Does "Previous Experience Required" Make A Better Contact Center Hire?
David Filwood
CEO | TeleSoft Systems | People & Process Improvement For Contact Centers
Many employers assume that applicants with ‘Previous Experience’ don’t need as much guidance & hand holding as inexperienced ‘Raw Recruits’ – that Customer Service Representative (CSR)?‘Veterans’ require less training – ramp up to productive levels faster – stay on the job longer – and produce better results.
These Contact Center employers think ‘Veteran’ CSRs have already proven themselves to be successful in a similar work environment.
They believe that previous CSR jobs have helped these ‘Veterans’ build up their knowledge & skills.
They assume job candidates who have done Contact Center work before have particularly desirable personality traits.
So they emphasize ‘Talent Poaching’ / ‘Employee Raiding’ in their recruiting strategy – targeting CSRs from competing businesses – convincing them to ‘Job Hop’ & join their team.
They encourage ‘Job Hopping’ CSRs with Ads stating: One (or more) years of “Previous Call Center Experience” is required / desired.
It’s easy to understand why so many employers do it.
Past experience is easy to assess.
“Have you worked for one (or more) years in a Customer Service Representative job before?”
It’s either ‘Yes’ or ‘No’.
Should “Previous Call Center Experience” Be A Hiring Requirement?
According to a Florida State University review published in the Journal of Personnel Studies – of 81 prior research studies of sales and customer service jobs – the answer seems to be “not so much”.
The Florida State University review found:
Hiring People With “Previous Call Center Experience” Brings Challenges – And Some Benefits For A Few
The Florida State University research project found that similar previous work experience was generally not a good indicator of how well employees performed doing the same type of work for another organization.
The benefits weren’t very significant – and they tended to cluster in only certain types of Contact Centers.
It was found that Banking / Finance / Insurance Contact Centers did gain some benefit from the knowledge / skills / credentials new hires with past CSR experience brought to the job.
For most other Contact Centers – the negatives outweighed the positives.
Many Trainers & Supervisors Will Tell You They Prefer A ‘Raw Recruit’ Over A ‘Veteran’ CSR – Who Is Usually Closer To Burnout / Emotional Exhaustion – Generally Set In Their Ways – And Often Resistant To Training & Coaching
They’ll tell you that it can be a lot easier to train a ‘Raw Recruit’ to do things your way – over first having to deprogram a ‘Veteran’ of some other company’s workplace culture.
That ‘Veteran’ CSRs don’t necessarily deliver higher productivity and a better customer experience than newly hired "rookies" – despite being armed with all the knowledge & skills that “rookies” are thought to still be acquiring.?
The desire to maintain a consistent brand might be the most compelling reason to hire ‘Raw Recruits’.
CSR ‘Veterans’ generally have deep rooted habits that can prove difficult / time consuming / costly to break if they don’t align with your brand.
Attempting to change ‘Veteran’ behavior often creates discord & misalignment among a training class of new CSR hires.
‘Veteran’ CSRs are often among the strongest & most powerful resistors (and effective blockers) of change – and they often build up like minded cliques at work – who act in unison to resist / sabotage change.
When you’re building Contact Center teams based on certain values – these conflicting habits can cause turmoil on the production floor – and communicate the wrong message to customers.
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Past Experience Is A Lousy Predictor Of Future CSR Job Success
My company was recently engaged on a consulting assignment with a large multi site Contact Center employer – 9 Bricks & Mortar sites coast to coast employing 2,500+ CSRs.
We had the opportunity to drill down into data associated with which CSRs (at least 6 month job tenure) were ranked by their Supervisors for Above Average ‘Top Performer’ job performance – and those ranked as Below Average ‘Poor Performers’.
Past Experience Doesn’t Predict New Hire Success
Requiring new CSR hires to bring “Previous Experience” to the job can be a counterproductive recruiting strategy – handicapping the employer with poached new hires who are already past their peak performance – closer to Burnout / Emotional Exhaustion – generally set in their ways – and often resistant to training & coaching.
For most Contact Centers the rule should be: ‘Hire For Personality / Job Fit / Soft Skills / Work Ethic / Business English Language Competency’ – and not for “Previous Experience”.
In today’s hot employment market – most Metro Areas in the USA & Canada are saturated with too many Contact Centers chasing too few candidates – raising demand for new hires to their highest levels in more than a decade.
Companies can’t afford to be screening out candidates who don’t have “Previous Experience”.
Contact Center employers should be expanding the pool of people they’re considering – not shrinking it for no good reason.
Agree?
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Expert Interim manager
1 年I do believe than the know how is as much important as the experience. best solution , my point of view, is to have a mix of both . it is overall more difficult to change a bad know how as to train someone !
Senior Operations Manager @ Inizio Engage | Patient Solutions Call Center
1 年I think it is beneficial from an expectations standpoint but not necessary at all for an entry level role. I think when looking at the data from the study; it was noted that only 6% of top performers had previous Call Center experience but what that may not account for is the higher level of turnover/attrition for individuals who have never worked in a Call Center Environment before. However, with all that being said- still completely agree with the article; 100% hire for attitude over experience in an entry level role.