Using Social Media and Branding to Recruit and Hire the Right Call Center Agents

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Many call centers struggle with bringing in the right agents to work for them, as well as managers and supervisors. It can be difficult to hire the right people who truly understand and value your services, and mesh with the company culture you are trying to create.

Many companies choose to write a simple job description and post it on their company website or Indeed. They pick a few applications and conduct interviews, choosing whomever has the most experience. Unfortunately, this method will often result in failure, as it sets up your company for low-quality service and eventual disaster.

FIND YOUR CULTURE

Going all the way back to earlier blog posts, we discussed call center culture. It’s important to define the culture of your call center. It can be distinct from the culture of your company as a whole. Sit down with your team and really define the kind of person you’re looking for. You’re not simply looking for a worker, you’re looking for a person. What kind of person do you want them to be? How will they fit into your company’s culture?

Here at Expivia, we have a culture of attitude and effort, “A sunshine attitude with an entrepreneurial mindset”. We place less emphasis on experience, instead focusing on a potential employee’s attitude, and that they are willing to put forth the effort to be an incredible call center agent.

Instead of conducting a traditional interview with the normal questions, really talk to the actual person. Ask them to describe themselves. Dive into their personality. Learn their values. Doing this, you can learn what kind of worker they will be.

MANAGE YOUR BRAND

To attract the right candidates, you also need to manage your call center’s brand. If you are an internal contact center within a larger business, create your own Facebook page. This way, you can create a distinct brand and community for your call center, separating it from the company as a whole. This way, a potential employee can learn about your call center culture and values from your Facebook page, as well as learn about any fun activities or initiative your call center provides.

It’s not all just about Facebook, though. It’s important to maximize all your social channels. This includes Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. You can create inclusiveness and excitement within your company this way, by engaging with your employees and potential employees. Do fun things like raffles, contests, and activities, to create engagement and personalize your call center culture.

Remember, it’s not enough to simply have these social media channels. You have to use them. Being active is the only way to create engagement. Respond to messages quickly, preferably by assigning an agent to keep it open on their monitor or go to an agent’s phone. This shows that you care about potential employees and customers.

RECRUITING

The first method of recruiting employees is going to be your call center’s website. Your website is your landing page for your entire call center. It’s likely the first place prospective employees will go. Be sure to have a section of your website advertising any open jobs. Try not to just call it something generic like “Hiring” or “Employment”. These terms are dry and clinical. Call it something like “Talent”, to differentiate from other companies and create a sense of worth for employees.

Apart from your company website, social media is also going to be a great channel for recruiting new employees. Be sure to create engagement on your call center’s Facebook page, as well as running ads. A Facebook ad campaign can be incredibly effective, as well as cost-effective. A great thing about recruiting with Facebook is that you can specify in an ad campaign which area of a city or state you want to focus on the most, to bring in potential hires from a specific area.

LinkedIn is also a great social media channel for bringing in new blood. You can use it to recruit for middle management and programmer positions, somewhat higher up. Facebook is great for recruiting agents, but for higher positions requiring specific skills, LinkedIn is a great recruitment tool.

Job boards are another great tool for recruitment. Indeed is the largest one for the US, but Glassdoor and Monster are two more great options. Indeed is free up to a certain amount. It tends to bring up lower quality applicants, but a higher quantity. You may find your diamond in the rough on Indeed.

Glassdoor is unique in that current employees can post anonymously and review your organization as an employee. Your company’s Glassdoor site needs to be managed. It’s important to keep your current employees engaged on Glassdoor and posting on there about how positive their experience working for your company has been. You can also create an enhanced profile for your company, allowing you to tailor your company’s image and profile.

Consider allying with organizations in your city, such as veteran groups or New Americans. Take a look at trade schools or ethnic organizations who can bring new languages to your call center. Create ties with these groups to source agents who have special skills. Form a genuine bond with them and create a mutually beneficial partnership, so if they have someone who they think may be a good fit for you, they’ll reach out to you.

Another source of recruits will be referrals. Create a referral campaign in your call center and create incentives for employees to refer new agents to you. If you have awesome employees who understand and match your company culture, this may be a great way to bring in new blood who has an equal passion and understanding of your company culture. If you are having a culture issue and there are some bad apples you are weeding out, don’t run a referral campaign quite yet.

One thing we have found as we’ve explored recruiting methods is that newspaper ads simply don’t work. The return on investment from taking out newspaper ads or digital ads on the paper website just is not worth the investment. That’s why we’ve developed this more streamlined approach of knowing out culture and focusing on social media. Always be evaluating your recruiting methods to see what works and what you may need to tweak or phase out. When you bring in new recruits, consider giving them a short survey asking them where they heard about the job opening or where they first learned about your company. Doing this, you can learn where to invest your time and energy.

IN CLOSING

Using these tried and true methods that have worked for us, you can recruit quality employees. By defining your culture and create engaging social media showing it off, it’s incredibly effective and easy to recruit new blood who match your company’s culture and will drive your company forward.

“If you liked this blog post, then listen to the podcast episode for even more on recruiting call center agents with social media and branding. The episode can be found here”:

http://podcast.callcentergeek.com/236445/1174817-how-to-recruit-the-right-call-center-agents-using-culture-social-media-and-branding

Thomas Laird
Founder and CEO of award-winning Expivia Interaction Marketing Group. Expivia is a USA BPO omnichannel contact center located in Pennsylvania. I have 25 years of experience in all facets of contact center operations. I have the honor of being a member of the NICE inContact ICVC Board. The iCVC is a select group of inContact customers selected to join as trusted advisors to help InContact validate ideas for new products and features and plans for future innovations. I am also the author of "Advice from a Call Center Geek" and host of the podcast of the same name. podcast.callcentergeek.com

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