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Contact center pipeline feb 2013 applicant intake process
1. PART ONE:
Why your
Applicant
Intake
Process
Matters
By Eric Berg
Doherty Customer Contact Solutions | 7645 Metro Boulevard | Edina, MN 55439
952-818-3257 | www/dohertycontact.com
ATTRITION-PROOF:
A Five-Part Series by
Eric Berg on Protecting and
Conserving your Workforce
Originally published in Contact Center
Pipeline magazine, February 2013.
A Doherty White Paper: Information
and advice from Doherty experts
2. We’re all rooting for the economy to recover, but greater
turnover can be a side effect of a healthy employment rate.
In this five-part series on limiting attrition, call center
staffing expert Eric Berg reveals five critical moments in your
employer-employee relationship, and explains how managing
those moments can curb the high costs of uncontrolled
attrition.
In this first installment, Why Your Applicant Intake Process
Matters, Mr. Berg dissects an intake process failure, examines
the ripple effects of a badly-managed sourcing and screening
stage, and provides clear instructions and options for building
an effective and successful applicant intake plan.
Why your Applicant Intake Process Matters:
Do you know what’s working?
Recently, I was asked to consult with a contact center
experiencing nearly 300% attrition annually. In my meeting
with the leadership team I asked, “What is the personality
profile of your most successful agent?”
That was the moment I learned why their attrition rate was so
high.
The contact center leadership had no clue about the
personalities or behaviors of their top performers. They
could tell me what their best agents’ metrics were and how
often they hit their goals, but they had no idea why they
were successful.
Then I asked them about their current applicant intake
process. Their answer? A typing test.
Seriously? The contact center leadership had no idea
what made a successful agent. And, worse yet, they were
choosing applicants based on a skill that had nothing to do
with success in a contact center environment.
These mistakes are common to contact centers as well
as other organizations. By assessing applicants based
on inexpensive and easy-to-acquire skills, and paying
no attention to their inherent and often intractable
personalities and behaviors, companies end up with WPM
instead of ROI.
The costs of a bad hire
As the U.S. economy improves it’s getting harder to attract
and retain agents. In an effort to put “butts in seats,” some
companies hire talent who are just not as talented as they
need to be to protect the company’s brand.
According to CareerBuilder, the average cost of a bad hire
can range from $25,000 to as much as $50,000. And, the
cost to hire and train a new contact center agent is $9,400,
according to Response Design. That means a contact center
with 100 seats and experiencing 300% attrition has an
estimated loss of $2,820,000. Ouch!
It’s easy to see that an applicant intake process that reduces
attrition will quickly show a good return on investment,
even if your turnover rate isn’t at the 300% mark.
Hidden costs to your training program
When agents leave there is a tangible and measurable cost
to replace them. What cannot be measured easily is the
ATTRITION-PROOF: A Five-Part Series by Eric Berg
on Protecting and Conserving your Workforce
PART ONE: Why your
Applicant Intake
Process Matters