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While
recruiting people for call centre operations, certain factors are
overlooked, thus adversely affecting the business. Debashish
Das focuses on the most effective procedures during the recruitment
process
The
call centre business is being hailed as the next big ticket for
the Indian IT enabled services (ITES) industry. According to a NASSCOM-McKinsey
study, the ITES industry generated revenues of Rs 7,100 crore ($1.5
billion) in the year 2001-2002, and is going to be a Rs 81,000 crore
($17 billion) opportunity by the year 2008.
All
call centre operations require huge manpower, which accounts for
55 percent to 60 percent of the total cost. But in India, the manpower
cost is almost one-tenth of what it is overseas. So obviously a
lot of overseas call centre operations are now finding grounds here,
thereby providing job opportunities to the educated middle-class
graduates in the country. But, it is also a hard truth that an outbound
lead generation programme in the US has an average lead per hour
of 0.72, and the same programme run from India hits an average lead
per hour figure of 0.31.
The
differences are glaring for a country identified as having a large
pool of skilled manpower. Given the same technology and operations,
it is the human factor that makes the difference. In such a scenario,
the quality of people a call centre hires, develops and deploys
is critical.
The
experiences of most call centres show that only about 2 percent
to 5 percent of the candidates qualify from a single recruitment
campaign. The process is time consuming and costly. And since the
first shortlisting is done on the basis of education, experience,
etc., the selection at times proves to be incorrect, as the pre-requisite
for any call centre employee is communication proficiency, probing
skills, accent, etc.
The
recruitment process therefore needs to involve the following points:
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Shortlisting of candidates on the basis of CVs
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Written and spoken English tests
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Telephone assessment
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One-to-one interviews
An
alternate and more effective method of assessing the quality of
people is the assessment centre. This centre deploys a comprehensive
and standardised procedure in which multiple assessments or testing
techniques, including psychometric tests, are used to assess the
candidates and arrive at a credible level of behavioural forecasting.
The
tests developed are either a superset of the skills and personality
attributes or are more programme specific. For example, the tests
designed for the position of a call agent would comprise of customer
interaction skills, accent, fluency, vocabulary and grammar. But,
for an outbound lead generation or sales programme, it should include
tests on selling skills (to measure assertiveness, persistence,
drive, empathy), achievement orientation and script delivery.
The
assessment centre is more customised to the requirements of a call
centre compared to other selection methodologies.
-
Manpower deployment: Each programme should ideally have
certain goals/deliverables that are a part of the service level
agreements, which are then broken down to individual goals and
deliverables. Since the agents are the drivers of the programme,
it becomes imperative that their productivity and quality of calling
be monitored to ensure consistent performance.
Personality
traits affect both productivity as well as quality of agents. While
the metrics used for evaluating productivity of an agent is calculated
with indices such as call time, wrap up time, etc; the quality refers
to the manner in which calls are handled effectively. For example,
the traits which are critical for achieving productivity and quality
benchmarks in a lead generation outbound programme could be assertiveness,
persistence, achievement orientation and empathy.
Call
centres generally use three methods to monitor agents: side-by-side,
remote real time monitoring and recorded interactions.
A
mix of these methods is used to make unbiased evaluations and identify
the gaps in traits.
Ideally,
the traits that are evaluated to identify the programme-related
competency gaps are the same that were considered while recruiting
the candidate for the programme. This ensures that the competencies
for which they are appraised are broadly the same on the basis of
which they were recruited. Fundamentally, this keeps manpower hiring
and deployment criteria in sync.
Quick
turnaround of feedback is most essential to the effectiveness of
call monitoring. A delay would weaken the ability of the assessment
to change behaviour. The evaluation report should also focus on
the clear suggestions for improvement and mention the best practices
towards which the agents can work. Coaching and mentoring by supervisors
also allows agents to continually improve their performance.
Manpower
development: Assessment centres are also used to develop manpower
based on the feedback that is received from productivity and quality
appraisal of agents.
Assessment
centre functions
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Diagnose training and development needs: The assessment centre
method is an excellent diagnostic tool because it separates an
individual’s abilities into specific traits that are related
to job success. It then seeks specific examples of good and poor
behaviour, thus helping the assessor to determine more precisely
what training and developmental activities are required.
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Potential assessment: The results of an assessment centre can
be used to assess potential of the candidate for a future job.
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Evaluating effectiveness of training programmes: Assessment centre
methodology is an excellent method for establishing the validity
and effectiveness of training programmes. The data gathered during
the hiring process could be used to compare the scores after the
training on the desired traits. Thus individuals are assessed,
trained and then assessed again to evaluate the effectiveness
of the training programme.
(Debashish
Das is Vice President-HR, Parsec Technologies)
Reliability
Assessment
Centres 0.65
Behavioural
Interviews 0.48 - 0.60
Work
- sample tests 0.54
Ability
tests 0.53
Modern
personality tests 0.39
CVs
0.38
References
0.23
Traditional
Interviews 0.05 - 0.19
Source:
British Psychological Society
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