REVIEW STAFFING PROCESS

Does the recruiting department accept mediocrity? Are you creating a culture of continuous improvement, moving from good to better to best-in-class?

Companies that remain complacent become like Howard Johnson’s. In the 1960s, Howard Johnson’s hotel chain was the largest in the U.S. A couple of these hotels are still around, and when you walk into one, it is like stepping into a time capsule; they look and feel just like they did in the 1960s.

Companies that constantly reinvent themselves and innovate don’t just survive; they thrive. Look at McDonald’s. They have repeatedly reinvented their menu and restaurants, adding playgrounds, removing playgrounds, redesigning their restaurants, adding fancy desserts and coffee drinks, and experimenting with a gourmet burger. Whether you like McDonald’s or not, you can appreciate that the company never stops innovating. What can we learn from this attitude of continuous improvement?

How can the recruiting process continue innovating to attract quality candidates and keep them in the pipeline until the offer is made? Where in the process are your candidates falling out, and why? Have you reviewed your recruiting sources lately? Are you still using old strategies? Is the time to hire too long? What is dragging out the process?

In competitive markets, contact center candidates are on the market for an average of 10-15 days. The recruiting process can take 7-14 days to complete the initial resume review and schedule an interview, then another 7-21 days to complete background checks and prepare offers.

No wonder candidates have already taken other positions! While the recruiting process has come a long way by automating some steps, more automation is still required to speed it up. For example, resume screening, pre-employment screening, applicant communication, background checks, and processing tax credit eligibility can reduce the time to hire if they are automated. Tweaking these processes to shave time off can make a difference in landing top performers.

Be willing to examine and reinvent your recruiting process to attract long-term candidates. The recruiting process is the candidate’s first view of the company, so make the first impression great!

Why is it okay for recruiters to delay communication, but it would be unacceptable if the candidate was late in responding?

Recruiters promise to get back to the candidate at the end of the week, and the three weeks pass. If candidates took that long, they would be knocked out of the running, yet recruiters expect candidates to sit and wait.

Or, better yet, they are still expected to be available. Candidates give up when they don’t get a response. This double standard conveys how much you value the candidate, which means, “Is this how I will be valued once hired?”

Candidates can deal with a “no” response; they want to know where they stand to move on. If you are genuinely interested in the candidate but the process has been delayed for whatever reason, reach out to the candidate with a status update, and your candidate will, if still interested, be more likely to be patient.

Mutual respect goes a long way and will keep your best candidates in the game.

Industry Content Supporter:
Steven Cramer
Sr. Vice President Operations
https://www.linkedin.com/in/scramer

If you want to improve your process and are not afraid of honest feedback, surveying applicants will provide a wealth of insights you don’t see sitting on the recruiter’s side. This means soliciting input from all candidates, even those not selected.

Many will not choose to help you since they were not selected, but those who are still interested in working for your company will participate. You want the good, the bad, and the ugly comments. You can’t improve a process if you don’t know what works and what doesn’t work. Seeing it from the candidate’s side will enlighten you.

Here are a few variables that form candidate perceptions to get you started:

• The candidate was updated and well-informed throughout the process
• Candidates understood where they stood at all stages
• The candidate was made aware of the steps in the hiring process
• The hiring process followed a reasonable timeline
• The hiring process appeared well-organized
• The recruiter was organized, respectful of candidate’s time
• Candidates emails and phone calls are responded to
• Candidates received a quick “no” instead of a response

Companies use personality assessments to ensure they have the right person for a manager’s position. Recruiters should also use personality assessments to identify job candidates who will meet and exceed expectations regarding personality, job fit, soft skills, work ethic, reliability, and responsibility in a contact center environment.

This helps not only the contact center but also the agent. Everyone wants to get the right job the first time, and providing assessments to front-line agents will help you find the right candidates faster, thus speeding up the entire recruiting and selection process.

There are now cost-effective agent assessments that will weed out job candidates who will burn out because they are not suited for your specific contact center work. Just because they have call center experience doesn’t mean they fit your type of work.

Assessments will identify agents who will stick around longer, which will help you experience less turnover and more productivity.

Too many contact centers hire hundreds of agents fast and furiously, knowing that not all will pass the training process. This wastes time and resources and is painful for the agents who don’t make it. Many times, agents are hired, but you don’t know what their keyboarding skills are. Too many agents get the job and then struggle with their desktop and the mouse, moving around within Windows, using dual monitors, and can’t type. Texting is not typing. Does your contact center require data entry? Writing notes or emails with complete sentences? Can the agent articulate on the phone?

When contact centers test candidates, they will weed out the ones who can’t deliver before they are hired. Take the time to provide tests. These can be written, online, or role-played. Today, many can be delivered in an email, where the applicant clicks on a link to take the test from their home.

This will speed up the process for the candidate; if they don't fit, they can move on to other opportunities. By not hiring them, you save yourself and your management team a ton of time and energy by not providing extra support only to terminate anyway. Stop the cycle by testing before you hire.