The labor market is incredibly tight right now, and when it’s difficult to find the customer service talent your company needs, there is a temptation to blame outside forces. However, outside forces are difficult to control, and therefore you should consider the possibility that your hiring tactics are falling short.
When times are tough, it’s also easy to lose sight of the importance of making the right hiring decisions. When a call center makes a lot of bad hiring decisions for its customer service representatives, it can be very damaging to a company’s brand. These staff members are literally the voice of your company. Put simply, and there isn’t much room for rude or incompetent service.
Because hiring the right customer service representative is so vital and so difficult right now, many companies are taking creative approaches to bring in top talent. Companies are also turning to agencies that offer call center recruiting services.
Call Center Recruiting Experts in Wichita Share 6 Innovative Recruitment Strategies to Find Quality Call Center Agents
Rather than thinking of the current tight labor market as a crisis, you should be seeing it as an opportunity to innovate and unlock new avenues for recruitment. The following suggestions are unconventional, but they are also designed to fit in easily with your existing talent acquisition approach.
1. Call Center Recruiters Advise to Use Nontraditional Recruitment Methods
In order to hire great staff members and retain them, your company should be the employer of choice for the most qualified candidates.
One proven way to do that is to promote your organization as a top employer. Nobody wants to be employed by a company with a bad reputation. Some companies are finding success by promoting their work with different forms of media like podcasts and videos. This type of content can be used to promote the company’s wins and sell the benefits of working for your organization. Let potential recruits know how your company is growing or doing work that is relevant to their everyday lives. Show the audience that your team members are on a rewarding journey with your organization. Suggest that others can join your organization on this winning journey.
Whether or not your company decides to develop this type of content, it’s important to show your company culture in a positive light. You can do this quickly and easily by posting aspects of your culture to social media. In addition to promoting your products and services, your marketing efforts should sell your culture as a driver of organizational success. If you have a thriving company culture and can sell it effectively, it will not only have positive impacts on the type of people you recruit but also on the products you produce and the services you provide.
2. Have Current and Prospective Employees Interact with One Another
Great customer service requires representatives that are team players, and one way to recruit good team players is to hold group interactions as part of your hiring process. At some point in the process, have current and potential staff members come together for a casual meeting, like a coffee break or paid lunch. Encourage interactions with brainstorming exercises or a lighthearted Q&A session.
Getting possible hires and present staff members together for social interactions isn’t just an icebreaker. It can also give candidates a better understanding of what it might be like to work for your organization, day in and day out.
When it comes to picking employees for these events, call center recruiting agents to recommend choosing people who truly appreciate the work they do. You want folks who can discuss the benefits of the position, the small daily wins, and the long-term achievements. People who are into their job and the company culture are more likely to convert those considering multiple career options.
It’s important to remember that these group interactions could be challenging for candidates. However, those committed to your opportunity will be willing to engage. Pushing candidates a little bit outside their comfort zone will allow you to evaluate their soft skills, such as communication and ability to adjust to a new situation.
3. Recruiters advise attending fun events, not just traditional job fairs
If job listings and other conventional recruitment tactics aren’t performing as desired, consider sending your hiring managers to various industry events, not just those related to employment.
Job fairs can be useful, but there are many other professional events where you can interact with potential candidates. At industry events, call center recruiters can promote your company’s employer brand and get a sense of potential candidates in the labor market.
It also helps to meet potential candidates where they hang out online. Post job openings on social media and advertising on local websites. Even though it’s online, you can still target candidates in the local community using technology.
4. Host an Open-House Event
Hosting an open house and letting potential candidates to all your facilities is a proven call center recruiting strategy. When people tour your offices, it allows them to envision working there. Potential candidates also get the chance to see potential coworkers interacting with one another. Basically, an open house lets people get a real sense of what a customer service job entails, compared to simply reading about it in a job ad.
In addition to helping sell your customer service positions, an open house allows your hiring managers to interact face-to-face with potential candidates. When your recruiters find a candidate that’s particularly promising, they can sell them on applying to your company. When recruiters interact with someone who throws up red flags, they can make a note of that for future reference.
5. Focus on the orientation
The recruitment process doesn’t end once the candidate signs their name on the dotted line. Employees are at the greatest risk of leaving a company within the first few months, and a robust orientation process can ensure that new hires become long-term employees.
If you think your orientation program needs improvement, start by surveying recently hired employees about the program. Ask new employees if the program made them feel welcome and engaged. Ask about ways the program could help them be more productive as new employees.
Many companies find that new employees are a great resource when it comes to an employee referral program. Your orientation program should promote the referral program because new employees still have strong connections to former coworkers who may be looking for a new job.
6. Learn from Exit Interviews
Some of the most common reasons people are fired from their job are related to being disengaged. They don’t follow directions. Their performance is poor. They frequently slack off or call in sick.
If you want people to have long and successful tenures with your organization, you need to hire candidates with the greatest chance of being engaged in their work, and exit interviews are a great tool when it comes to recruiting best-fit candidates.
When an employee is terminated, or even when they quit, don’t just allow them to walk out the door without an exit interview. These people are in a position to be very honest about their experience with your company because they don’t have much to lose by being completely frank.
The most important question to ask in an exit interview is what it would have taken to keep the departing employee. If you have a difficult office policy or workflow that is driving people out the door, you need to identify it and address it as early as possible so that it doesn’t drive out promising new hires.
Also, ask the departing employee if the reason they are leaving could be addressed in the recruitment and hiring processes. This is a particularly relevant question if they’ve only been with your company for a short time period. Maybe there’s something about the job that the departing employee didn’t know before they started working for your company. If there’s a disconnect there, it should be addressed. That way, people know what to expect from Day 1.
Finally, it’s important to ask the departing employee what they think about your company culture. If they were a top performer, you’ll want to know which aspects of your culture they found most appealing so you can lean into those aspects. It’s also critical to know which aspects of your culture might be driving out good people.
Partner with a Customer Service and Call Center Staffing Agency to Recruit Top Customer Service Agents for Your Team
As one of the top call center temp agencies in Wichita, Kansas, Top Notch Personnel has a track record of connecting clients to best-fit customer service representatives. We understand recruitment strategy must address both short-term needs and long-term objectives. That’s why we offer temporary, temp-to-hire, and direct-hire services. When your company partners with us, we can develop a package of services that will support both excellent customer service and the bottom line. Please contact us to learn more about our cell center recruiting services.