Five years service looks best on the CV say call centre staff

Call centres, high turnover, staff attrition ñ all words which seemingly go together hand in hand? Not so according to Teleresources Consultancy, which has revealed that more candidates would prefer to stay in a job for at least five years before seeking their next career challenge.

To establish the current mood among industry staff, the specialist recruiter invited jobseekers and hiring managers in contact centres to specify their ideal time period to stay within a given role - with either one, two, three or five years as their choice. Results revealed that almost one in three of the 250 plus respondents, opted for five years as the most popular period. The least popular length of service was deemed to be three years, with just 20 per cent of respondents specifying this period. Qualitative feedback suggests that this stems from perceptions of three years being sufficient to become well established in an organisation, without necessarily benefiting from all of the promotional opportunities on offer.

ìAlthough only a small snapshot of the market, the results do support what we already know to be true in terms of better opportunities for structured career progression in contact centres,î explains Teleresources Director, Vanessa Forster. ìGone are the days when a stint in a contact centre was, on average, only a few months. The sector has evolved, expanded the scope of roles available at all levels of experience and responsibility, and put in place the training programmes needed to take people to the next level to really drive down staff attrition. Call centres and their staff need security and the industry is responding accordinglyî concludes Forster.

Teleresources believes that a change in hiring practices is one of the underlying factors which has influenced this change in perceptions over time in a role which is practically achievable and also deemed to be acceptable in terms of building a C.V. In particular, recruiting for competency and motivation has succeeded interview techniques which scored candidates solely on the basis of qualifications. By identifying people who are ideally suited for contact centre work and enjoy the challenge, operators are discovering a more conducive approach to building a competent and sustainable workforce.