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Increase Agent Retention With a Call Center Staffing Agency

Find candidates with the right mix of soft skills and temperament to succeed long-term in your call centers.

Challenges Facing Call Centers

Although self-service options have become more popular, phone calls are still the preferred method for getting support, with even 71% of Gen Z believing that live calls are the easiest way to resolve issues¹.

Unfortunately, call centers today face a unique blend of challenges. Turnover is extremely high, with the industry average reported to be somewhere between 30% and 50%². Call centers are also plagued by the same challenges that other industries are experiencing, like an increased desire for remote or hybrid work, adapting to new technology like AI, and candidates placing more importance on company culture and purpose. Add seasonal and high-volume hiring needs into the mix, and it’s enough to leave any recruiter burnt out and frustrated.

This is where a call center staffing agency can help. With a staffing partner like Sparks Group, hiring managers, HR, and recruiting professionals can speed up the hiring process and fill open roles with candidates that do more than just check boxes. Our call center recruiters focus on filling open positions with people who fit your company’s culture and have the blend of skills they need to succeed in their roles.

Call Center Recruiters Should Prioritize Retention and Skill

The right call center staffing agency can help increase retention rates by identifying and attracting candidates who require little training and have the necessary skills and aptitude to do the job well. The repetitive, sometimes stressful nature of call center work isn’t for everyone, but the right candidates thrive in those environments.

Sparks Group can help you identify the right talent for your specific call center needs, manage those staff through potential issues, and reward success and longevity. This can reduce the number of employees a call center has to replace, in turn promoting productivity and profitability.

Learn More: How to Get the Most Out of Your Staffing and Recruiting Services

A call center staffing agency can help fill positions like:

Customer support specialists
Help desk staff
Call center representatives
Inbound specialists
Sales specialists
Outbound specialists
Collections specialists
Intake specialists

Benefits Of Working With A Call Center Staffing Firm

1. Reduced Hiring Costs

Recruiting agencies help businesses reduce costs associated with searching for new talent, interviewing new candidates, and training replacement workers. Recruiters can free up internal resources that can be used for other tasks or projects, reducing time and money spent on finding qualified candidates.

Also, call centers partnering with a recruiting firm typically fill open positions faster than on their own because of the increased access to a prequalified talent pool and efficient hiring pipeline, enabling centers to continue achieving their business goals and staying profitable.

2. Increased Retention Rates

Recruitment agencies consider candidates with longevity instead of just finding the first person to fill the role. By carefully vetting job seekers and evaluating their ability to remain at the company, recruiters promote higher employee retention rates at call centers.

Agencies frequently screen candidates for positions based on their skills or ability to complete necessary work. During the interview, a recruiter can verbally run scenarios with a candidate to determine how they would handle a particular situation on the job, providing the interviewer insight into whether the worker can make the right decisions under pressure. For example, a call center employer can use this information to gauge how long a candidate would last in the open position and whether they would be a good fit.

Additionally, many call center staffing agencies utilize skills assessment and verification testing during the candidate screening process. By assessing and verifying the candidate’s skills, call center managers can better ensure representatives have the technical know-how and soft skills to process customer requests professionally and efficiently.

Call centers can require very different candidates. For example, if a call center is primarily focused on online communication, candidates must have excellent written communication skills. If their focus is to move the call along as quickly as possible, they must have proficient agility skills. If their goal is to award representatives for longer call times to ensure caller satisfaction in more complex situations, representatives must excel in helping customers comprehend complicated topics.

Common assessments for call center positions include:

Inbound sales
Outbound sales
Customer service scenarios
Multilingual testing
Writing, spelling, and grammar

3. Improved Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Employers working with a staffing firm can strengthen a call center’s key performance indicators (KPIs), such as:

Calls completed per hour
Sales per agent
Time on hold
Active waiting calls
Customer satisfaction

By having a conversation with the hiring team about which metrics matter most, staffing agencies can sift through candidates and rate the strongest job seekers against critical KPIs to better inform the employer in their decision-making process.

How To Find The Right Call Center Staffing Agency

When finding the right firm to fill call center positions, there are several factors to consider.

Leadership interested in working with a staffing agency should determine their internal needs, roles to fill, skills needed to drive KPIs, and how long the hire is expected to work. They also need to be able to share key details with the staffing agency, such as where they see turnover, what factors impact that turnover, and how they measure success with a new hire.

Temporary and permanent call center staffing

Sparks Group can act as your call center temp agency, helping you fill short-term or seasonal roles with strong candidates. We can also help you make permanent hires or utilize contract-to-hire models, which allow companies to ensure talent is the right fit for their organization before investing in long-term full-time hires.

High-volume recruitment

Sparks Group also supports high-volume hiring and has recruiters who are experienced with mass hiring. We understand the challenges associated with high-volume recruitment and solve those challenges with our extensive experience and relationship-based strategy.

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Choose Sparks Group As Your Next Call Center Recruitment Agency

Sparks Group is a nationally recognized recruiting firm with decades of experience effectively connecting talented candidates with your business to fill needed roles. At Sparks Group, we understand how expensive and time-consuming the hiring process can be. We identify ways to reduce turnover, increase your qualified candidate pool, and promote your business success metrics. Regardless of the type of call center candidates needed, we have many different testing scenarios to ensure each placement is the right fit for your particular situation.

Interested in finding your next rockstar staff member? Connect with a Sparks Group recruiting expert to discuss how we can help you fill one or hundreds of call center positions.

¹ McKinsey & Company, McKinsey & Company, The contact center crossroads: Finding the right mix of humans and AI

² Nextivia, Key Causes of Call Center Turnover and Ways To Reduce It