Call Center Hiring

With consumers’ ever-increasing reliance on, and insatiable desire for, technology – from computers to cell phones to mp3 players – it should be of little surprise that there has been a corresponding increase in demand for technical support representatives (TSRs) in today’s call centers.

But the common mistake so many companies make when recruiting and hiring reps for their technical support centers is over-emphasizing technical knowledge and under-emphasizing the basic skills needed to deliver good customer service.

Many companies continue to insist that their reps “must know how the technology works” -- or at least have an aptitude for understanding technology -- in order to deliver good customer service. Then they wonder why, after hiring round after round of these supposed “experts,” customer service levels continue to decline. The problem is their recruiting and hiring processes are based on faulty assumptions about what drives successful performance.

Call center hiring solutions provider FurstPerson recently helped a telecommunications company with more than 4,000 technical support representatives greatly improve its customer service through the implementation of a custom tailored recruiting and training program.

But first FurstPerson had to get the firm’s management to shed the same broad generalization that so many other organizations have: That call center agents must possess technical knowledge and/or interest in technology in order to be successful as TSRs.

 

The telecommunications firm was swayed by research from FurstPerson showing that there are significant talent gaps in the TSR (News - Alert) agent pool. The research revealed that many TSRs lack the ability to learn and apply complex information effectively. As such, FurstPerson was able to assuage the firm’s management that closing this gap, as part of a comprehensive pre-hire process, could yield significant gains in recruitment and performance for TSR hiring.

Because FurstPerson’s assessment tools are used to measure candidates’ viability for specific call center positions, it has amassed a wealth of data which can be used to show which people are most likely to succeed in certain positions. Using this data, FurstPerson was able to share some intriguing statistics with the management at the telecommunications firm – for example, TSRs with higher FurstPerson assessment scores had 29 percent higher technical ratings and 36 percent higher overall ratings from supervisors, compared to TSRs with lower assessment scores.

 

Using its vast experience in recruiting and hiring, FurstPerson was able to develop a tailored TSR hiring program for the telecommunications firm that yielded significant improvements.

First, FurstPerson worked with the telecommunications firm to understand how key performance metrics were connected to the business outcomes the organization wanted to achieve. Next, FurstPerson conducted a job analysis to understand the performance gaps that the firm was experiencing within the TSR position.

After linking job tasks and competencies to key performance indicators, FurstPerson recommended four assessments that are delivered via its 1stHire assessment platform:

--AutoScreen PLUS, which measures work habits

--CC AIMS, which assesses work attitudes and work skills

--CC Audition, a simulation tool that measures work ability and skills and

--1stSolve, a cognitive ability test that assesses work ability

FurstPerson also compared assessment results to call quality, average handle time, and retention for more than 2,000 of the firm’s TSRs. Through this assessment it identified that new hires who did not meet the baseline performance requirements for Average Handle Time and Call Quality had a 0 to 90 day attrition rate that was 2.7 times higher compared to hires that met those requirements.

This statistic suggested that reps may have been leaving because they could not perform the TSR job, perhaps recognizing their limitations and leaving voluntarily before they were terminated or put on a written action plan. These terms therefore showed up as voluntary terms rather than performance-driven involuntary terms.

With most call centers experiencing 60 to 70 percent voluntary attrition, this key data suggested that a percentage of voluntary attrition may in fact be performance driven. FurstPerson determined that implementing a predictive assessment solution geared towards measuring the potential to perform on the job would help reduce turnover and improve new hire job performance against key metrics.

Additionally the company’s research revealed that:

--New hires who passed the assessments had an Average Handle Time 30 seconds faster than the performance baseline, while maintaining or exceeding Call Quality performance standards

--By adopting the Technical Support hiring process, the telecommunications firm was able to reduce annualized turnover by 30 percent – or $3 million in turnover costs
--Supervisors rated TSRs with higher scores (versus lower scores) on the FurstPerson assessments at a 29 percent higher rating for Technical performance and 36 percent higher rating for Overall performance
--The savings in attrition plus the productivity gain with reduced AHT resulted in a significant return on investment for the telecommunications company

For more information about FurstPerson’s call center hiring solutions, click here.