Human Resource Management in a Call Center - Research Paper Example

 Human Resource Management in a Call Center Introduction Human resource management (HRM) is recognized as an important aspect within any organization, and plays a critical role in the performance of a business. The turnover of employees in an organization is influenced by many factors, which in turn are able to be influenced by HRM. The use of HRM has the potential to reduce the amount of turnover that occurs within an organization and increase the productivity of the firm (Huselid, 1995). Call centers have developed to become a valuable component of the service industry, and continue to grow both in size and in number. Call centers are involved in ensuring better customer service as well as effectively managing the relationships with. Despite this, HRM within a call center can often be difficult due to the high level of turnover consumers (Budhwar, Varma, Singh & Dhar, 2006) and the monotony that is part of the role. While call centers can provide challenges to HRM, a well-considered and thoughtful approach to HRM for this industry has the potential to provide enthusiastic and skilled staff members who are committed to their job. Three key ways that human resources are involved within an organization and within call centers specifically, are the recruitment and selection of employees, the training methods that are used and retention strategies. All of these aspects play an important role within call centers, and must be carefully considered to ensure that staff members remain at the organization and perform well. Recruitment and Selection For any organization, recruitment refers to attracting high-quality applicants who will be suitable for the position that needs filling. Poor recruitment can lead to few options for employees, and may result in employees being selected because they are ‘good enough’ as opposed to being a good fit for their role. Thus, poor recruiting leads to the hiring of applicants who are ill-suited for the role, many of which will either perform badly, or will leave the business, creating a gap that needs to be filled. As such, poor recruitment plays a strong role in turnover of staff, and organizations need to focus on the development of good recruiting strategies to decrease the prevalence of this (McCulloch, 2008). One approach to the recruitment and selection of staff members for a call center is the use of referrals. Referrals are a form of personal recruitment, where potential employees find out about the position through other people. The advantage of this approach is that it acts as prescreening, and the recruits tend to be more qualified, because referrers only pursue those who are likely to be a good fit for the job. A second advantage is that the applicants obtain interactive knowledge about the job, and are able to ask questions and find out whether they would be suited to the position. This means that the applicant has a better idea of what the job will entail, and how they will fit in it (McCulloch, 2008). Although referrals have many benefits as a recruitment approach, there are also some disadvantages. The most significant disadvantages is that any form of personal recruitment is slow. This approach is unable to bring in many recruits at a time, and this can be detrimental if the organization is trying to fill a position immediately. Because of this, many businesses focus on using referrals in addition to impersonal recruitment strategies (McCulloch, 2008). This ensures that a sufficient number of people are recruited, and that some of these are high quality. The selection of employees for a call center involves the evaluation of the skills that the individual has, as well as their characteristics. Employing a person based off their skills alone is risky in any industry, but this is particularly true in call centers. This is because the job tends to be very repetitive, requires a large amount of patience and can be highly stressful. As a result, some of the characteristics that employers look for include good communication skills, the ability to understand and emphasize with customers (Braimah, 2009) and having a high tolerance for stress. It is important that employers take these aspects into consideration when they are selecting people for positions within a call center; otherwise there is a significant risk that the person will not remain long-term. Training Methods The performance of individual employees has implications for the outcomes of the organization as a whole. In addition, collectively the employees at a business have the ability to provide competitive advantage for the organization that cannot be easily replicated. Human resource management has the potential to significantly influence the impact that employees have on their organization through influencing their skills and motivation (Huselid, 1995). As such, training employees is an essential component of ensuring that an organization gets the most benefit out of its employees. Methods that are used for training vary between different industries and between different organizations. For a call center, training needs to take into account the varying nature of interactions with customers, and prepare staff members to be able to ‘think on their feet’ and respond effectively to all queries. One effective aspect of training that is often used for call center staff is the mentoring process. This approach assigns all new employees with a mentor or a coach who acts to provide one-on-one training. This mentor is available to answer any questions that the employee may have, to demonstrate the correct approaches and procedures, and to observer the employee to ensure that they are performing their job correctly. A mentor is in the position to make positive corrective recommendations, which can improve the employee’s performance (Glere, 2000, pp. 5-6). Employee training needs to take into account a number of aspects, including the technical knowledge to perform their function, knowledge related to the types of customers that employees will deal with, skills in customer service and in problem solving. These different components may be addressed in different ways, such as in one integrated training program or multiple discreet programs. It is also important that training does not stop once the employee begins to work in the organization. On the job learning is also an important aspect of training, as it keeps employees up to date with their role (Shah & Bandi, 2003). Retention Strategies Retention of employees is an important aspect of any organization, but this is a particularly important aspect for call centers, because they are often subject to high levels of staff turnover (Budhwar et al., 2006). For a company to remain efficient, they must retain their staff members. Finding new employees requires time spent in the recruitment and selection process as well as training the new staff. If the company is able to retain their current staff, then these costs can be avoided. One critical aspect of retention within a call center is the HRM approach that is used. Within call centers, there are two contrasting approaches to HRM. The first of these is the concept of an ‘electronic sweatshop’, where employees work mostly in isolation. Under this approach, the work tends to involve little skill and is highly monotonous. The other approach involves a positive work environment, where workers are able to customize their roles based on the needs of the customers. This can lead to workers feeling more empowered and having increased productivity. Although these approaches are the opposite of one another, scholars have suggested that organizations may make use of elements of each approach to suit their needs (Budhwar et al., 2006). There are various techniques that can be used to retain employees at a call center. Four key strategies that can effectively be used are employee involvement, ensuring continuous learning, the presence of coaching and career development. Employee involvement includes activities such as the development of training programs, monitoring criteria or the development of scripts that the organization uses, as well as upgrading applications and help systems. This approach helps to make employees feel like they have an important stake in their workplace, and can help relieve monotony (Glere, 2000, pp. 9-10). In a similar manner, the second strategy, continuous learning helps to keep the employee occupied and creates the sense that they are always progressing. Coaching is also a training tool, and it helps employees to have someone that they can ask questions and seek advice. Likewise, career development prevents employees from feeling stagnant and makes them more likely to remain at the organization (Glere, 2000, pp. 9-10). Although organizations may make use of different approaches to retaining staff members, these four general categories provide an effective framework for keeping employees within an organization. Conclusion Call center staff perform complex roles in a stressful and difficult environment. This can make it difficult for HRM to be successful, and leads to a high rate of turnover within call centers. Nevertheless, approaches can be made in recruitment and selection, training and employee retention to increase the competence and satisfaction of employees within the organization and help to ensure that the perform well and remain with the company. References Braimah, S. (2009, June). Qualities of a good call center agent. Suite 101. Retrieved from: http://suite101.com/article/qualities-of-a-good-call-center-agent-a123509 This online article considers specific skills that employees need to have to work within a call center. Although the article is short it provides comprehensive explanations for some important skills. This is an important aspect for considering how call centers select employees. Budhwar, P. S., Varma, A., Singh, V. & Dhar, R. (2006). HRM systems of Indian call centers: An exploratory study. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 17(5), 881-897. Although this paper is focused on call centers in India, it provides a lot of important information about call centers in general, and also about the role that HRM plays within a call center. The authors also review the literature surrounding HRM systems in call centers in general. As such, this paper provides a large amount of information about the topic of my essay. Huselid, M. A. (1995). The impact of human resource management practices on turnover, productivity, and corporate financial performance. Academy of Management Journal, 38(3), 635-672. This reference considers the role that HRM plays in organizations, and the way that it can help and organization to have higher performance. It examines some of the theories and research surrounding the application of HRM. This paper does not directly consider call centers. However, it is useful as a general background to HRM and to provide information about why a call center might make use of HRM. Giere, N. M. (2000). Call center training. Grafton, WI: ASTD. This source is a training manual focused on call center training, developed by The Working Force, Inc. It provides useful information about current approaches to retaining employees within a call center and what approaches are effective. McCulloch, M. (2008, March). Secrets of success in call center agent recruiting. International Customer Management Institute. Retrieved from: http://www.icmi.com/Resources/Articles/2008/March/Secrets-of-Success-in-Call-Center-Agent-Recruiting.aspx This source is an article published in the online journey Customer Management Insight. The article examines the roles that recruiting can play within a call center and how it is critically important. This source is useful because it considers the problem of selection and recruitment in depth and provides examples of why these are important for a call center. Shah, V. & Bandi, R. K. (2003). Capacity development in knowledge intensive IT enabled services. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 12(4), 418-427. This article considers approaches that can be used within a call center to increase the performance of staff members. It is particularly useful because it does not view a call as a low skill environment. Instead it considers a call center to require staff members to be able to think quickly and know a lot of information. Read More