
a feel for the job
2.
Defined job
descriptions.
-
Preparing
candidate profiles and job descriptions (prior to interviewing)
-
Desired skills
included previous call center experience, being a team player
and being call center career-oriented
3.
Candidate testing.
-
Typing speed
and accuracy
-
Verbal and
written abilities
-
Personality
attributes (soft skills)
-
Problem solving
and analytical abilities
4.
Employment
partnerships.
-
Establish an
ongoing partnership with well-known staffing agencies,
universities and technical schools
How to implement
an effective training program
Training
Development Toolkit
A complete guide for creating a world-class training organization;
designed for training managers and call center directors who are
starting a new training department or who need to redesign their
current training program.
2007 Call Center Best
Practices Report - How to be a Great Call Center Manager
Benchmarking report - The
How to be a Great Call Center Manager Report includes 46
pages of management insights to improve your center's performance.
This section focuses on the management of call center employees
including recruiting, hiring, training and motivating agents.
To order, call 970-669-6554 or
order online.
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