Contact Centers: Three Evaluation Strategies for Effective Hiring

If high employee turnover or customer engagement issues plague your call center, it may be time to re-evaluate how you hire customer service reps (CSRs). With this in mind, John Weiner, vice president of products and services for PSI, a pre-employment evaluation firm, offers the following tips:

1. Test for thinking skills: Rather than focusing on a solely on a potential CSR’s past experience, Weiner suggests that hiring managers place emphasis on critical thinking skills. “The abilities to solve problems, to communicate, and to be accurate with information ... aren’t capabilities you can train someone on,” he says. While providing an explanation of a CSR’s responsibitilies, hiring managers should also introduce potential hires to scenarios that existing employees handle daily. If they don’t react in a way that suggests they can adapt to changing customer needs, they may not be the right fit for your company, he notes.