Webinar Tomorrow: Guarantee Compliance

Tomorrow, insideARM.com is partnering with Interactive Intelligence and Latitude Software to present a free webinar, “Guaranteeing” Compliance: Better Hiring, Better Work Environment, Better Quality Management.

The below is an excerpt from the accompanying whitepaper:

“Guaranteeing” compliance: hiring practices

Agent turnover. It’s inescapable in any contact center or agency. Those with the best retention rates will still need to replace at least 15-25% of their agents during a given year – while others who struggle in this area find themselves with even higher turn-over rates, hitting up to 100% or more. No matter where your company rests on this scale, there is a cost associated with recruiting, and no one can afford to simply hire a warm body to fill an empty chair.

Here are some best practices in this particular area to help get you closer to “guaranteeing” compliance through your hiring practices:

• Define Your Business Objectives

It takes between six to eight candidates to produce one strong hire. Knowing this, you’ll want to begin by defining your tactical business objectives as it pertains to hiring your collectors.

• What caliber of agent/collector is required for this opening?
• How significant are the business risks if the ‘wrong’ people are hired?
• Is this a ‘new’ line of business for me and how critical is agent experience going to be in the success of this program?

First-Person Voices:

“We bucked the standard for most agencies and focused on hiring collectors with degrees or persons with no collections background but heavy sales-customer relationship experience. At the time, we also had the “old school” guys as well – and we wanted to track the difference in results.” Deanna Causey, VP Operations, Clovis & Roche Inc.

• Outgoing and energetic attitude
• Good listening skills
• Persuasive communicator
• Multi-tasking ability
• Problem solving capabilities
• Previous agency or computer experience
• Education level

Consider the unique environment of your business and with whom the collectors need to communicate. Collectors will need to have the flexibility to adjust their communication style based on type of collection as well as the type of person with whom they’re speaking.

You’ll also want to consider the traits and skills you’re willing to relinquish in a new hire – with the intent of filling that recruit’s gaps through training, mentoring and on-the-job experience.

• Track and Rank All Sources of Your Applicants and New Hires

Tracking sources of successful hires and various performance metrics is critical. It helps decipher which recruiting mechanism (print ads, on-line job postings, job fairs, referral bonus, outside agencies, etc.) bring in your desired candidate. This type of reporting can also provide input for creating your desired New Hire Collector Profile.

• Consider Behavioral and Competency Assessments

Screening and initial assessment can be automated using off-the-shelf software which quickly and efficiently compares position requirements to each applicant’s qualifications. The data gathered can also be used to modify the New Hire Profile, based on assessments of those who were hired, their unique traits, and their eventual success in the position.

No matter if agents/collectors are required to read accurately from a script or if they are permitted to use their own words – as long as specific key words or phrases are included – it is imperative for the agency to be able to confirm its happening. At the same time, collectors are forbidden from speaking to certain topics (“… you could go to jail…”), or saying specific words or phrases (cursing, etc.).

Now that recruiting and hiring is completed, how else can you guarantee compliance?

Through a combination of the following:

• The Work Environment
• Agent Training
• Call Recording & Quality Management
• Real-Time Speech Analytics