ICMI's Customer Management Insight - September 2007 - (Page 34) O P E R AT I O N S RECRUITING AND HIRING Even with all of the rapid advances in call center technology, and all of the mature, robust tools that help to power a center’s success, a skilled and inspired front line of agents is still the reigning “killer app” in customer contact. Today’s call centers appear to be doing a lot of things right with regard to recruiting and hiring qualified agents; however, many have yet to implement and embrace some of the more advanced and progressive methods that can help launch the center’s frontline to the next echelon of customer support. Many centers use a healthy variety of recruiting methods to attract candidates. The five most common agent recruiting methods that managers cited using “very often” or “often” are: 1. Employee referrals (84.8 percent) 2. Online recruiting via own corporate Web site (73 percent) 3. Help wanted ads in local and regional newspapers and magazines (68 percent) 4. Online recruiting via thirdparty Web sites, such as Monster.com, Careerbuilders. com, etc. (58.2 percent) 5. Employment and/or temp agencies (48.4 percent) Other common recruiting methods cited include general job fairs (39.8 percent) and campus recruitment activities (36.3 percent). Somewhat surprisingly, only 3.9 percent of respondents indicated that their center used their IVR system to announce job openings. Of some concern is the fact that only 41.4 percent of centers surveyed formally track how successful their recruitment methods are (i.e., which one most often led to the hiring of a solid-performing, long-lasting agent.) Considering the costs involved in recruiting — and the amount of time that may be wasted in screening and assessing poorly qualified candidates — centers would be wise to evaluate the effectiveness of each recruiting method and determine which are worth the money and effort. Among the specific things that many centers should consider in regard to their hiring programs include: targeting less traditional yet very viable labor pools such as mature workers and workers with disabilities; offering a telework option to help extend the recruiting reach and attract “cream of the crop” candidates; using more comprehensive and realistic job previews; investing in dynamic IVRbased prescreening solutions; tapping job simulation software and automated skills assessment tools to help gauge potential agents’ customer contact ability and knowledge; using tests and tools specifically designed for determining whether agent candidates have the right psychological attributes and motivation for call center work; focusing more strongly on e-support skills (email/chat) when screening and assessing agent candidates. ACCE will take place Sept. 10th-13th at the San Diego State Convention Center in San Diego. For information, visit www.ACCEicmi.com. • Multichannel Report Preview: Technology Is In Place; Channel Management and Support Is Lagging Phone contacts. IVR contacts. Emails. Chat sessions. Web calls. Web-self service interactions. Faxes. Most of today’s call centers handle at least three or four of these customer contact types, with many centers handling five, six or even all seven. Thus, calling a call center “multichannel” is, in essence, an exercise in redundancy; just as calling a call center a call center — and not a contact center — is an exercise in controversy. icmi’s insight www.icmi.com | SEPTEMBER 2007 34 http://www.ACCEicmi.com http://www.icmi.com
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