SOCIALIZATION | Recruiting, Inducting and Socializing New Employees

It may appear a little unusual that organizations invest significant amounts of time and money recruiting and selecting employees for highly routinized systematic work that they may leave after a relatively short period of time. The main reason for this is that even a highly structured work environment does not guarantee a good quality of service. For this to be achieved it is necessary to socialize all employees and develop a culture of customer service and discretionary effort.

During induction much of the time is spent developing an understanding of systems, products, etc. It is also used to develop values and norms that represent the organization. This is o en done by story telling and recounting events, eg where an adviser went out of her way to solve a problem for a customer that was much more than would be expected. These norms and values are o en printed on cards and given to advisers as well as being printed onto posters and placed on walls throughout the workplace.

Developing a positive ownership of corporate values is sometimes encouraged by specific workshops, eg Servo had a two-day workshop called the Servo Challenge. It had a popularist theme; a welcoming video message from the CEO, and a song: ‘One Team One Goal’. Motivational sessions such as these can buoy up delegates and inspire them to own the corporate values. One employee described how working for Servo was ‘an extreme privilege and only a select few would receive such an opportunity’.

Approaches such as these motivational sessions can have a very positive effect on motivation and morale. However, they are not enough if they are just isolated events, and if this ‘hype’ is not backed up by matching actions in the workplace there will be a disconnect. Employees uplifted by the motivational training and speeches may well return rapidly to earth if the rest of their work experience does not match the training event.

These motivational sessions need to be carefully orchestrated so that they represent reality and appeal to a wide audience. It can be quite easy to disenchant employees if the event is interpreted as superficial or just an import from a culturally distant headquarters. One employee stated that the Servo Challenge was:

A mass brainwashing session where new employees are blinded by the hype that is Servo. Servo was portrayed as a non-conflict company where nobody had differences with each other and all problems could be resolved through discussion. Employees were filled with extravagant hype and expectations of their future with the company. 

In reality, most employees are aware of the nature of these motivational events and evaluate them carefully. While they may feel some of the style is excessive, few have problems with the idea that good customer service is key to success.

Developing a shared identity and values, and encouraging a sociable atmosphere encourages employees to work towards organizational objectives. It also encourages them to ‘walk the extra mile’ with the customer and deliver a service beyond expectations. It is clear that, ‘Organizations that depend on the decision making of employees are likely to pay more attention to their hearts and minds’.

RECRUITMENT AND INDUCTION AT PRUDENTIAL ASSURANCE COMPANY

Colin Mackay, CCA

Prudential pre-recruits for anticipated turnover in groups of around 12. It uses an internet recruitment agency followed by telephone screening by the Human Resource department against a set of criteria identified by the training team. These criteria are based on the anticipated skill set, and potential employees are called in for interview, usually in groups of six. A minimum educational requirement has been introduced at six GCSEs or O-levels standard, including maths and English. The job is explained in detail and during the interview seven key behaviours are looked for including: empathy, relationship building, professionalism and the ability to close. Tests based on a complaint, a death notification, a complex message and dealing with a chatty caller give candidates the opportunity to display the required skills. The current success rate is one in three from these criteria-based assessments.

There are a wide range of employee characteristics within the centre with the full spectrum of age, ethnicity and education levels. The bulk of call handlers are female, most commonly in their early 20s. Prudential prefers employees to have some commercial experience. It is also ready to overcome the challenges of physical disability in applicants who meet its criteria. Examples include hearing impairment dealt with by headset modification; an eye condition requiring an increased font and reduced lighting; and a stroke victim left sensitive to light requiring reduced lighting arrangements.

The contact centre is perceived to be a potential entry point for the rest of the organization since all vacancies are advertised internally. The culture, however, is one of long-term career development in which the centre is not perceived as a temporary role. Contracts are flexible and there is a mix of full- and part-time staff with attrition around 10 per cent, much of which is internal.

New employees enter a 60-day induction programme that delivers product and telephone techniques prior to entry into a training team. This allows further development with monthly training sessions in a safer environment where performance improvement is developed and supported through set targets for accuracy and quality.

The first six days of induction deal with issues common to all new employees including how the Prudential works, health and safety issues and a specific introduction to the contact centre. The final period in this induction introduces the new employee to 4front, which is the front-end system tying together the various legacy systems holding customer and product information. The next 30 days deal with product information on life, funds and pensions products and the complex terminologies used in these areas. The last few days on induction deal with common generic enquiries and preparation for taking calls, including basic call handling skills and dealing with complaints.

The last few days in the initial induction period allow a move to a ‘warm’ site where calls from real customers are taken supported by on-floor coaching support. Stage two of the induction period consists of highly supported and coached involvement within the front line customer-facing environment for a period of up to 18 days.

The final stage in the development of Prudential ‘Premier Advisers’ involves working within a training team for up to six months. During this period key performance indicators on accuracy and quality are regularly measured and, before release, call handlers are expected to have moved to a minimum accuracy level of more than 95 per cent and quality responses of 95 to 98 per cent. Achieving these measures allows release into the full development stream. There are also sections requiring specialist knowledge and skills and these are a progression option for call centre staff since all vacancies are advertised internally.

INDUCTION | Recruiting, Inducting and Socializing New Employees

Most organizations deliver in-house initial basic training for advisers for three reasons:

1. No external solutions appear to be available.
2. It is the most cost-effective solution.
3. It enables employees to be trained in systems, products/offerings and customer service approach

In 2003 the average duration for the induction of agents was 36 working days; however, this reduced significantly to 21 days in 2004. Dimension Data suggested that this might have contributed to the decreases in customer satisfaction and first-contact resolution, and increases in call abandonment and staff attrition during the same period.

The reduction in induction training can be attributed to three main reasons. First, there is pressure to minimize costs and when people are being trained they are not available to generate income for the organization. Secondly, many employees leave before the contact centre has financially recouped its investment in recruitment, training and development. The third reason for reducing the period of induction is that this speeds up the provision of new agents into the workplace.

The average length of induction training for new supervisors and managers is 14 to 15 days. However, many key competency areas are not strongly included, eg management skills, coaching, telephone communication skills, team building skills, call analysis skills, and monitoring/use of statistics.

However, training is not just a cost, it is also an investment in the future production potential of the person. Dimension Data observed that contact centre complexity was increasing with multiple channels, different functions, processes and systems, and increased demands for improved performance. To achieve this it argued that 21 days induction was insufficient for all but the simplest contact centre and suggested a minimum of six weeks induction plus ongoing support in the form of an apprenticeship or buddying system.

To be a nurse adviser in NHS Direct, nurses are required to have five years’ post-qualification experience. To assist nurses to take on their new roles they undergo a fairly lengthy period of training, for example, in the early days of NHS Direct induction training for nurse advisers varied between five and 12 weeks depending on the region. The areas covered included clinical assessment, clinical protocols, ethical issues, accountability, IT skills and telephony. However, at Health-Info CLSC in Quebec, the duration of training was only five or six days and this was believed to be because, ‘The practice of nursing over the phone is therefore a continuity of pre-existing lines and embedded in a nursing methodology central to the education of Quebecois nurses.

In an Australian telecommunications company, new employees had a 10-week full-time training programme followed by up to six months of support at the end of which they were expected to be fully competent. Similarly, in Flightco, an airline booking organization, induction training lasted between eight and 10 weeks and focused on computer and technical skills, products and services, and customer service areas. Following this there were two-monthly performance reviews, which continued for about six to eight months until the agents reached the desired level of proficiency.

Market analysts ContactBabel, also identified that induction courses in most industries lasted approximately three to four weeks. In the utilities sector induction training tends to be approximately five weeks because of the cross-selling and up-selling that are expected.

There would also appear to be a degree of correlation between the size of the contact centre and the length of training. Larger centres tend to have a dedicated training department and the average length of induction is four weeks. Those contact centres with less than 50 agent positions average only 14 days.

Some agents receive only a minimum degree of training. Research by CallNorthWest described a situation where the training was rushed, there were no hand-outs and no opportunities to ask questions, which resulted in one agent feeling like she knew very li le. Furthermore, one agent who had not received induction training and had to teach herself, contemplated resigning and stated, ‘I actually walked out at one point after three days because it was so bad. I used to dread coming in, but they came after me and persuaded me to stay’.

The ability of the trainer also has an impact on the motivation of the agents and the perception of the organization: ‘If you have a bad trainer, especially at induction, it puts you off. Especially the induction phase, you can gauge the quality of the organization through that first induction period’.

In larger organizations with high attrition there can be a permanent demand for new agents, leading to a continuous flow of people passing through induction. In general, there appears to be a common structure for induction training:

• classroom training on skills, systems, knowledge, etc;
• practice on systems/computers, etc;
• listening in on calls;
• answering calls under supervision;
• a ‘paddling pool’ or ‘nursery’ where people are under close supervision;
• placement close to an experienced member of staff or a buddy;
• regular supervision and frequent checks;
• normal supervision and assessment.

After induction, training is usually less frequent or even voluntary; however, where there is poor performance training is compulsory. Also, induction training is largely the responsibility of the training department, but after that it is largely the responsibility of the team leader or supervisor.

Induction as assessment

The induction period is used to develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to work in the contact centre. During this period close attention is given to the inductees so that any areas of weakness can be addressed and improved. Those whose abilities match the necessary standards will be signed off and work alongside more experienced colleagues or buddies. Where people do not come up to standard they may be given additional support and training or, if this is not effective, they may be released. Contracts of employment normally contain the specification that permanent contracts will only be issued to those who reach certain standards during induction or the probationary period.

NHS DIRECT WEST COUNTRY

Background

The 1997 White Paper, The New NHS: Modern, Dependable announced the planned introduction of NHS Direct. First-wave sites began operations in March 1998 and the NHS Direct Special Health Authority was established in April 2004 with five regions consisting of 22 NHS Direct sites employing approximately 4,000 people. Together they handle around 6.5 million calls per year.

NHS Direct West Country began in March 1999 and originally had responsibility for the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Somerset and Dorset. It had a main site in Exeter and satellites in Truro, Plymouth, St Leonards and Taunton. It served a widely dispersed population of 2.8 million people in rural and urban areas and employed approximately 164 people (123 full-time equivalents). At the time of the research there were 70 nurse advisers, 33 call operators, three health information advisers, seven operational nurse managers, four call operator supervisors, 3.4 senior management team, and 10.2 operational and administrative support staff. During 2004/5 there were approximately 400,000 calls of which 96.4 per cent were triaged by a nurse within 20 minutes. Subsequently, an Intelligent Call Management system was introduced and calls were routed around the country. The Clinical Assessment System is operated nationally and so too is the call-back queue.

The training and development process

Calls made by a patient or on behalf of a patient are first received by a health adviser or operator who gathers demographic information. An onscreen algorithm is then used to ask a number of questions designed to prioritize the urgency of the call. Emergencies are immediately directed to 999, and the remaining calls are prioritized and nurse advisers return the calls.

Induction for operators/health advisers lasts four weeks and includes computer systems, keyboard skills, physiology and anatomy. Trainee operators progress from listening in to calls taken by experienced advisers and then gradually take calls themselves. Each month there are two call reviews that evaluate performance. Additional training may include mandatory areas ie, the introduction of new databases.

Nurse advisers are required to have five years’ post-registration experience, have good communication skills and personality. They are supported by a clinical decision support system (Clinical Assessment System) which guides them and also provides information during the patient consultation.

Nurse adviser training has become more nationally standardized and has the flexibility to respond to local requirements. The six-week induction programme is a competency-based programme using a knowledge and skills framework. This is then followed by a transitional week in which they answer calls using a buddy or nursery system. The training includes: call review guidance, NHS Direct, accountability and professional issues, performance management, paediatric issues, confidentiality, health and safety, vulnerable adults; customer care issues, the Clinical Advice System, algorithm familiarization, Microsoft Outlook, history-taking skills, critical thinking skills, and reflective practice.

In general, there are numerous opportunities for ongoing education and training, both internally and externally. There is work-based training with a half-day training every three weeks, study for professional qualifications including National Vocational Qualifications and modular programmes at universities. Moreover, there are shut-down days with calls diverted to other sites, and staff also have protected time for training.

One of the main means for developing staff is through the quality system. To comply with national standards sites are required to audit 2 per cent of calls per day and these are carried out by trained call reviewers. The software can provide feedback on the performance of nurse advisers and all calls are recorded. The performance can be assessed through self-evaluation, one-to-one, peer review, and supervisor review of live calls. Feedback about triage and telephone consultation tends to use Pendleton’s rules of feedback. The challenge is to balance operational demands and educational needs of staff.

Nurse advisers report that their general knowledge is sometimes broader and more up-to-date because the range of cases they deal with is often larger than they might otherwise come into contact with during traditional working. On the other hand, lack of direct patient interaction may lead to de-registration, eg midwives need to assist at a certain number of births.

In summary, the role of training in NHS Direct is very central to the maintenance of high standards and the avoidance of adverse events.

Induction programme content

A number of guidelines have been published to support the public sector in establishing contact centres. The Scottish Executive recommended that comprehensive induction programmes should address at a minimum level:

• aims and structure of the organization and the role and purpose of the contact centre;
• relevant work processes;
• knowledge of the particular services;
• customer service techniques across appropriate channels, in other words, telephone, letter, e-mail, etc;
• IT systems;
• health and safety;
• organizational policies and procedures;
• team building.

Similar guidelines by the Central Office of Information advised government call centres to include the following in induction programmes:

• aims and structure of the department/organization as a whole, and the role and purpose of the contact centre and how it fits into the rest of the organization;
• knowledge of particular service(s) as appropriate, the subject matter and the business process of the service;
• customer service skills, in general terms and specific techniques that can be used across all channels eg, telephone, letter, e-mail;
• familiarity with IT systems;
• health and safety;
• organizational policies and procedures;
• team building
• stress management;
• management training for team leaders.

ATTITUDE | New Employees

In some cases qualifications are a requirement as in the case of those working in the insurance industry or nursing. In many other situations qualifications are less prized because there is o en no clear correlation between them and the ability to successfully undertake the work.

As the call centre sector develops and matures, traditional industry indicators such as industry bodies, recognized skills and competencies, qualifications, etc will provide structure and shape. These developments will make the industry more formalized and transparent; however, in the interim, recruitment, induction and training processes o en have a greater significance in identifying suitable candidates.

To add complexity to the situation many of the skills used in contact centres are tacit ones hidden deep within people, making it hard for them and observers to describe what skills are being used. For this reason recruitment is o en based on identifying people possessing these inner skills and then selecting them.

Developing broader social knowledge and the ability to recognize a nuance in the voice of a customer and respond appropriately is not something that can be trained in a few weeks of induction. It is possible that some of these tacit skills may only be developed over a very long period of time. It is for these reasons that many employers seek people who possess a wide experience of life, eg running a household and bringing up children.

In addition, managers also seek well motivated individuals who possess a caring attitude, high levels of confidence; are ‘bubbly’ or lively; have a natural ability to talk, develop rapport and smile down the phone. For people who work in technical support, communication skills are less highly valued. Instead, the ability to problem solve is considered more important. In fact, the people in these roles are considered less likely to possess the ‘bubbly’ personalities.

Time and again there would appear to be a consistent message from employers – personality and particularly attitude are the most sought after attributes in job applicants. What is most remarkable is that many of them consider attitude to be something that is very difficult to train. One hotel manager stated that:

We didn’t actually look for people with experience. . . because we felt that wasn’t particularly important. We wanted people that had a personality more than skills, because we felt we could train people to do the job.

Managers at Telebank expressed similar feelings about the innateness of personality, motivation and enthusiasm:

Customer service, that’s not a skill. That’s in you. It’s the attitude towards customer service.

I firmly believe that if you have a CSR who has the right attitude and approach, so long as you’ve got somebody who’s willing to learn, who will be receptive to their feedback and sees it as an opportunity to develop themselves, then I believe that you can get them to where they need to be. 

This emphasis on attitude is also valued in other industries:

The US’s only consistently profitable airline, Southwest Airlines, has been known to turn down a brilliant pilot because he or she was rude to a receptionist. Its mo o is summed up by the phrase, ‘you can train skills, you cannot train attitude’. 

This emphasis on recruiting attitude might be interpreted as meaning that there is little room for training; however, this is not the case. While there may be rough diamonds with a positive attitude in the job market there is still a considerable need for developing these talents and shaping them so that they can be effectively applied in call centres. The remark by the woman entering hospital for a neurological condition sums up this perspective: ‘I don’t want to be operated on by a natural born surgeon, I want someone who has received all the training and has many successful years of experience!’

FINANCIAL SKILLS AND TRAINING AT ING/POSTBANK ZAKELIJK

Inge Sieben and Andries de Grip

Background

Compared to CSRs working in other Dutch contact centres, CSRs at ING/ Postbank Zakelijk require a high level of skills to do their job adequately for a number of reasons:

• Working at a bank: Financial products and services are often more complex than ordinary retail products.
• Dealing with mainly business customers: Business products are thought to be more complex than consumer products.
• Complying with internal and national laws: Compliance is very important at ING/Postbank Zakelijk. Privacy regulations require that CSRs do not reveal any information on customers to others. In addition, the 2004 Law on Financial Services was introduced to protect customers being given financial advice. For example, benefits and risks of financial products have to be explained to the customer. CSRs who deal with stocks have to pass a national exam (optietoets), because only qualified agents are allowed to give stock advice to customers. Moreover, CSRs who deal with mortgages have to pass an exam each year.
• Working at a ‘one-stop-shop’ contact centre: CSRs have to answer all kinds of questions from all kinds of customers. This multi-skill approach demands that they have knowledge about all banking products and services. They handle about 80 per cent of the calls themselves, the rest is transferred to the midoffice.
• Increased focus on cross-selling: CSRs have to provide excellent service and be good in sales at the same time. When there is an opportunity for selling, they have to take it. This is not easy, as the contact centre started as a service centre. The transition from service to sales, the high speed of the work, and the targets set make it difficult for older employees (who have worked in the contact centre from the beginning) to cope with these changes. Postbank Zakelijk therefore started a campaign to see if these CSRs are still working at the right place. With interviews and personality tests, unit managers together with CSRs determine whether it is a good idea to stay in the contact centre, or to move to the back office, or to start looking for another job, inside or outside the bank.

Managing and developing high level skills

To address the above challenges of high level skills ING/Postbank Zakelijk also uses their STER-K (STRONG) model:

S: Sales (creating sales opportunities)

T: Accessible and committed (customer-oriented)

E: Honest and reliable (clear)

R: Outcome-oriented (proactive)

K: Quality (professional, customer satisfaction).

At one time the induction programme lasted six weeks but it was found that not only did the CSRs forget content, they also learnt a lot by doing. However, this created challenges because customers expected CSRs to answer all kinds of questions. There are now more integrated and continuous forms of development and career paths, which have seven steps:

1. In the recruitment and selection process, ING assesses candidates on skills and adaptation level – this is the extent to which someone is capable of acquiring new knowledge.
2. After hiring, CSRs take an entrance test to establish their start level.
3. CSRs follow basic training for half a year, which consists of several phases of training and working. E-learning will play a role here too. Coaching has an important role and all CSRs have a coaching plan made by their unit manager.
4. Permanent education of CSRs: the unit manager coaches on content and skills.
5. Development of CSRs who have the abilities: they can follow training to move to the staff department or sales department, or to become a unit manager.
6. If there is no development possible, then CSRs will work to become certified. Official learning standards will have to be reached in order to increase CSRs’ employability.
7. CSRs leave the ING/Postbank Zakelijk contact centre after the development route (step 5) or the certificate route (step 6).

In offering the certificate route, ING wants to become an officially recognized ‘learning company’. Collaboration is sought with a regional educational centre (ROC), which means that CSRs can get a secondary vocational education (MBO) certificate. In this way CSRs will have a clearer career path and may leave the contact centre with a certificate or career opportunities.

Evaluation

In the end, training evaluation will be at a higher level too. At the moment, training is evaluated at Kirkpatrick’s level 1 and 2 (CSRs’ satisfaction with training and subjective information on what they have learnt). In the future, ING would like to evaluate training at level 3 and (finally) at level 4: the application of skills learnt during training in the job and the effects of training on CSRs’ performance.

QUALIFICATIONS | New Employees

Qualifications are o en used as a proxy or indicator to demonstrate a person’s ability for a job; for example, a degree in English may indicate that a person has good language skills but in fact these may be written rather than spoken. Alternatively, some applicants may possess few qualifications but still have the skills and personality to successfully accomplish the tasks required. For these reasons, the requirement for qualifications in contact centres would appear to vary depending on the level of operation and nature of the industry. In many organizations attitude is considered more important than qualifications.

Possessing educational qualifications does not indicate that a person possesses the skills necessary to work in contact centres. For organizations that have used qualifications as an indicator of suitability this can cause a problem. Furthermore, there is the ‘indeterminacy of labour’ ie, the difference between the perceived recruitment of skills and their actual translation into profitable outcomes for the organization. ‘Given that traditional indicators are unreliable, the role of selection, recruitment, induction and training in identifying and shaping social competencies is moved to the centre of the stage.’

In some industries regulatory compliance requires employees to possess specific qualifications eg, insurance and finance agents may be required to possess industry qualifications in order to provide advice or sell financial products. In Quebec, nurses working for Health-Info CLSC were expected to have a minimum of three years’ experience. Likewise, in NHS Direct, nurse advisers are required to have at least five years’ post-qualification experience giving them a ‘licence to practice’. On the other hand, the lack of direct patient interaction working on the telephones may lead to de-registration eg, midwives need to assist at a certain number of births over a specific time period.

The call centre industry is a relatively new one and as it matures across the world qualifications will become more developed and recognized. In the UK e-skills (an agency responsible for developing skills in the telecommunications and digital sectors) has identified 63 competencies required to operate in call centres and linked these to Scottish/National Vocational Qualifications. In addition, some universities are now offering Foundation Degrees; The Open University provides a course for call centre managers and the University of Central Lancashire provides postgraduate qualifications including options within an MBA.

CREATING OUTSTANDING CONTACT CENTRE AGENTS

Carolyn Blunt, Real Results Training

As part of the UK government’s strategy to develop the skills of unemployed, disabled and other disadvantaged groups, training contracts are awarded to providers on a regional basis. These contracts encourage the development of skills for industries where there is a growing recruitment need or skills shortage.

Specialist contact centre training company Real Results Training worked in Greater Manchester to design and deliver modules of training that would build the confidence and skills of participants and ultimately lead to employment in contact centres across the region. To meet the needs of northwest contact centres Real Results Training designed a six-module learning programme including an induction module titled ‘The True Story of Contact Centres’ and five skills modules: telephone communication skills, customer service, problem solving, handling difficult calls and a dedicated hands-on skills practice module.

In the induction module the ‘battery chicken’ myth of contact centres was deconstructed and real information, pictures and experiences of contact centres were shared. Statistics of the growth in the industry, declining popularity of offshoring and typical salary scales were shared with the group to reassure them that contact centres are a good career choice. Participants were also taken on tours of prospective workplaces and invited to meet existing agents and network informally to ask questions and discover the reality of life in a contact centre.

This module was hugely popular and critical to gaining their buy-in to the learning that followed. All the sessions were interactive and focused on the importance of first impressions, voice tone, listening exercises and staying calm and in control of calls. Participants were given the Real Results structure for call flow – WILDER^TM which stands for Welcome, Invite, Listen, Discuss, End and Review, and trained to achieve the perfect balance between customer service and efficient call handling. Participants analysed customer case studies to develop empathy, rapport and ownership skills. Fun problem solving activities were also included that encouraged the participants to think creatively for solutions to customer and organizational challenges. In the final module participants worked in role play, using headsets and call recording equipment to put their learning into practice and receive coaching and feedback.

The programme was a success, with participants securing interviews and subsequent employment. Employers were delighted to have a pool of talent to recruit from, especially since the trainees had received high quality, tailored training before they joined and the participants themselves said they benefited greatly, feeling energized, confident and ready for their new life as effective contact centre agents. Many wrote letters of thanks for the training and support they received, long after they began working.