Addressing the Plague of Employee Replacement
1 Nov, 2006
By: Paul RathblottIf there’s one issue that truly plagues almost all call center managers it is employee recruitment. In many cases, years of cumbersome, patched-together recruitment management technology and processes result in an inefficient “system” that leaves managers frustrated and important positions unfilled --- or filled with the wrong people.
Many call center organizations realize the need for a change in their recruitment strategy after observing one or more “recruitment red flags,” such as excessive spending in overtime and agency markup fees for ad-hoc workers, inefficiencies caused by manual processes or unacceptable turnover. Each of these “red flags” results in high costs, excessive training, excessive management time counseling poor performers or poor customer service, or all of them.
An often overlooked, although crucial, step in developing an effective applicant and recruitment management system for call centers is to first break down specific business and recruitment needs, determine the tools and processes necessary for addressing these needs and then identifying the key measurements and reporting procedures to effectively track how the system is working. Generally, to be successful most efforts must increase candidate flow, effectively assess applicants and manage the on-boarding of new hires. Once the solution has been implemented, it is important to have systems in place that produce accurate, accessible data and information, allowing organizations to proactively identify areas for improvement as their business evolves and needs change.
Solutions such as ERC’s Selectech Workforce Management enable recruitment managers to screen (based on the client’s criteria), qualify, manage and survey prospective candidates. They also manage the scheduling of candidates for each step in the hiring process and lower the time to hire and cost per hire. Beyond the administrative and cost benefits, effective solutions actually improve the quality of each hire by ensuing a greater number of properly qualified and screened applicants make their way through the system.
Many companies are increasingly looking for a single integrated system that can manage all hiring needs --- both non-exempt and exempt. Having a single system in place streamlines management and can significantly improve the system’s overall effectiveness. ERC’s Selectech Workforce Management allows for such integration, needs minimal training and can generally be implemented in four weeks or less.
Once candidates make it through the screening process, they then often progress to a behavioral assessment, an Internet-administered (though often completed on-site in a monitored environment) psychometric assessment tool that benchmarks aptitude and job fit. This information also enhances recruitment efforts by providing a refined understanding of the “ideal” candidate profiles and experience.
It is important that any assessment tool increases applicant flow and improves the quality of the hire while assessing and predicting an applicant’s likelihood of performance and retention. It is also helpful for solutions to be flexible, for instance, to allow applicants to enter the hiring process and pre-qualify for the on-site behavioral assessment through either the telephone (cell or wired) or the Internet.
Beyond managing the candidate recruitment process, many call centers have taken steps to learn from their “mistakes” by implementing exit interview surveys to better understand and address voluntary employee turnover. ERC’s LastWord® Exit Survey is an information-gathering survey administered through the telephone or the Internet to departing employees. It provides objective, quantitative information that can be used to understand and address the root causes of turnover. In addition to using this information to improve retention, it is also being used to help shape recruitment assessment and screening criteria.
Clearly, call centers can increase the number and quality of candidates by implementing effective applicant assessment, tracking and on-boarding services and solutions. Elimination of duplicative and unnecessary outsourced support staff also results in substantial, measurable savings, such as significant decreases in “cost per hire.” Beyond the dollar savings, HR staff appreciates the automation and other improvements that allow them to focus on substantive issues that go well beyond the burdensome administrative side of recruiting.
Most important, effective recruitment tools enable call centers to identify candidates who reach that illusive goal of being a truly “good fit.” Such pre-qualified, better skilled new-hires require less training, get on the job faster, become better performers and quickly contribute to productivity. This results in decreases in turnover, which not only contributes to more efficient and effective call center operations, but more important, to the company’s overall performance.
