The other day I came across a contact center expansion story where the employer, whose name will not be revealed to save them from being singled out, preferred to have applicants for its contact center agent positions to have college degrees.
My jaw dropped. Isn’t this overkill? This is contact center work we are talking about, where nice people answer and make contacts, not highly skilled and demanding accounting, engineering, finance, HR, IT, management, marketing, media/PR and teaching/training.
Unfortunately, seeking workers with college degrees sets these contact centers and others up for another round of escalating turnover and higher costs that risk leading to more local employment — killing offshoring and self-service in the near future. For once the economy turns around these individuals will be out the doors faster than they can type or click ‘job board’.
Being an agent requites a reasonable level of comprehension along with average reading, writing, and speaking abilities coupled with competences in soft and hard skills such as empathy, sales, collections, and support depending on the job. It is an important, demanding, and responsible position, requiring commitment, patience, a positive attitude (and a thick skin), quick thinking, and a strong work ethic, but it isn’t rocket science. It is also not a role that has much advancement potential.
Then again, given too many reports about how poor the American — and to a lesser extent the Canadian — public education system is, such employers may sadly be onto something. That is because, based on chats with industry professionals over the years, that high schools have largely failed to carry out their publicly financed job of equipping young people with basic skills. They and their parents have also flunked in inculcating strong work ethics. Consequently too many of the applicants lack both and when they are hired by…