Recruiting in Contact Centres in 2019
2019 is shaping up to be a busy year for recruiting and hiring in the contact centre space. We've seen a constant and ongoing demand by our clients looking for strong Outbound Sales, Telemarketers, Sales Agents and Customer Service Consultants. This demand is across all sectors within the market.
Noticeable Shift
We have noticed a shift in many contact centres. In a move to reduce staff turnover and ensure a happy and productive team, the business culture and business core values play a larger role than ever before. With Millennials flooding the Australian jobs market, call centres have to be able to demonstrate their employee engagement, to ensure they are attracting the top talent.
Millennials rate engagement highly when choosing where to work. In a study conducted by PwC, the ability to progress up the career ladder comes in first among a list of factors attracting millennials to employers, even beating competitive salaries. They also expect regular feedback, praise for good performances and clearly established targets to aim for.
Employees are 87 per cent less likely to leave a company where they feel highly engaged, as compared with staff in organisations where this sentiment isn't so strong, as claimed by a report from the Kenan-Flagler business school.
Rules of Engagement
High engagement and effective management is key for contact centres that wish to remain competitive in the world of employment and attract the top talent.
A few of the proven rules for increased engagement are:
Management genuinely caring for employees
Offering workplace flexibility
Providing strong leadership and management
Empowering employees with the tools and skills they need
Hiring the right candidates who fit within your culture
Motivate and inspire employees - offer career progression, training & upskilling
Digital Matters The impact of the digital age is starting to take effect in contact centres. In particular, the increased demand for candidates with multi-channel communication skills. Many candidates are expected to be confident across phone, web chat, email and social media. It is also becoming increasingly more important that candidates are able to quickly grasp various computer systems.
Interestingly, while the requirement of digital skills increase, the soft skills of a candidate are often considered the most important to hiring managers when acquiring new staff and floor managers. This is particularly important when considering ways to increase staff retention numbers.
Employers look for candidates who can demonstrate resilience and commitment. They also look for candidates who have a proven ability to manage high activity volumes and work long hours.
We recently conducted a survey of all our contact centre clients and contacts across the public, private and government sectors. If you would like a copy of this salary survey and insights report, please contact us at admin@talentconnectaustralia.com.au
