Bruce Belfiore, CEO
BenchmarkPortal
Hiring the right contact center agents is critical to the success of any contact center. Here are ten tips to help you find and hire the best contact center agents:
- Identify the skills and qualities you're looking for: Make a list of the essential skills and qualities that are required for the job, and incorporate these into a complete job description. Requirements may include strong communication skills, the ability to multitask, customer service experience, and problem-solving abilities.
- Screen resumes: Carefully review resumes to determine if candidates meet the qualifications and experience you are looking for. Look for candidates who have relevant experience, education, and certifications. If you have a large-scale operation that uses artificial intelligence to screen resumes, regularly evaluate whether it is doing a good job in getting you the results that you desire.
- Conduct a pre-screening interview: Use a pre-screening interview to ask candidates some initial questions and assess whether they have the necessary skills and experience for the job. This could be done through a phone or video call. Many candidates (especially Gen Z) prefer employers who get them to this stage quickly; slow processes have been shown to reduce recruiting success. Tools that structure a quick process for you may be well worth the investment.
- Conduct skills assessment: To ensure that the candidate has the skills required for the job, conduct a skills assessment that tests their communication skills, customer service skills, and problem-solving abilities. Recently, more centers are adding language testing to the mix, to be sure candidates have the verbal and written skills needed for today’s multi-channel needs.
- Behavioral interviews: In a behavioral interview, you can ask candidates how they would respond to real-life scenarios that are common in the contact center environment. This will help you assess their critical thinking and decision-making abilities. Here again, AI provides interesting possibilities for some centers.
- Cultural fit: Ensure that the candidate will fit into your organization's culture - and the culture of your customer base. Consider the candidate's work ethic, values, and personality traits.
- Background check: Conduct a background check to ensure that the candidate does not have a criminal record or other negative histories that could affect their ability to work in a contact center. Warning alert: the world of background checks and drug testing has gotten much more complex. You need to have competent assistance to be sure you stay compliant with fast-changing laws and regulations.*
- Offer competitive compensation and benefits: Benchmark your starting pay against your industry and, where applicable, your geographic hiring area, as this is the first thing to attract attention from candidates. In addition, benefits are often seen by candidates as indicators of how much employers care about their employees. Find ways to make the overall compensation
package attractive. - Provide a compelling onboarding experience: Throughout the recruitment process and right into the onboarding process, assess the experience from the candidate's point of view. Make the wait times as short as possible; make the human interactions as uplifting as possible; make the bureaucratic necessities as easy to complete as possible.
- Survey your new hires about their experience: There is nothing like input from your target audience to find out the strengths and weaknesses of your hiring process. A short questionnaire should include open-ended questions on what the candidates found most attractive in accepting your offer, and on suggestions that they would make to improve the process.
By following these tips, you can hire the best contact center agents for your organization and set yourself on a path to a high-performance workforce.
* Check out our informative, non-commercial CallTalk™ podcasts on these topics at https://resources.benchmarkportal.com/calltalk.
Written with AI assistance.
