Call Center Scheduling Can Be Improved with Focused Hiring

Hiring the right talent to match your team, culture and environment is an important goal, but can also take a considerable amount of time. As the demand for call volume continues to increase, it’s tempting to bring on the first available applicants and hope for the best in call center scheduling. The problem with this approach, however, is that it could lead to higher turnover rates.

In the call center industry, high turnover is a common theme. Whether companies move too fast on hiring applicants, the pressure of the job is too much or applicants misrepresent their skill and capacity for quality customer care, the problem is widespread and costly. Plus, it can make call center scheduling a nightmare when management isn’t sure if employees are going to show up for a scheduled shift.

In a recent Monet Software blog, we’re introduced to a company that tried a different method to get a handle on high turnover. The company was tired of spending thousands of dollars in training, testing and interviews and decided that maybe additional methods would prove more successful than the traditional approach alone. Management sought out to identify candidates with the mindset of a successful contact center agent.

Known as talent benchmarking, the technique is designed to attract better agents, reduce the rate of turnover and cut down on contact center costs. To identify the best type of candidate to hire, the company examined the successful talent it already had. The top-performing agents on staff were given surveys and then interviewed as to why they thrived in that particular contact center environment. As a result of this process, the company developed 10 raw talent metrics meant to serve as predictors of future success.

Before talent benchmarking, the contact center was successful in its hiring practices 47 percent of the time. Once benchmarking was put in place, the company improved that number to 59 percent, demonstrating a 25 percent improvement. The method also helped cut down the number of times the organization hired agents who were later found to be poor fits within the company and likely failed to deliver on quality customer care expectations.

This is an excellent example of what a company can do to reduce the cost of agent turnover and improve accuracy in call center scheduling. While no plan has proven to be foolproof, paying attention to the details and qualifications that make current agents successful can go a long way in helping you identify those talents you need in a quality candidate. 

Edited by Stefania Viscusi