Hays Contact Centres - July 2010
Hotspots
Skills in demand include banking and finance industry experience, specifically superannuation and life insurance. The banking and finance industries are recruiting high volumes of staff to make up for the recruitment freezes of last year. All of the banks have had a recent refocus on customer service and retention, so the recruitment of contact centre staff is now seen as a critical part of the success of their business.
Effective telesales and lead generation staff are consistently in demand as organisations look to increase revenue and market share. Even the service-based call centres require an element of sales in this climate. Organisations want someone who is not afraid to ask for the sale or offer to cross sell in order to keep and increase market share.
Candidates who have order entry experience within the FMCG, medical or manufacturing industries remain an ongoing area of need.
The coming quarter
Organisations are recruiting volume staff as confidence in the market increases, businesses invest in new product releases and employers make up for the headcount freezes of last year. Whereas the recent trend was to hire temporary staff, employers now prefer to invest in the training and development of permanent staff. Temporaries are instead utilised on a project basis. Good candidates are also ideally looking for stability so employers are able to attract a higher calibre of candidate when they recruit on a permanent basis.
Executive recruitment
Contact centres are recruiting for management positions across all industries. Strong people managers and strategic change management professionals are in demand, especially in the finance sector, as many of the banks look to improve customer engagement and retention.
Employer trends
Employers are careful to make the right recruitment decisions to ensure a high performing, committed workforce that will be retained long-term. Employers are basing their decisions not only on skills and experience, but on the distance a candidate has to travel to work, tenure in previous roles and long-term career goals. They are very specific in their requirements.
We advise employers to be flexible when recruiting. Many of their non-negotiable skills can be taught to a candidate. Strong customer service experience is certainly essential, but certain other skills can be taught in-house.
Candidate trends
There is a shortage of experienced contact centre candidates, particularly those with good tenure in their previous roles. However there is a surplus of candidates without previous relevant experience. Those strong candidates with previous experience often have the choice between several offers and are therefore able to negotiate higher salaries.
