FurstPerson News

Brent Holland Presenting at 2009 ACCE conference

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 08:41:54 +0700

If you are attending the 2009 ACCE conference in Las Vegas from October 5th through October 9th, please join Brent Holland for his discussion on hiring great customer care agents.

2008 Istanbul Call Center Conference Presentation

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 14:37:09 +0700

In September 2008, Jeff Furst, FurstPerson's founder and CEO, presented at the 2008 Istanbul Call Center Conference in Turkey.

From McKinsey - Improving service in a downturn

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 09:01:51 +0700

McKinsey, the global consulting firm, offers an interesting article comparing customer satisfaction and speed of answer.

Let Them Drive: Advice on New-Hire Evaluations

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 20:15:37 +0700

Debbie Biggs posts an article on the ICMI Knowledge Center discussing the case for hands-on evaluation.

Article on the Philippine Call Center Industry

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 12:09:35 +0700

Wall Street Journal has a great review on the call center industry in the Philippines.

U.S. Tax law changes and implications to the call center outsourcing industry

Mon, 11 May 2009 14:31:41 +0700

TMCNet.com offers an interesting article based on research provided by Datamonitor on the potential impact to the call center outsourcing industry.

Common Practices

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 20:32:26 +0700

Do "common practices" dominate the call center industry?

Is Your Test the 40-yard dash?

Sun, 26 Apr 2009 19:44:12 +0700

Interesting article from the HR Tests blog by Bryan Baldwin.

CC Audition® recognized for industry leadership position

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 13:43:18 +0700

Dr. Charles Handler mentions our CC Audition simulation as a leading example of a simulation assessment in a recent article.

SWPP References FurstPerson Study

Mon, 02 Mar 2009 08:54:06 +0700

The Society of Workforce Planning Professionals recently discussed turnover and how to reduce it.

Use the Recession to Lower Turnover Costs

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 20:48:48 +0700

With more candidates knocking on HR's hiring door, call centers can reduce turnover.

Call Center Hiring Projected to Ring Up Gains in 2009

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 12:14:11 +0700

A new white paper from FurstPerson identifies key metrics and success factors for companies and their call center hiring managers in the United States and Canada.

Culture of Cheating?

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 21:38:13 +0700

Test for Dwindling Retail Jobs Spawns a Culture of Cheating - The Wall Street Journal

Princess CSAT

Sun, 11 Jan 2009 19:35:15 +0700

The Disney Princesses remind us what it takes to deliver customer satisfaction.

Calling it Quits Article

Sun, 11 Jan 2009 19:28:10 +0700

Contact center agents are leaving in massive numbers -- attrition and absenteeism run rampant -- but there are ways to stem the tide.

We're Hot in 2008

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 00:00:00 +0700

Kevin Wheeler, the noted HR consultant, provided a list of Hot technologies, products, and firms for 2008 in his column at ERE.NET. We're pleased that our CC Audition realistic job simulation was included.

Should You Hire Online Gamers?

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 00:00:00 +0700

We all know the stereotype of the gamer personality but some interesting research at Harvard Business School by John Seely Brown and Douglas Thomas and IBM makes the case that gamers might be your best employees.

Now you see them. Now you don't.

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0700

Absenteeism is one of the biggest challenges facing contact centers. It is also one of the most perplexing to solve. The cost is significant and probably haunts all Workforce Managers into the wee hours of the night.

Notes from Call Center Demo in Miami

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0700

We just returned from Call Center Demo in Miami. The show is sponsored by the same group that publishes Call Center Magazine. A few general observations:

Does Personality Testing Work?

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0700

Recently, several articles and industry people have questioned the value of personality testing. As an example, an article in Workforce Management claims the five Industrial Organizational (I/O) Psychologists state that personality testing is overated and does not provide value to pre-hire candidate evaluation.

A Recession Proof Investment?

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0700

On TV and in newspapers, many commentators are claiming that the United States is in recession or heading into recession. We won’t debate that point here. However, we find that talk about recession does cause many organizations to start rethinking potential investments. It makes us wonder if a recession proof investment exists.

Small towns and call centers - lessons from 1-800-Flowers

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 00:00:00 +0700

The Wall Street Journal ran an article on the challenges facing call centers in small towns. The article focused on two centers operated by 1-800-Flowers. In summary, the article referenced high attrition combined with a small labor market creating operating challenges. 1-800-Flowers adopted some interesting strategies to combat this. Two of the three are working for them.

Locate your new center in Rockford, IL

Mon, 12 Nov 2007 00:00:00 +0700

Tracey Schelmetic, Editorial Director at Customer Interaction Solutions, recently wrote about a study released by our hometown, Rockford, IL. You can read the original article here but we’ve pasted the story below. Rockford is the classic blue collar town that is trying to remake itself. For decades, Rockford led the world in certain types of manufacturing capability. Now, the city is trying to shift jobs to knowledge based work. We wanted to highlight the study for you.

Humans replacing technology to improve customer care

Tue, 06 Nov 2007 00:00:00 +0700

Several years ago, we attended a call center industry conference where one site director discussed how they had reduced their headcount by 50% using technology. If an article featuring Netflix is any indication, people might be replacing technology. You can read the article via this link with Yahoo!.

Off Shore Hiring and English Proficiency

Tue, 18 Sep 2007 00:00:00 +0700

Over the last five years, we’ve supported a number of site selection projects by evaluating local labor markets in terms of candidate quality and candidate quantity. Many of our clients have a global perspective with off shore, near shore, and domestic centers. The growth in the home agent model combines the economics of a near shore cost environment with the advantages of a domestic team.

Comments on the 2007 US Contact Center Operational Review from Contact Babel

Wed, 08 Aug 2007 00:00:00 +0700

Contact Babel, a leading research firm, recently released their 2007 US Contact Center Operational Review report. The report is a comprehensive look at the US call center industry. The free, 250 page report, is available at their website. The report is well done and is an important read for Contact Center Executives.

Down with the Typing Test!

Tue, 31 Jul 2007 00:00:00 +0700

Many call center hiring managers still rely on the typing test as a tool during the job candidate evaluation process. We've often wondered why? Explanations have included:

From Frost & Sullivan Contact Center East - Home Agent Hiring

Mon, 30 Jul 2007 00:00:00 +0700

FurstPerson joined a panel disussing contact center industry trends at Frost and Sullivan’s Call Center East in April. We wanted to share some thoughts we discussed during the panel.

From Frost & Sullivan Contact Center East - Trends in hiring contact center agents

Mon, 30 Jul 2007 00:00:00 +0700

FurstPerson joined a panel disussing contact center industry trends at Frost and Sullivan’s Call Center East in April. We wanted to share some thoughts we discussed during the panel.

Buying a test versus buying a solution

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 00:00:00 +0700

Dr. Wendell Williams has an interesting article over at ERE on buying tests versus buying solutions. You can find the article here.

Can measuring job candidate multi-tasking ability drive business results?

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 00:00:00 +0700

Our job analysis work tells us that multi-tasking is important but what kind of business results can hiring individuals with better multi-tasking ability generate. Our experience has shown that adding the evaluation of a job candidate’s multi-tasking ability during the hiring process can help increase early stage retention and improve overall new hire job performance.

How can multi-tasking be measured?

Wed, 13 Jun 2007 00:00:00 +0700

Continuing our series on multi-tasking's importance to hiring front line representatives, we explore how multi-tasking can be measured in the hiring process.

Why is multi-tasking important to contact center hiring?

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 00:00:00 +0700

Increasingly, working as a contact center representative requires working on a number of tasks at the same time with greater frequency of task-switching. While each contact center organization controls the amount of task-switching to some degree (based on their call-routing strategies), multi-tasking ability has become more important over the last five to ten years.

What is Multi-Tasking?

Wed, 25 Apr 2007 00:00:00 +0700

When we interview an organization to understand their hiring challenges, the most commonly mentioned concern is how to measure multi-tasking competency during the staffing cycle. A short discussion to define multi-tasking usually follows. To detail and expand upon the basic definition of multi-tasking, we present a summary from a client job analysis and comments from two academic papers.

Yes We Can Automate Pre-Screening

Tue, 24 Apr 2007 00:00:00 +0700

About a month ago, John Sumser wrote on Electronic Recruiting News about effective screening for call center hiring. We’ve been reading John’s website since 1997 when we first started our company. At one point, he consulted with us on our business plan and model. We admire and respect his writings and appreciate his direct methods, even if they might be pointed at us.

Best Use of a Call Center?

Wed, 21 Mar 2007 00:00:00 +0700

The latest issue of Forbes discusses an elaborate drug dealing ring in the New York City area. You can access the story here but may need to register (which is free). The story, Inside Dope, tells a fascinating use of distributed technology to manage this high tech drug dealing operation. Called the Cartoon Network, this technology driven business used a distributed workforce with highly trained workers, sophisticated databases, and remote call technology to run the business. The call center was relocated weekly, sometimes daily, to avoid detection by the police. While we’re not advocating the use of the end product here, it is interesting how the leading users of technology are sometimes outside main street business.

Replacing the Agent?

Wed, 21 Mar 2007 00:00:00 +0700

In the March 10th issue of The Economist, an article in the Technology Quarterly section discussed the sue of “chatbot” technology to automate the handling of customer calls.

Notes from Call Center Summit 2008

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 00:00:00 +0700

These sessions were the well attended and created the most discussion at the show. Traditional brick and mortar firms are considering hybrid models. Hiring home agents offers unique challenges.

Call Center Demo in Miami

Thu, 22 Feb 2007 00:00:00 +0700

We’re attending the Call Center Demo show in Miami from February 21st - February 23rd. This show incorporates content from ICMI’s consulting unit. We’ll report back from the floor later.

Mirror, Mirror ... What is the best recruiting source of all?

Thu, 15 Feb 2007 00:00:00 +0700

My two year old daughter loves Snow White. With the challenges facing hiring managers today, a magic mirror that answers our questions would be helpful. But, as the wicked Queen discovers, we may not always like the answers.

Home Agent Hiring

Fri, 02 Feb 2007 00:00:00 +0700

We’re strong supporters of the home agent concept. We’ve been supporting home agent hiring since 2002. We’re pleased to announce our new hiring platform designed to help select the right candidate for the home agent position.

Google Searches for Better Hiring

Sat, 27 Jan 2007 00:00:00 +0700

Several clients and various HR sites have referenced an article about Google implementing a testing process for hiring. We’re big fans of Google and use their tools to support our Recruitment Process Outsourcing business as well as various marketing activities for our business.

It is all about the People Says Gartner

Mon, 27 Nov 2006 00:00:00 +0700

When we first started our business in 1998, we were amazed at the number of software solutions for the call center industry. We were more amazed at the small showing of solutions focused on people working in call centers, especially since labor is 65% of a call center’s budget.

Welcome to Our Blog

Mon, 27 Nov 2006 00:00:00 +0700

Welcome to our blog. We’re hopeful that you’ll find interesting content and ideas that you can use in your business. Our intent is to share content – ideas, research, opinions, and observations – with you. In the recruiting world, we’re late to the blog game. In the call center world, we’re a little early. Since call centers pay our bills, I guess we’re in a good position.