Virtual Hiring: How Call Centers Respond to COVID-19

Video Interviews Pave the Road for Virtual Hiring Success

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is dramatically changing everything in our daily lives. For the first time in the twenty-first century, the majority of businesses are requiring employees to work remotely. Some have no choice but to lay off or furlough hundreds or thousands of staff. While, many large companies are in dire need of employees amid surging demand because of the the novel coronavirus.

Yet, with social distancing in place, how can businesses manage their hiring process--especially when trying to fill call center positions? The average cost-to-fill price tag is $2500 (per role) combined with an average time of 38 days to fill each role. Whether you’re hiring for customer service or sales positions, you need to quickly identify quality applicants while sifting through a massive volume of resumes. However, many companies have been able to maintain business continuity with virtual hiring and video interviews. 

Call Centers Can Overcome Hiring Challenges with Virtual Hiring

Virtual Interviewing gives each job applicant the opportunity to showcase their skill sets on-demand or in real time. Unlike in a resume or application, they can showcase their past successes, demonstrate their skills, emotional intelligence, and problem solving abilities. In under 30 minutes, you can determine who is the right fit for your contact center roles. 

Virtual hiring significantly reduces a company’s time to fill by identifying top talent much faster than sifting through CVs (resumes) and scheduling hundreds or thousands of interviews in call centers. Additionally, you reduce time to hire while doubling recruiter productivity. 

The Benefits of Virtual Hiring and Video Interviews

At HireVue, we offer a comprehensive suite of virtual hiring and virtual interviewing solutions. For virtual interviews, we’ve identified three types of questions that recruiters and hiring managers might want to ask during a structured interview. These question types allow you to maintain consistency in hiring decisions by having the ability to compare candidates side-by-side and evaluate what matters. We recommend asking behavioral questions, situational judgment questions, and simulation/role play questions.

• Behavioral questions allow candidates to relate past experiences and challenges and how they succeeded. This question allows hiring managers to determine how well candidates perform under pressure and glean the candidate’s problem solving skills.
• Situational Judgment Questions allow candidates to respond to hypothetical situations and outline their thought process. These types of questions methodically give recruiters and hiring managers major insight into problem solving abilities, communication skills, and emotional intelligence.
• Simulation/Role Play Questions are a creative way to pitch various situations to candidates. They allow you to gain insight into how much a candidate is willing to learn, how they tend to solve problems, and what their communication skills are like.

To learn more about Hirevue’s methodology, read our eBook: The Complete Guide to Contact Center Hiring.

A Coronavirus Case Study

Coronavirus has drastically changed the way businesses hire. A large telecommunications company closed offshore call centers due to COVID-19. However, they needed to fill the affected positions (2500 total) onshore, as quickly as possible.

HireVue built a scalable hiring solution for the company. The company was able to complete 8,784 interviews in just three days, dramatically reducing time to hire while finding highly-skilled, top-tier candidates. 

Takeaway

Having the right tools to hire the right people during an unprecedented time is crucial. If you’re looking to fill roles as quickly and efficiently as possible, we recommend reading “How to Hire in Under 24 Hours.” This eBook will show how Video Interviews and AI-driven assessments can completely change the way you hire.