It's Smart To Recruit/Hire/Retain More 55+ Contact Center Staff

If you want to add more quality candidates to your applicant pipeline – then you need to be fishing from a deeper labor pool – and that means operating an ‘Age Friendly’ Contact Center – filling your open seats with more older adult Customer Service Representatives (CSRs).

Around the world the ‘Youth Bias’ in Call Center hiring is significant.

75% of CSRs are under the age of 35 – with nearly ? of them under age 25.

Only 15% of CSRs are age 35 to 55 – and just 10% are age 55+.

Diversity & Inclusion Have Become Priorities For All Types Of Organizations – Yet Ageism Is Rarely Addressed

Workplace civil rights law – the US federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) of 1967 – prohibits employers with 20 or more full time workers from discriminating against hiring workers age 40+.

Yet some Contact Center recruiters regularly use a variety of tools & techniques to exclude older job applicants – narrowing how & where they look for candidates:

• CSR online job ads oriented towards younger applicants – often containing images of smiling twentysomethings.
• Excluding people age 40+ from ever being served the CSR job ad online to begin with.
• Weeding out resumes from older workers – rejecting applicants appearing over a certain age.

Typical Reasons Employers Give For Favoring Younger CSRs:

• Older applicants expect higher pay than what younger people seek.
• Older workers are assumed to have more Work / Life Balance scheduling issues.
• The energy level of older CSRs is presumed to be lower than that of younger employees.
• The behaviors / attitudes of older applicants are feared to be “too rigid & narrow minded” to be trainable.
• It’s assumed that older applicants can’t handle the telephone / technology / software requirements of the job.
• It’s feared that younger Supervisors / Managers may feel “intimidated” trying to manage older workers.

None of these generalizations is necessarily true for any particular candidate or age group – yet each is a stereotypical assumption about older job applicants.

Busting Myths About Older CSRs

One of the main reasons age discrimination happens in Contact Centers – is that many employers believe wrongly in these stereotypes about older workers.

You should hire more older CSRs because:

• They are a steady & reliable source of motivated labor.
• Many age 55+ people have inadequate earnings / pensions / retirement wealth to live comfortably – and are attracted to 20 to 30 Hour/Week jobs to supplement their income.
• Many good job fit older adult CSR candidates are very appreciative for an offer of employment. They know they’re fortunate to be working at their age. That loyalty is a very valuable & rare business commodity these days.
• Across all industry sectors – out of all age groups – workers age 55+ demonstrate the highest levels of positive job engagement.
• With good job fit older adult CSRs – you often find yourself with a team member who displays maturity / professionalism / strong work ethic – is focused on their tasks – and works hard to get things done right the first time.
• There’s no statistical difference in Performance / Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) between good job fit older adult CSRs & younger ones.
• Older adults possess the digital literacy to master the telephone / technology / software requirements of the job.
• Good job fit older adult CSRs demonstrate better Attendance / Shift Adherence than their younger coworkers.
• Good job fit older adult female CSRs are the least likely demographic to quit & ‘Job Hop’ to do the same work for another company for more money.
• Just 26% of good job fit age 40+ CSRs take 3 Sick Days per Year – compared to 40% of 18 to 24 year olds.
• Good job fit older adult CSRs provide valuable role modeling to younger coworkers for free. They’re generally not aggressively seeking to advance their career – comfortable in the role they’ve landed – and the least likely age demographic to play ‘Office Politics’ games that can quickly turn teams & work environments toxic.
• For companies with Work@Home employees – as the age of the CSR increases – so too does their ranking for a virtual job as being [Somewhat Desirable] / [Very Desirable] / [Extremely Desirable] employment for themselves.

Recruiting / Hiring / Retaining Older Adult CSRs Requires Schedule Flexibility – As They’re Mostly Attracted To 20 To 30 Hour/Week Jobs To Supplement Their Income

After Pay & Benefits – schedule flexibility is typically the next thing older adult job applicants consider when evaluating whether or not to work for a particular Contact Center employer.

• Offer Flexible Scheduling

As long as your company’s business requirements are being met – taking advantage of the benefits that come from offering CSRs flexible working arrangements – through compressed work weeks / split shifts / part time hours – can help you to attract more applicants (including more older adults) – increase employee morale & job engagement – improve productivity – while reducing absenteeism & voluntary turnover.

Empowering your CSRs to access their work schedule anytime from anywhere – to pick up available shifts they may qualify for – and to set their own schedule preferences according to their needs – generates higher job satisfaction & work engagement – while Burnout/Emotional Exhaustion & ‘Job Hopping’ are slowed down.

• Start Or Increase Your Company’s Paid Time Off (PTO) Program

PTO programs combine vacation + personal days + sick leave into one bank of paid time off.?CSRs can dip into their PTO Bank whenever they choose to – no questions asked.

PTO programs are linked to fewer unscheduled absences – which damage workforce management calculations & productivity the most.

Call Center Talent Is Ageless & Top Performing CSRs Can Be Recruited From Every Age Demographic

It’s time to retire the ‘Youth Bias’ in Contact Center hiring.

Effective Call Center hiring has nothing to do with a candidate’s age.

It’s about identifying the people with the Personality / Job Fit / Soft Skills /Motivation / Work Ethic / Business English Language Competency to be above average CSRs – and this ‘Right Stuff’ is just as likely to be found in a senior Baby Boomer – middle age GenerationX – adult Millennial – or younger GenerationZ applicant.

Contact Center employers who want to generate a pipeline of more & better applicants shouldn’t show a bias in favor – or against – any one particular age group.?

Employers that only rely on ‘Youth Talent’ shoot themselves in the foot – by reducing the size of their available labor pool.

Operating an ‘Age Friendly’ Contact Center is simply smart business – and reflects positively on productivity & your brand.

Agree?

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Top Performing Contact Centers Drive Their Performance & Customer Satisfaction Through Superior Hiring Tactics

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