Call Center Hiring

FurstPerson is a leading provider of Web-based call center hiring solutions. It has long been active in assisting contact centers recruiting the right agents to work from home. FurstPerson's call center hiring solutions may soon be in more demand. As the economy turns around there will be more pressure on agent hiring and retention, and having home-based agents is a proven method to recruit the highest quality, most productive and loyal i.e. low-turnover staff.

With that trend in mind TMCnet approached FurstPerson to get the firm's insights on structuring a home agent program. We interviewed Jeff Furst, President and CEO, Dawn Lambert, Senior Manager, Selection and Assessment, and Brent Holland, Vice President, Research and Consulting.

TMCnet: Outline the key differences in staffing and recruiting at-home agents versus those working in on-premises contact centers. Discuss attributes, qualifications and recruitment/selection tools.

Jeff Furst: At a foundation level, the home agent job and the on-premise job are very similar. Competencies that drive successful job performance for an on-premise job are also going to be critical to successful job performance for the home agent position.

However, home agent positions do have some critical differences that are important to evaluate in the staffing and recruiting process. First, the home agent must have the right environment which is obviously not an issue for on-premise centers. By environment this means a dedicated office free from noise and interruptions and the right technology i.e. computer and Internet connectivity. Second, the home agent job requires a second level evaluation of competencies that drive home agent performance. For example, successful home agents tend to be better self-starters, better able to work in a less social environment, and better at identifying problems/solutions within their environment.

The results that have been realized by some of our home agent clients are impressive:

--31 percent decrease in average handle time
--10 percent increase in call quality
--36 percent decrease in applicants who don't complete product training
--16 percent improvement in average talk time

Dawn Lambert: Let's take an example by looking at the customer service job families for on-premise centers and home agent models.

Drawing from our extensive job analysis database with hundreds and hundreds of job analysis studies and thousands of subject matter expert interviews, we find that two competencies - autonomy and initiative - stand out as much more important for at-home agents than for on-premises i.e. Brick-and-Mortar' agents. Also, perseverance and time management are typically considered among the most important competencies for home-based agent success, but typically do not make the "most important" cut for brick and mortar agents. Finally, both on-premises and home-based positions have a lot of overlap in terms of what are the "most critical" competencies for success. These include compliance (#1 for both), listening, oral communication, tact, stress tolerance, professionalism, dependability, problem-solving, composure and positive attitude.

However, many of these competencies are rated as more important in the home-based setting than in the traditional Brick-and-Mortar center, notably compliance, professionalism, dependability and composure. These four are all skills I would categorize as "intrapersonal" (as opposed to "interpersonal" i.e., listening, communication, tact) skills, or skills related to self-discipline and internal self-regulation. Given the necessarily limited supervision available to at-home employees, these findings make perfect conceptual sense.

Jeff Furst: From a recruiting tool perspective, assessments do exist to evaluate home agent candidates. FurstPerson's Hire@Home solution includes a call center simulation (CC Audition® Home Agent) set in a home office environment with web-based training and a remote trainer as part of the assessment. In addition, FurstPerson's Hire@Home also includes two versions of a computer diagnostic tool that can evaluate the job candidate's technical environment.

New technology advances in assessment testing are also benefiting virtual testing. One of these advances is Computer Adaptive Testing which basically randomizes test questions for job candidates. Adaptive testing helps create a unique candidate testing experiences which helps reduce potential cheating and protects the intellectual content of the assessment. As an example, FurstPerson's 1stSolve problem solving test (2009 Product of the Year award from TMC (News - Alert)) has an adaptive version which is being used with home agent hiring models.

TMCnet: What unique issues crop up in selecting at-home agents?

Jeff Furst: First, the technology environment needs to be handled during the recruiting process. Assuming that the model is 100 percent virtual - i.e. no on-premise center close by - then the entire process (sourcing, selection, on-boarding) needs to be handled virtually.

Second, the recruiter must understand the key competencies that drive home agent performance are also unique to this job family.

Third, scale is critical. If the recruiting is run effectively, a home agent hiring process should yield 10 to 25 candidates per hire. An on-premise model will range from 3 to 1 up to 10 to 1. This means that an automated process is critical for successful hiring or you will lose well qualified job candidates.

Brent Holland: There is a certain degree of irony in at-home customer service jobs.  On one hand a company is hiring an agent to be the portal through which a customer touches the business. These agents must be able to create a personal connection with a customer in order to solve the presenting problem and deliver a superior service experience.

On the other hand, there is often a significant disconnect between a company and its at-home/home-based applicants. In some cases, the at-home recruiting and screening process is so automated that a new hire may not speak to an actual company representative until after the hiring decision has been made, and even then human contact may be limited to e-mail and chat.

Automation and technology in an at-home setting can depersonalize the process for hiring people who must deliver a personalized experience to a customer in order to be successful.

Moreover, a depersonalized recruiting and screening process not only increases the risk of disengagement, it may actually prevent engagement from forming in the first place. The consequence is that the at-home workforce may struggle to form a bond with a company, which can lead to higher attrition, poorer performance, and a less satisfied work force.

TMCnet: What are the best practices in selecting at-home agents?

Jeff Furst: The best practices for selecting at-home agents are very similar to best practices for hiring anyone else.

--Understand the key business objectives behind the home agent effort
--Understand how performance metrics capture success/failure of these business objectives at the agent level
--Perform a job analysis with key subject matter experts that know and understand the home agent job
--Match the key competencies from the job analysis to the right assessment tools to evaluate the job candidate during the staffing process
--Validate the effectiveness of the home agent hiring solution
--Make sure you have a robust recruiting program ready to go
--Rinse and repeat the process to learn what worked and what did not

TMCnet: More at-home agents are being employed who live outside of commuting/feasible driving distance from on-premises centers, which obviates the longer-established practice of having them come in for training. What are your recommendations for selecting and recruiting them?

Jeff Furst: We expect this trend to continue. Many home agent models are using the home agent position as a reward opportunity for solid performance in the on-premise model. However, a key benefit of the home agent model is the ability to expand the labor pool to include more potential top performers in your talent pool.

The job analysis process should help the hiring team understand the key competencies for remote training. Using assessments that can measure these competencies are critical. And, if you can provide the candidate with a "face valid" process that replicates the home agent role and helps them understand it better, hiring results can be improved.

Dawn Lambert: Sending successful on-premise agents into an at-home setting without evaluating their readiness for such an environment is like promoting the best agents to supervisory positions without assessing their leadership potential. Certainly on-premise agents can be successful in the at-home space, but if you don't evaluate their potential for success specifically in that environment, you might be setting them up for failure by sending them to the at-home space.

TMCnet: Are at-home supervisors feasible and recommended? If not, why not? If so what are the best practices in recruiting and selecting them?

Jeff Furst: Yes at-home supervisors are feasible and recommended. Based on our work with clients, the home agent model should be consistent across the operating span. Best practices for hiring supervisors are the same as front-line agents. The key is to understand that a top performance agent does not mean they will be a top performing supervisor.