Do the Math--Add Resources
By Phil Hidalgo

You’re the head of HR for a captive or outsourcer in the BPO or call center industry. In the 2007 operation plan, your mission is to increase agent headcount fivefold over 2006 year-end FTE. Taking new and backfill hiring targets together, your agent hiring target is 100 agents per week for 52 weeks! Mission impossible? Yes and no. Yes, if you try to do this yourself with last year’s team. No, if you plan, source, hire and develop additional talents to get the job done. Building a great HR team and keeping the team together are keys to success.

The volume and pace of employment growth in the call center industry is eye-popping. To the unfamiliar, new-hire numbers sound mythical. It is commonplace for a customer contact center to commit to a hiring ramp of 500 agents in one month with less than 60 days’ lead time. And agent skills sets are not limited to simple customer care interaction on the phone; they include high-value technical support programs and other complex processes. Why do we make these promises? The answer is stock-in-trade—if we don’t our competitors will. Someone else will promise the client they can hit the numbers. 

Consider these key points of arithmetic. Your hit-rate will be well-below 10 percent of the total applicants. Your annualized attrition will range between 40 percent to 60 percent, or more on some programs. Every day of the year, 20 percent of your agent workforce will be on some stage of disciplinary action, largely attributable to schedule and timekeeping violations. 90 percent of your terminations will be voluntary, with 10 percent disappearing into the ether—No Call, No Show. You will receive summons from the National Labor Relations Commission to answer complaints from disgruntled ex-employees.

Your keys to success are “do not under-resource” your HR department and hire top talents in and outside the industry. Repeat like a mantra, “I will not be under-resourced”. Persuade your business leaders in operations, especially those in headquarters, to fund the hiring of HR headcount you need to delivery quality performance in recruiting, employee relations, performance management and administration. This is how you add value to the enterprise. Your HR to FTE ratio should be 1 is to 50 to 80. You won’t survive at 1 is to 100 plus. That ratio applies to stable, mature companies with annualized turnover less than 15 percent. You will need at least 15 percent of your HR headcount in supervisory and management positions. Teach your managers to be consultative and develop their relationship management skills to work effectively with leaders in operations and other support groups. You will need to be a trusted and respected leader of your HR team to foster the loyalty and commitment needed to retain your team. The longer a competent delivery team works together, the greater their performance. Keep the best and have the courage to manage out poor performers. You will win the respect of your HR team and line management by performing as a role model for leadership and management skills. The industry numbers provide your business case. Do the math and build a winning team.

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