The CC/CX Update - Volume 25

Hi Everyone,

This edition I have a couple of short articles about the disappointingly slow pace of change when it comes to recruitment (even from supposedly disruptive start ups) and why understanding the vacancy life cycle will help you when job hunting. This and the usual updates on trends, in demand skills, events and hot jobs in the world of contact center and CX. Lets dive in.

Recruitment Trends

• Summer lullin'. Yes we're into that holiday period when things slow down as people take time off. When we had just properly got out of the "green shoots" phase of market recovery this can feel like a downturn. I've spoken to plenty of people who say the market isn't there, there are no jobs available and its just more redundancies. Well that's not how I see it! I am still being given new requirements by successful companies and the planning for future headcount looks rosy. Everyone is just taking some time out that's all
• Making money. As I said in the previous edition salaries and rates continue to strengthen across Europe and North America. Even if you have been made redundant keep the faith and you'll get the package you deserve
• Signing off. Processes have been moving slower due to annual leave taking effect on interviews and offer sign offs. Expect to add at least a week to most recruitment processes until mid September
• Mid market. Enterprise CC/CX deals get the headlines but a lot of the growth I am seeing and hearing about is targeting mid market clients. Those that are successful have their marketing, GTM and pricing spot on. If you hear that mid market is too tough to crack or saturated the chances are the person saying it doesn't have one of those right

Hot Skills in Demand

For the first time in over a year there are no movers in this list from the previous edition. More of the same roles keep being released at roughly the same proportion which keeps the list unchanged. A date for your diaries and a sign that general growth is still there

• CCaaS New Business Sales (At number 1 for the first time!)
• Genesys Cloud Implementation
• CX with AI Product Ownership/Management
• CCaaS Software Engineering (Full stack)
• Genesys Cloud technical support

Rant Incoming

Companies that are "different", "disruptive", "challenging", "trendy" but actually are the complete opposite in their hiring strategy

This week I saw a LI post by a lauded company that I had respect for outlining some urgent recruitment they needed help with from recruiters and I was genuinely sad for about an hour because they were making the same mistakes that bad hirers have been making for 20 years. Here are the key mistakes;

The Mistakes

1. We have categorised and then sub categorised our roles and want to work with a specific (albeit random) number of agencies on each category. Any recruiter worth talking to would cover at least 2 or 3 of those sub categories, why have about 20 recruiters contacting you when you could probably select 5 that would support you across all the briefs? Then you could whittle that down to a list of maybe 3 based on performance in a few weeks time and build proper partnerships for the long term. Why have a bloated (swallows and tries not to be sick) PSL from day one when you're such a different employer?
2. Its a competitive market so we only pay 15%. What's a competitive market, recruitment as a whole, IT recruitment, CC/CX recruitment, recruitment in the UK, recruitment in the US? It cant be all of them and actually for really good recruiters it isn't competitive. I only consider about 5 businesses globally to be my competitors. More people playing doesn't make it more competitive it just means there are levels to the game. 15% puts you at the bottom level straight away with the recruiters that you probably want to work with, that was a possible rate about 10 years ago but you may have heard about a couple of financial road bumps in the world since then? Don't forget though they do things differently and are disruptive so maybe its ironic vintage pricing?

3. We want Value, Quality and Depth from our suppliers. Is it just me or does that sound like we want it Fast, Good and Cheap? I'm sure there's about a million jokes about that on LI already. But still challenging and disruptive, not the same as everyone else remember

4.Send us CVs and if we like them we'll contact you if not we wont. Also known as "we don't provide feedback". How do I as a recruiter that values his candidates propose that? Do you mind if I send your CV into a black hole from which only positive feedback returns and otherwise I have no visibility over what's happening to your data ever. Its new, its fresh, except its not, its awful

5. Before you contact us look at the near 100 pdf. pages we have attached to our post! Read them all and on nearly every one we tell you how we're different. Even our office is different to other peoples. The office we want you in at least 3 days a week but not for the same reasons as other boring businesses, for disruptive reasons. Look you can sit on a stool or perhaps in the kitchen maybe even at a desk. We're challenging like that. Its hybrid working Jim but not as we know it. Remember this is a challenging start up not tier 1 bank in the city

My point to all of this ranting is that if a fast growing CX start up can be making the same tired hiring mistakes and repeating the same old recruitment clichés then it's really quite sad because they clearly dont value the applicant experience.

However there is hope job seeker! There are loads of companies out there that really are changing the way they hire and being responsive to market needs. If you want to get to know a few then go hunting or else contact a recruiter like me that can sniff out the bad apples at about 70cms (the distance from my face to my screen).

Understanding the Lifecycle of a Vacancy to Improve Your Chances of Getting a Job

This is a short life cycle guide based mainly on the experience of vacancies posted to LinkedIn and applies to Europe and NA. My goal is to help you understand what likely happening in the background so you can understand timescales, likelihood of success and when to try something else.

• Birth: When a role first goes live on the site it will be pumped out to everyone that LI deem is relevant quickly. Depending on the apply method that the hirer has chosen people could do as little as click 1 button to apply (assuming they're already logged in to LI) which is why early application numbers are usually high. This is anticipated by the advertiser and so they are unlikely to look at applicants immediately because they want to wait for the bulk to slow down a bit
• This is different to working with a recruiter like me when ad response is probably the third phase of CVs a hirer would see after known candidates and then direct referrals both of which are proactive whereas ad response is reactive and not guaranteed
• If you apply to a new role direct on LI then expect a delay in feedback of at least a few days. You may be pleasantly surprised but that's a great upside
• Growing Up: When the applications are being reviewed this may be based on key words from the job description and either a human or ATS could perform those searches on your CV. Your key/main/strongest skills should be mentioned about 5-7 times on your CV anyway but this helps pass that stage. Do not use the white text "hack" because ATSs were configured years ago to spot that (its really old) and humans will see something is up and hunt down why
• If you dont hear from a serious application after about a week then contact the POC on the advert directly via DM with your CV again. If there isn't a POC shown then search on the company for Talent Acquisition and approach someone within that team referencing the role you applied to. They may be the same people sifting through all those applications but this will at least, albeit briefly, put you right in front of them which is all it might take to progress
• Getting Old: Most adverts on LI run more than once because its actually not a very productive way to fill vacancies. It looks good because of high response but its expensive and the fill rate is low. If you have applied previously don't apply again, there is no point. Instead go to that Talent Acquisition POC and ask if the repost means you have been unsuccessful. It might have been an automated repost or just not thought through, I've even seen companies where the process is so slow the job was filled before the advert was run!
• Death: If you find an advert that is no longer accepting applications then find a relevant POC and contact them directly. They may have just been trying out the advert and when it was unsuccessful decided not to try it again, you could be their saviour out of nowhere! Or perhaps they filled the role but will keep you in mind for future and having a network like that never hurts

In summary there is no bad time to apply to a LI advert just more productive ways of using the information and channel to get noticed and that's what its all about. I hope this helps someone and I'm happy to answer specific questions in the comments below

Hot Jobs

As always thank you everyone for reading, commenting, sharing and subscribing!