It’s not unusual for a recruitment process to take 60 to 90 days (even longer in some geographies) to find the right person to fill an open Contact Center senior-level leadership position. Unfortunately, it only takes one day to lose valuable customers and clients!
In today’s dynamic Contact Center environment, what executive or recruiter can afford to have a key leadership position open for three months, two months… or even two weeks for that matter? You see, when you have an open key leadership position within your contact center, each day that passes places your company’s bottom-line at greater risk.
Here are four costly mistakes that commonly occur during lengthy recruitment periods, and negatively impact the bottom-line:
Mistake #1:
Hiring Manager and HR Manager increases the level of pressure placed on the recruitment staff to ‘speed up’ the hiring process.
Even the most efficient recruiter and recruitment process requires a reasonable amount of time to fill positions, especially key contact center leadership positions. Rushing the process only increases the risk of hiring the wrong person for the job. And, when that happens, you quickly turn your short-term issue into to a much longer-term problem.
Mistake #2:
Hiring Manager assigns a less experienced internal team member to cover the senior leadership gap until a permanent replacement arrives.
Even the most competent, enthusiastic and high-potential team member often experiences difficulties navigating through the unclear lines of responsibility, accountability and authority. And, if not considered or selected to permanently fill the open position, regardless of how well the expectations were set, the ‘interim’ internal team member is often left feeling demoralized and passed over.
Mistake #3:
Hiring manager assumes additional responsibilities of the open leadership position, while juggling his/her regularly assigned job duties.
This option often appears simple at first. However, this choice adds even more tasks to an already full plate of responsibilities. As a result, important strategic and fiscal initiatives generally suffer in lieu of addressing time-sensitive and tactical operational issues. When this occurs, the long-term success of the contact center is placed at risk, while the short-term challenges are only moderately addressed.
Mistake #4:
Hiring Manager holds staff and lower-level leaders accountable for sustaining performance, quality and productivity levels until the new leader arrives.
This option may sound good in theory, and might be sustainable over a short period of time (four weeks or less). However, in most dynamic contact centers, 30 days is plenty of time for performance and productivity to take a downward trend. In fact, the most costly mistake of all is choosing to weather the storm, in hopes that any damaged realized during the recruitment period is easily reversible when the new leader arrives.
The longer my leadership gap… the more my bottom-line suffered.
Don’t get me wrong… I’m not pointing fingers or placing blame. Like you, I faced the same painful dilemma, and made the same mistakes. And, all of these mistakes posed an immediate threat to my bottom-line as well as my personal credibility.
I experienced the same operational pressures, challenges, and financial risks associated with a lengthy recruitment process as other hiring managers. As a result, my service level performance and customer/client satisfaction results suffered along with employee morale, engagement and sales revenues. Furthermore, the absence of my Contact Center leader often brought active projects and key initiatives to an instant halt… placing my long-term success at risk as well.
I quickly learned that rushing the recruitment process is not worth the risk of hiring the wrong contact center leader for the job.
Even the best recruitment team and process requires several weeks to fill a key leadership position, and I certainly don’t recommend rushing the process. But, keep in mind that even a short period without a key leader on-site could damage your long-term customer relationships, revenue opportunities, service-level performance and employee engagement and productivity results. So, the question is… what should contact center executives and recruiters do to protect their company’s bottom-line in the interim?
Before your permanent contact center leader is hired, you can implement an interim solution that will insure your operation is sustainable throughout the recruitment and selection period.
Here are four important attributes your Interim Contact Center Executive must have:
- A minimum of 15+ years leading high-volume, top-performing, customer-focused contact centers with a proven track-record of success.
- Diverse background in highly-regulated industries ensures fast and seamless transition into virtually any contact center operation.
- Instantly ready to assume the hands-on leadership of your day-to-day operation to run your business.
- In addition, the ability to immediately improve your business by:
- Building and sustaining strong customer and client relationships.
- Engaging employees to achieve performance expectations.
- Delivering revenue and bottom-line results.
Avoid Making The Same Mistakes…
By implementing an Interim Contact Center Executive solution, you will insure that your dynamic contact center operation is well-managed during the short-term. And, you avoid these mistakes that pose an immediate threat to your bottom-line and your personal credibility.
Here are the three easy steps to get started:
Step 1:
Decide that you want the best short-term solution to insure your long-term success!
Step 2:
Learn more about the Interim Contact Center Executive™, and contact Greg at 210.497.1948 ext. 102 or GregJ@ProfitInnerCircle.com
Step 3:
Immediately fill your critical short-term leadership gap and protect your bottom-line!
