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Industry Research : Traditional Recruitment Methods Fail To Find The Best Candidates

Older call centre agents have a higher aptitude for call centre activity, according to research by outsourced call centre, Prolog Connect. The research, also shows traditional recruitment methods such as aptitude testing are a weak indicator of subsequent performance.

Prolog Connect under took a study of operators across a wide range of call centres to assess their suitability to bureau, sales and customer service work by looking at a range of factors including age, sex, marital status and number of children. The operator's skills were assessed against actual performance and a subjective skill assessment.

Recruitment methods including aptitude testing and interviews were also tested to see if they provided an insight into an individual's suitability for the different types of call centre work.


The research revealed older agents have a higher aptitude for call centre activity and set a good example for the younger team members.

Findings also showed that segmentation by age group could be a successful strategy in determining suitability for different call centre roles. For example, in the 36 – 45 age group agents were three times more likely to have an aptitude for customer service than any other age group.

The aptitude for any type of work within call centres was higher in all age groups over 25 than for the 25's and under.

Men were assessed as more likely to be successful at sales and women were three times more likely than men to be to be assessed as skilled customer service advisors. The most talented call centre agents particularly in the area of customer service are 70% more likely to be married and have children.

Aptitude testing was found to be a weak indicator of subsequent performance and was found to indicate competence but not level of skill. A high quality induction programme proved to be essential in the provision of excellent customer service and outweighed the benefits of recruiting candidates with previous experience.

Paul Miller, business development manager at Prolog, commented: "Traditional recruitment techniques seek to narrow the criteria for accepting people into contact centres. They seek to set ever-higher barriers to entry. This cannot continue where there is scarce resource in a growing industry without driving up costs significantly.

"Our research demonstrates that performance varies enormously between agents and that careful selection will bear fruit. By using selection methods more used to other parts of the business – particularly detailed interviews – rather than aptitude testing, a wider choice of candidate becomes available. Importantly the research also demonstrates that commitment training is essential. We hope that our continuing research in this area will allow us to better match agents to what our clients are seeking to achieve.

"By 2011, 52% of the working population will be aged 45 or over (The office of National Statistics) whereas call centres remain statistically a young person's industry. As callers are getting older our contact centre teams should be evolving to bridge this generation gap."


About Prolog Connect:
Prolog Connect offers capacity on tap, strength in technology, resilience and a superbly trained, motivated workforce. Its strength lies in its scalability. From high level CRM and brand loyalty to routine customer contact, Prolog Connect is totally focussed on providing service to its clients and to their customers.

Today's Tip of the Day - Keep Cost In Perspective

Read today's tip or listen to it on podcast.

Published: Wednesday, December 1, 2004

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