Attracting and Hiring Top call center representatives
By Dr. Cabot Jaffee
AlignMark, Inc.
cjaffee@alignmark.com
407-659-3500
One of the most important things Call Center Human Resource professionals need to know about attracting and hiring representatives is that the very best candidates are fundamentally different from the rest of the talent pool. And with today’s economy there is no reason why you shouldn’t wait and work to find the best of the best to hire. These fundamental differences are not a generational or cultural thing − we’re not talking Gen X, Gen Y, or Baby Boomer differences. A lot has been written about that, but that’s not the kind of difference being talked about here. These fundamental differences are durable and transcend generational priorities or divergent values. In fact, these differences have always been present. People who fish for a living understand. The fastest, most alert, most agile fish are the ones that get away. The rest are dinner. Conventional fishing methods do not often capture these top-tier, “super” fish. Super fish anticipate the net, the bait, or the predator and react fast. They are better equipped in important ways to excel in their primary endeavor – which in the fish world is survival. And even though top talent in the call center world may not be striving primarily for survival in a food chain, they are similar to the fish that have the skills and abilities to get away. Like the fish, top talent is better equipped to excel in important ways, and for organizations doing business in today’s highly competitive world, that importance is worth understanding.
The difference HR leaders need to understand is this: Top talent is savvy and decisive. They are intelligent consumers of opportunity and are unlikely to settle for any experience they perceive as “second best.” They don’t waste time pursuing “dead end” opportunities, and they know they don’t need to. They are confident defining themselves as choosers not beggars, and they know that being selective pays healthy dividends over the long term. When surveying the job market, they are only interested in the best employer/employee relationships, and they are good at predicting which opportunities are most likely to provide a return on their investment of time. Unlike their less talented peers, top talent tend to behave more like elite athletes − prepared to work hard and engage their considerable skill, but less likely to need any given opportunity. In fact, top talent is often most attracted to opportunities with quality organizations that have made entry into their organizations both attractive and efficient.
This does not mean to say that organizations should roll out the red carpet and bow to top talent like they’re royalty. That would certainly set a destructive precedent. But the simple point is this, your best applicants are not going to spend a lot of time engaging inefficient, time consuming, or otherwise unattractive application processes. They don’t need to. They quickly move toward those quality organizations (perhaps just down the street) that have made their processes easy, convenient, and welcoming for new employees. And they do this for the simple reason that “easy, convenient, and welcoming” sends all the right messages: we want you, we respect you, and we execute at a very high level ourselves.
To entice top applicants then, organizations must demonstrate, through their recruitment and selection processes, their organizations perform at the very highest levels. It follows that the first opportunity for a first impression happens during the earliest stages of recruitment, long before interviewer and interviewee meet, and it is in those moments that top applicants begin to evaluate the quality of the organization before them. Organizations must be able to convey their employee value proposition during the recruiting phase, especially when wanting to hire top talent. Candidates want to be able to understand and determine the quality of fit between what they want and your organization.
TOP 5 QUESTIONS FROM TOP TALENT you better be able to answer
The following list are the top ten questions that top talent will be asking in their earliest interactions with a recruitment process and prospective company:
1. Is my online experience with this organization user friendly? In other words, is the path to learning more about the company and completing an application both intuitive and simple?
2. Does the web-site and web-recruiting process reflect quality?
3. Do I feel like I am truly being welcomed to the organization, or is it my perception that the organization just wants to know if I meet their qualifications?
4. Do I begin to learn about what it would be like to work in this organization? Do I get to see an online “day in the life” job preview? Do I understand the company’s employee value proposition?
5. Can I get immediate feedback on whether or not I qualify for the next step in the selection process, and can I get that scheduled before leaving the website?
As part of an applied research effort, AlignMark, Inc. reviewed online career sites of a sample number of major call center organizations. Resulting conclusions were surprisingly similar across different companies and somewhat disappointing from an applicant’s perspective. It is disappointing that the large majority of systems have failed to evolve beyond the status of impersonal, one-way data collection devices, as illustrated in the chart following.
After 30 Days |
|
Variable |
Fact/Impression |
Comment |
|
Interest level of online experience |
70% boring & impersonal |
· • Text only administration of 45 - 60 minute experience contributes to monotony.
· One-way nature of process (data collection) added to impersonal feel.
· 20% were less than 10 minutes; not engaging, but too brief to consider boring. |
|
Applicant understands his/her status within the overall process |
80% provided no information on overall selection process, next-steps or timeframe for potential next steps |
Information essentially went into Black Hole. |
|
Positive information provided about company |
10% actively and effectively promoted company as an employer-of-choice |
Lack of information and self-promotion contributed to monotony of the experience and failed to differentiate major competitors from one another. No clear employee value proposition stated. |
|
Post-online experience |
80% have yet to provide any feedback beyond an immediate “Thank you” at conclusion of online experience. |
Black Hole experience creates some level of resentment. |
summary
Top talent is definitely out there. Hiring outstanding representatives is the goal of every company, but only those who truly understand that top talent is fundamentally different can hope to be successful engaging them. By taking the time to reflect on the first impressions that current recruitment/selection processes create, and by seeing those processes as top talent sees them, organizations can meet the expectations and high standards that top talent holds for all of their professional relationships. And with expectations met, top talent will willingly be brought “onboard.” But this is where the extended fish metaphor has to end, because top talent will never be organizational “trophies.” In fact, for all the static qualities that describe trophies, the opposite will hold true for outstanding professionals. They will be dynamic and lively partners, raising the bar of excellence throughout your organization.