With a greater focus being placed on customer service and a trend in slimming down to create a more efficient workplace, there has never been a more important time to recruit the right employees. Call centers and other customer service employees are critical to the success of any company. When dealing with customer-facing employees, a company will want to make sure it’s hiring smartly and efficiently.  Call center employees must possess certain qualities in order to be successful in a high-demanding phone-centric environment. Remaining Calm Under Pressure One of the key skills in a call center is the ability to remain calm under pressure and to be confident while communicating clearly. A call center employee is usually the first poin [...]
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An evergreen job is a position at your organization that is always open, either because it’s a high turnover position or, more likely, because it‘s a position for which you have many employees in the same role. As a hiring manager, you are constantly chasing candidates for this role, spending hours interviewing, qualifying, and finding job candidates who are just the right fit. Evergreen jobs are common in industries like call centers, retail, hospitals, and health care, where companies have 50-100 employees, like nurses or call center representatives, doing the same job but in a different hospital wing, or managing the clients and customer service for many regions over the phone. Because your company is constantly hiring for this [...]
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According to the Candidate Experience Survey of 2012, over 53% of candidates indicated that they had an existing relationship with a company prior to applying there, either as a customer, an advocate, or through family/friends already at the company. It’s only a matter of time before that percentage grows into the 80s or 90s.  It’s clear that recruiters need to start looking at candidates as customers as well. For a candidate, the application process is similar to that of purchasing a product. Similar thought processes and time investments are required. On average, a job seeker spends 45 minutes filling out an application or buying into the company. When a job seeker is looking and applying for jobs, they are buying into your bran [...]
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With the average cost of employment litigation topping about $150,000, ethical hiring and employment decisions are not only essential to keep your workplace culture moving in a positive direction, but also to keep your company profitable and in the black. That figure doesn’t include preparing statements, negotiations, and representation. With costs in employment litigation lawsuits on the rise, it’s important that your company take steps to prevent being involved in a lawsuit. Here are five ethical hiring and work decisions managers can and must make to save their company millions and even billions over the long haul. Do Minimal Investigation. Checking references, calling on past employers, and verifying that the information on [...]
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Experienced HR professionals will tell you that there is an art to recruiting. As a recruiter, you refine your skills and techniques, and after years of practice you develop the ability to assess the hiring problem at hand and cull through the available candidates to find the individual who best fits the overall picture of the company. At the beginning of the recruiting process, being open to possibilities is key. While of course you need to know the skills and abilities needed for the job, you also need to be open to seeing each candidate as a complete individual, one who may be able to compensate for a shortage of one specific skill with greater abilities in a different area. Like a painter, you need to constantly keep in mind the wh [...]
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A couple of weeks ago I took my almost-four-year-old to the mall, and I did it all for love. One of Ryleigh’s favorite places is Build-A Bear Workshop. The customer service is fantastic, and they create a “wow” experience for her. Since she is a typical indecisive preschooler, we spent nearly 20 minutes selecting the perfect bear to begin building and customizing just for her. That’s when it hit me. Build-A-Bear is a great strategy to use to build your company’s hiring and selection process. Just like with the individualized bears that emerge from this shop, we live in a world where custom is king but the experience trumps all. As consumers, we crave the custom experience of swimming with the dolphins. We covet those 50-yard [...]
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The task of finding that perfect new hire can be broken down into five simple steps. In the process, you’ll envision the ideal candidate and identify the right qualifications for the job, so that you can quickly find the applicants you need to make a perfect hire. Step 1: Define position requirements. Envision the perfect employee for the job by considering the hard and soft skills that pie-in-the-sky candidate would possess. Think about how the new position will fit into the company as a whole, and what the individual will contribute on a daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly basis. Step 2: Identify the best assessment (standard, job-based, or custom) to match requirements. Many online testing services provide subject lists that c [...]
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Understanding the Difference Between Hard Skills & Soft Skills in Pre-Employment Testing I remember my first encounter with pre-employment testing. I was terrified and sweating bullets. Having just taken the GMAT, I did not know what to expect, and no one bothered to tell me how, what, or even why I was taking the test. Now, working in the field of human resources, I find that I’m not alone, as frustrated job seekers wonder and worry about the importance, the differences, and the types of testing given during a company’s hiring process. Often times hiring managers are also completely unaware of what it’s all about. Well, I’d like to help change that. Hard Skills and Soft Skills At first glance, your candidate appe [...]
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