Peyton Manning is a Super Bowl-winning quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts who is perfectly suited physically, mentally and experientially for the role. What would happen, though, if his coach put him on the offensive line to “block” 350-pound opponents? As foolish as that would be, organizations all over the world do it every day with their employees. They put good people in the wrong roles and then can't figure out why they fail.

Here are three steps that can help your contact center hire employees who will be successful and motivated on the job.

Step 1: Define Success
Many organizations jump over this step and fail to communicate what job success means. Don't force new employees to “guess” what you want. Ambiguity leads to lackluster performance and to unfulfilled objectives. Here's an exercise you can use to determine what success looks like for a particular job.

What it means to be successful in this role is __________.

You fill in the blank. Here are some examples:

• Salesperson – “to consistently achieve sales quota and maintain a 12% - 15% margin.”
• Technical Support – “to resolve a customer's technical issues in a way that meets our quality and time standards.”
• Customer Service Rep – “to retain 98% of our customers annually and achieve a 95% or higher satisfaction rating.”

Try working with your peers in management to define success for each of the job categories reporting to you. You'll be surprised at how many different ideas you get, and you'll reap the rewards with better-qualified employees who know what you want.

Step 2: Define Activities
This step involves “how” employees achieve success, and it is the focus of most job descriptions. It covers the experience, education, core job skills and expertise required.

Here's an example: Your contact center sales reps might be responsible for upselling new products to existing customers and for answering inbound calls from prospects. They must be skilled at telesales, familiar with your company's customer relationship management software and able to complete orders and reports online. You get the idea.

Step 3: Define Personal Traits
Once you've defined success and the activities required for each job category, you can better determine the type of person best suited to the role. The more precisely you can define the personal traits you need, the more likely you are to select the right person for the right role. Here are some questions to ask:

• What motivators does this job reward? If you're hiring for an outbound sales job, you might want an agent motivated by financial success. If you have a customer service position to fill, you probably need someone who loves helping others. Personal motivators that conflict with the rewards of the job can lead to “unmotivated” employees.
• What personality type would best fit this role? Do you need workers who are analytical, relational or assertive? For example, asking an introvert to step into a collections role or to make outbound sales calls could be disastrous. So think carefully about the personality type you need.
• What mental strengths do they need? Will you need agents who can create their own processes and systems? Or do you want individuals who can simply follow directions? An employee who thrives on finding better ways to do things will quickly become frustrated working in a “this is the way we've always done it” environment.

I urge you to go through these three steps to find, attract and hire highly motivated employees. You'll be able to win by weeding out bad matches and honing in on the best fit. Peyton Manning would be proud.

Barrett Riddleberger is founder of the sales consulting firm Resolution Systems and author of “Blueprint of a Sales Champion: How to Recruit, Refine and Retain Top Sales Performers.” He specializes in the psychology behind peak performance and in what motivates salespeople to succeed. For more information, visit www.resolutionsystemsinc.com, or email Barrett at info@resolutionsystemsinc.com.