The topic of recruitment and staffing should be a no brainer in this economy, right?  Wrong!  In today's world of human resources, it can be just as frustrating to find the right people for your contact center, as it was when applicants were in shorter supply.  I could write volumes about the various positions in a contact center and what kinds of things you should be looking for but today, I am just going to focus on some of the most important people in that center:  call takers.  And actually, "call taker" is a misnomer because in today's ccontact center (notice they used to be called call centers), agents do much more than handle calls.  They process email request, handle live chat and even post to social media. 

Before you spend time and energy recruiting, you should probably spend some time thinking about the skill sets of the people you want to hire.  For starters, the ability to spell, have good grammar and put thoughts on a page were important as we will be handling emails and perhaps chat.  We also wanted people who could think well on their feet and who knew what it meant to provide exceptional customer service.  These skill sets led us to create a skills assessment exercise so that we could weed out those who might interview well but had no real skills in the areas we needed.

Although previous experience can sometimes be a plus, it isn't always an indicator of success.  So, we chose a variety of people to interview, after screening out those who couldn't even spell correctly on their application or use proper grammar. 

Finally, choose your interview skills to find people who can function well in a team environment, can handle conflict without flying off the handle, can work well under supervision and can solve problems.  These are important skill sets and evaluating them from questions or exercises is the only tool you have to find out if your applicant possesses them or not.  Do not worry about whether someone has used the software you use or has worked in city government (often times you don't want those who have worked in city government).  You can train on many things but the right skill set and attitude is not one of those things.

Someone once asked me what the hardest part of starting a 311 Contact Center was and I thought of many ways I could answer the question but the truth was that the hardest part is finding the right people to do the job you need.  Without the right people, all the technology in the world won't help you and all the support from the mayor or city manager or city departments won't get you where you need to be so you can be successful.  It is absolutely true that your people can make or break you and your contact center.  Think carefully through this process so that their success is your success and the success of your center.