Recruit well

Chapter 4 of the Call Centre Motivation Workbook

We now need to look at one of the most frequently overlooked elements of motivating our call centre team.

That is, hiring the right people at the outset for a new team, and, maybe more importantly, hiring people who will raise the game of your existing call centre staff!

All too often when hiring, we just get on to our HR Departments and ask them to supply telephone staff.

The problem here is that HR may have an old or non-current job specification against which to recruit and so we keep adding the same types of people to the payroll.

But recruitment gives us a chance to give the team a boost, and to search for naturally motivated people.

So to hire these types of people, step one is to re-examine the job spec.

Write down what you believe the job is and how you would like to see it carried out.

Call centre practices change - it is likely to be different from the way it was last performed.

Build your notes into a job description, but leave room in your description for future changes of direction. Remember to define a career progression for anyone filling the role.

Next, in the light of the job description you have built, create a wish list concerning the type of person you would like to fill the job.

Be as specific as you can.

Your aim now is for HR or your agency to provide you with candidates who will add pizzazz to the telephone team.

Writing a Job Description

• Job Title:
• Salary Level:
• Location:
• Reporting To:
• Hours:
• Description of Tasks:
• Methods of Measuring Performance:
• Desired Experience:
• Desired Personality Traits:
• Other Qualifying Factors:
• Rationale for Job Description:

Telephone and Face to Face Interviews

It is helpful to develop a standard for telephone and face to face interviews so that you have a yardstick against which you can measure future applicants.

Before inviting a call centre candidate for a face-to-face interview, let them speak to your answering machine. This is because many people are put off by speaking to a machine and this is your first opportunity to weed out unsuitable applicants.

Listen to how confident and articulate they sound. This will give you an idea of how they perform under pressure - important in telesales.

Rate their performance as follows:

Answering machine test

	1	2	3	4	5
Voice
Experience
Attitude
Location

This ranking recognises the fact that the voice is critically important, industry experience is useful but can be taught, attitude is crucial and location is very important.

It may be worth bending the rules for someone defecting from a competitor, but otherwise, the task of bringing someone up to speed is not worth the risk.

Then call applicants falling on the right hand side of the heavy line for a telephone interview.

It is not unknown for applicants to get their friends to call the answering machine - so look out for discrepancies between the two calls!

Use the same ranking system as for the answering machine, and this time, check out how they perform interactively.

The procedure for the telephone interview is as follows:

• Introduce yourself and remind the applicant why you are calling (they may have applied for a number of jobs and can't remember which yours was!).
• Tell them briefly about the company, the job and the salary. At this stage you are giving the applicant the chance to qualify you in or out.
• Ask why they are looking for a job - your turn to qualify them in or out.
• Ask a little about their last role.

If you're happy at this stage, invite them in for a face-to-face interview.

If not, just say you don't think the job is what they are looking for and thank them for their interest

The Face to Face Interview

In a fashion similar to the tape recorder interview, we need to score applicants as follows:

Face to face interview

	1	2	3	4	5
Voice
Grooming
Dress
Attitude
Spelling
Reading
Writing
Travel Flexibility
PC Skills

You must be careful when hiring anyone who falls to the left of the heavy line.

In the face to face interview, the voice is less important, because it is the phone voice that matters. Grooming is important from a group hygiene and mutual respect point of view while dress should reflect that, whatever the budget, the applicant takes himself or herself seriously.

Attitude remains the paramount prerequisite, of course.

Spelling is important for database entry, while reading ability is important in identifying the all too common dyslexia.

Despite the fact that nearly all written communication is keyboard driven, check the applicant's handwriting for signs of dyslexia, poor spelling and linguistic difficulties.

Travel flexibility, like certain other criteria, is repeated from the telephone interview as a double check on the accuracy of information given over the phone.

Telephone Staff Recruitment

 

Name:___________________ Location:__________________ Tel:_____________

 

Answering machine test

	1	2	3	4	5
Voice
Experience
Attitude
Location

 

Telephone interview test

	1	2	3	4	5
Voice
Experience
Attitude
Location

 

Face to face interview

	1	2	3	4	5
Voice
Grooming
Dress
Attitude
Spelling
Reading
Writing
Travel Flexibility
PC Skills

At the interview, use an interview report document to record your impressions. It is important to establish the purpose of the interview. Usually, this comes down to the following:

1. To better understand the CV. Get behind the written word through probing. What is the importance of each statement?
2. To get the applicant's opinions.
3. To judge whether the applicant can think on his or her feet.
4. To establish whether the applicant's likes and dislikes will enable him or her to fit in with the rest of the team.
5. To learn whether there are any odd situations linked to the applicant's career progression.
6. To allow the applicant to sell you his or her qualities and for you to sell the job to him or her.

The usual structure of an interview can be broken down into three steps, the beginning, the body and the end.

The Beginning of the Interview

In the first few minutes of the interview, explain how you will conduct the interview, explain the background of the company and explain the job description.

The Body of the Interview

This part of the interview concentrates on the applicant. Relax the applicant by trying to find some common ground in the personal details of the CV, such as number of children, town of birth etc.

Go over the CV, asking open questions rather than closed ones.

For example, if you ask, "Why do you think you would fit into a fast growing organisation like ours?", the applicant has to try and convince you.

The End of the Interview

Encourage the applicant to ask questions about the job and how it will impact on her career in the longer term. If the applicant doesn't ask you any questions, he or she is unlikely to be a good call centre agent.

The Seven Deadly Sins of Interviewing:

1. __________________________________________________
   
   
2. __________________________________________________
   
   
3. __________________________________________________
   
   
4. __________________________________________________
   
   
5. __________________________________________________
   
   
6. __________________________________________________
   
   
7. __________________________________________________
   
   

The seven deadly sins of interviewing are:

1. Intimidating the applicant
   
   
2. Talking too much
   
   
3. Not listening to the applicant
   
   
4. Asking trick questions
   
   
5. Setting the applicant's expectations inappropriately
   
   
6. Taking phone calls
   
   
7. Being unprepared
   
   

Preparing Interview Questions

In order to recruit well, it is worth preparing some meaningful questions for use at interviews.

This is because too many of us fall back on classic questions such as "Where do you see yourself in 5 years time?" and "What motivates you?"

These standard questions will get standard answers and many candidates will have heard them often and rehearsed their responses.

So if we want to be sure we're hiring highly motivated people, we need to work on our questions.

For example, you may wish to ask a question like this:

"The call centre feels a bit flat this morning. What can you do to light the spark and get your colleagues motivated?"

A question like this will be unexpected and will require the candidate to think on his or her feet. Their answer will also reveal whether they have the right type of personality to fit in with your existing staff.

When creating your questions, constantly challenge their validity - why do you want to ask this question?

Planning Interview Questions

Using the job spec you have already written, list the questions you will ask a typical applicant. Why will you ask these particular questions?

1. ___________________________________________________
   
   
   Rationale: _______________________________
   
   
2. ___________________________________________________
   
   
   Rationale: _______________________________
   
   
3. ___________________________________________________
   
   
   Rationale: _______________________________
   
   
4. ___________________________________________________
   
   
   Rationale: _______________________________
   
   
5. ___________________________________________________
   
   
   Rationale: _______________________________
   
   
6. ___________________________________________________
   
   
   Rationale: _______________________________
   
   
7. ___________________________________________________
   
   
   Rationale: _______________________________

New Employee Induction

Having hired new telephone staff, it is your responsibility to ensure that they bring maximum value to the job.

The starting point is to have a formal induction where you can impress on the new hire what you expect of him or her. You should start with a brief presentation on the company and your department. Explain who's who and nominate an existing member of staff to whom they can go for assistance if you're unavailable.

Don't forget to show the new hire where to find the toilets, the coffee machine, fire exits etc. Then, show them your plan so they know exactly what is going to happen to them during their first few weeks with the department.

This is likely to look like this:

New employee induction

Day	Activity
01	Welcome meeting till 11:00, then sitting with Sharon
02	Sitting with Sharon
03	Reviewing how to use the system with Bill, working under Sharon's supervision
04	Working under Sharon's supervision
05	Working with me; review of first week.
06	Product training with Henrietta
07	Product training with Bill
08	Working under Sharon's supervision
09	First day working independently

The next thing to do is to empower the new hire with their own development. For example, at Hotlines, we provide new people with "milestones," such as these:

New Hire Milestones

Milestone:	Achieve by:	Help
Merge database address with Word letter	12/01/97	Jodie
Set up database for call-back prompts	12/01/97	Manual
Set first appointment from cold	09/02/97	DJP
Quote for seminar project	28/02/97	DJP

Exercise - New Employee Induction

List the main tasks or skills a new employee will need to be able to carry out their job after the "honeymoon period."

Now build an induction programme based around these skills or tasks for the first month.

New employee induction

Day	Activity
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09

Finally, think about some of the aspects of the job the new employee should be able to demonstrate over a specific period, that they can learn for themselves. Create milestones, "achieve by" dates and help routes.

New Hire Milestones

Milestone:	Achieve by:	Help

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