The CC/CX Update - Vol. 48

Hi Everyone,

Welcome to the latest CC/CX Update, a recruiters view on everything happening in the European and North American world of contact centre and CX technology.

The last two editions have been industry event specials and prior to that we had a long run of industry expert interviews so go and check out the back catalogue if you're new here. Oh, and also click that subscribe button which I think is still currently somewhere at the top of the article but LI keep moving things around! Let me know in the comments if I'm wrong please.

This CC/CX Update will cover the recruitment trends in the market, in demand skills, news, industry events to attend in Europe and NA and links to our partner YouTube channel (which you should also subscribe too!).

Throughout 2024 so far The CC/CX Update has been graced by some incredible interviews, you can check them all out at our YouTube channel in the link below. It's a handy way to view relevant CX and careers content too so click that link and subscribe to our channel!

The CC/CX Update Interviews

Lets Dive In.

Current Recruitment Trends

Green Shoots Again. It was a few months back when, with the sentiment of the market, I reported that the green shoots of headcount growth had appeared in the CC/CX market. I was wrong then.

However, I now believe we are seeing the true green shoots of growth. 2024 has been an unusual year, it's been a recovery year but far slower than usual and no one really has a definitive answer as to why. Every company I speak to wants to hire in professional services and sales as well as usually customer success and operations. But, they have not been given the budget to do so.

Their customers are complaining of slow projects, being mis-sold and generally mis-lead. Finally at the bottom of the pile are the CC agents that are not getting the tools they need to deliver the customer service we all value. So, let's all of us hope that the budgets are no aligning with the pressing business needs to deliver projects on time and on scope.

Sales Confidence is Back. As an extension to what I said above I am seeing specifically more sales roles coming onto the market. Vendors, partners and MSPs are looking to sell their way out of the slow H1 of 24 and they believe more pairs of hands can achieve this goal.

This is also partly being driven by sales people being frustrated at their employers inability to deliver on what they are selling because of the lack of investment in onshore PS.

Early Careers Season. It's that time again when companies begin their graduate or early careers hiring programmes and look to bring new people into the sector. The key to getting this right is messaging, engagement where the audience is, training/support and connected career opportunities. Over the start of 2024 I have been partnering with a company that can help hirers to improve recruitment and performance as well as reduce attrition in CX early careers hires. If you'd like to know more then send me a message and we'll arrange a call to discuss.

Timewasters. With high demand for skills but a lack of investment it is inevitable that the two forces meet and create the dreaded "timewaster". This is defined by recruiters as a hirer that wants champagne but only has beer money and tries to bridge the chasm between what they want and what they can afford with a jumble of excuses, reasons and sometimes "values".

Now that's what I call salary gaslighting 2024, incl. classic hits such as

1. "Offer them this to start with and let me know what they say" - by Chancers
2. "But if you really want to work for Company X then it shouldn't be about just the money" - by The Arrogant
3. "We're not interested in people that are only moving for the money anyway" - by The Self-Righteous Brothers
4. "The last person I hired for this role came on at that salary" - by The Historian
5. "We offer hybrid working so their outgoings are less which means they'll take less" - by Madness Itself
6. "If people really back themselves then they'll smash it and be earning more than that anyway" - by UBKiddingMe
7. "We never told them we could offer that salary" - by The Who (did then?)
8. "I've got more experienced people on the team being paid less than that" - by That Didn't Sound Like You Think It Did

Hot Skills in Demand

• Genesys Cloud solutions consulting/engineering - Global
• Bi-Lingual CX Consulting - Europe
• CX Cloud Solution Business Development - Global
• Entry Level/Early Careers SDR/Lead Gen - Europe
• Consumer Insight Research - Europe
• Project Manager - Europe

Recruitment News

On the theme of skills I am regularly asked if paying yourself to get professional certifications is worth it. Often this means, will it increase my chances of getting the job that I want. The answer to this is, it depends.

It depends on your professional experience to date. An engineer that has worked on CC tech for several years with an employer that has not paid for their certs can benefit from paying for their own. Many partners need a certain % of certified engineers for their status and so coming without that additional upfront cost to the new hirer is beneficial.

However, if you're inexperienced just having the certification will not make a difference as hirers will still need to support you to gain that experience.

Simply put, you can buy knowledge but you cant buy experience and that's, mostly, what differentiates one applicant from another. So keep your money for that nice holiday that makes your current job more bearable whilst you get that commercial time under your belt.

If you disagree please comment below and tell me why?

CC/CX Industry Events

Sept 5th-7th - CX Festival - Kiessee Ruhlsdorf, Germany

Register here

Sept 17th-19th - Dreamforce - San Francisco, California

Get this in your calendar

Oct 1st - Oct 2nd - Customer Experience for Financial Services Summit 2024 - Toronto, Canada

Register Here

Event season is quietening down here in the UK for the moment. What is your favourite event to attend, comment below!

Thank You!

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Thanks for reading, liking and subscribing!

James

Click here to see all our interviews and advice videos so far!