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.