Call center leadership recruitment is a challenge, but your insights can help your partner deal with it better.
A call center relies on the effectiveness of its team leaders for the benefit of their clients. These clients, however, can also be empowered to share some input in call center leadership recruitment. Basically, this practice allows you to effectively collaborate with your outsourcing partner to construct a team to your liking.
We are sure that co-recruitment is a new concept to you. So, how can you capitalize on this? Today, we’ll take a look at some tips about call center leadership recruitment that deserves a piece of your mind.
Your Stake in Call Center Leadership Recruitment
You might be thinking, “Is co-recruitment really that important in an outsourcing partnership?”
Of course, you can leave all recruitment and promotion matters to your call center partner. But just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. As a business owner involved in a partnership, it’s important that you recognize your role in any process that might affect said partnership. This includes hiring call center leaders, or even promoting them.
You’d want nothing less than the best call center team leaders to assist customers and elevate your brand. But let’s be honest: professionalism and work ethic aren’t enough to be helpful to your business. As we’ll talk about later, you need to make sure that your outsourced team understands your company’s vision and values.
Now, let’s get started on some tips for a more collaborative hiring process or promotion:
1. Utilize Data-Driven Insights
When it comes to call center leadership recruitment, relying solely on intuition or traditional interview methods can be limiting. On the other hand, taking advantage of data-driven insights makes sure that recruitment or promotion is based on proven performance indicators rather than subjective judgment.
Data-driven insights are especially useful in promoting agents to leaders. If you can, join your call center partner in evaluating the data of existing employees. Doing so helps you identify high performers who exhibit leadership potential. Alternatively, it keeps you from overlooking internal candidates who may lack leadership experience but have shown capabilities in key areas.
2. Prioritize Leadership Experience in Operations
When engaging in call center leadership recruitment, your go-to are the candidates who possess solid operational experience. In doing so, the team leader will have firsthand knowledge of the challenges that agents face. Leaders who have excelled in similar environments not only understand the workflow but can also step in to improve processes.
Whether you re hiring externally or promoting from within, selecting candidates with operational insight fits well with a collaborative hiring process. Such insight empowers team leaders not only in delegating tasks but also in mentoring agents. Simply put, leadership experience positions leaders to inspire confidence in their peers.
3. Collaborate on Assessment and Evaluation
After laying the groundwork on call center leadership recruitment, it’s time to develop a framework for evaluating candidates. Here, you help your outsourcing partner set up the relevant metrics for call center leaders. However, you shouldn’t forget about the soft skills that leaders should possess.
Behavioral and situational assessments help predict a candidate’s future performance. Collaborate with your call center partner to select appropriate tools and methods for these assessments. In doing so, you keep the evaluation objective and aligned with specific requirements.
4. Ensure Cultural Fit with Your Brand
To construct a more cohesive outsourced team, cultural fit with your brand is essential. Call center team leaders who share your company’s ethos create an efficient working space. Plus, they contribute to your organization in other positive ways including a well-promoted brand identity.
Cultural fit interviews and reference checks will help you better assess which candidates are suited to lead your outsourced team. Making them a part of your collaborative hiring process or promotion assures you that your call center will uphold your brand in the most productive way possible.
5. Inspire Long-Term Leadership Development
Your role in the outsourcing partnership doesn’t end in hiring call center leaders, though. Even after a candidate has finally been selected or promoted, you should still keep in touch. For your part, you get to provide insights and updates about your business needs. As for your provider, they are encouraged to be adaptable to changing demands.
But more importantly, you should support your call center partner in providing development opportunities for team leaders. Such programs help you set the standards for future recruitment campaigns and exceed performance expectations.
Final Thoughts
Your involvement in the recruitment and promotion process is an important step in your outsourcing partnership. The call center recruitment tips we listed above enhance the effectiveness of your outsourced team, thus driving your business forward.
Collaboration also goes a long way in forging a long-lasting partnership with your call center. Not only will your partner more effectively adopt your company values but it will also lead to a better work environment for team leaders and agents.
Have a Collaborative Partnership with Open Access BPO
Partnering with a call center has a lot of perks, but doing it with Open Access BPO makes it better.
Collaboration has always been in our operations, and we do it with all of our clients all the time. We are here to disprove the notion that outsourcing relinquishes control from your brand. And with our hyper-customizable solutions, you can enjoy a more equal partnership.
We at Open Access BPO are meticulous with our recruitment practices. This is our way of making sure your outsourced teams have the experience and professionalism needed for the job. But if you partner with us, we will also work with you to select agents and team leaders who best fit your company values.
Contact us today to learn more about our services.
Your call center team leaders are some of the most important staff members who can help you attain your goals. For this position, you have to find people you can fully trust.
Team leaders are in charge of relaying a brand’s customer service goals to the people in their team and ensuring that everyone’s working hard toward those goals. To execute their job well, they need a combination of strong leadership qualities and an in-depth knowledge about contact center metrics.
Hiring the right people to fill this role can be challenging. You’re looking for a very specific combination of characteristics, and the professionals who possess those qualifications may be difficult to find. Use these tips to hire a dynamic leader for your support teams.
1. Define the kind of leadership you want.
Every leader has a unique management style. Some are a bit relaxed and friendly to their agents, while others are strict with policy adherence and performance. Both approaches have their pros and cons, but you should choose leaders who can easily adjust to your organizational culture.
It’s therefore important to define the kind of leadership you want so you can create a list of the skills and characteristics that a team leader must have. For example, some companies implement an open door policy, which lets agents directly interact with top executives. For these organizations, managers who seem distant and unapproachable won’t be a good fit.
2. Create a catchy job ad.
Attracting qualified applicants is very much like advertising. Remember, employees also scrutinize the companies they intend to be part of. Thus, through your job ad, you have to highlight what makes your company a good choice for professionals who seek dynamism and growth.
You may use rich media such as images and videos to generate more buzz around the career opportunities in your call center. A lot of organizations also create a separate landing page for prospective employees, which usually enumerates the job details, requirements from the candidate, and application instructions.
3. Get to know the candidate well.
With technology available right at your fingertips, there’s no shortage of the channels you can use to research about your job applicants. Aside from taking a look at their resumes, you may go to social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to get to know more about them. You’ll gain a good idea about who they are based on their posts and photos.
During the interview stage, however, take time to probe into the personality of the applicant. Prepare a list of questions beforehand, and pay attention to the candidate’s responses and how well they express their thoughts.
4. Assess both their hard and soft skills.
Call center team leaders manage two main things: people and performance.
To manage agents well, leaders must be excellent communicators. They must be willing to interact with their team both in and out of the office in order to build a great relationship with them. Good leaders pay attention to the needs of their employees before their own to encourage them to do their best and stay with the company.
In addition to people management skills, they must also be knowledgeable about performance measurement, contact center metrics, and customer service technologies. Therefore, your recruitment process must take into account both the hard and soft skills of the candidate for a more accurate assessment.
5. Make the screening process challenging.
To make sure you’re hiring the right person for a leadership position, make the application process challenging. After the interview, some recruiters—usually higher-level managers—give the candidate additional assignments. You can ask applicants to come up with possible solutions to a customer support issue or to revise an existing strategy. Putting them under a challenging situation will allow you to assess how well they’ll perform in your company if you decide to hire them.