Why Job Simulations are Like the Contact Center Role

How Realistic Multimedia Job Simulations Allow Job Candidates to  Auditioning for a Job

In our previous blog posts we've been talking a lot about life working in contact centers. There's no denying contact center work is hard, which is why it's incredibly important to understand and identify the job-specific competencies critical to contact center employee success.

Indeed, there are plenty of challenges in hiring for contact center work, and the best way to overcome these challenges is to begin digging deeper into competencies required for contact center success, and determining how to measure these critical contact center competencies to find the best talent for your specific roles in your specific organization.

In today's blog post we will be discussing how using contact center simulations can result in very real, very positive impacts in your employees' performance and quality of service.

Job Simulations and the Contact Center

Many contact centers have turned to multimedia job simulations to improve hiring and placement accuracy. When assessing a candidate, there is an important distinction between a work sample and a simulation. A candidate completing a work sample will perform a subset of a job’s tasks, often in the actual environment and using the requisite tools and equipment. A candidate completing a simulation will perform job-related activities in a fictitious environment that mirrors the actual job.

Realistic multi-media simulations allow job candidates to play the part of a fictitious contact center representative while auditioning for a job from anywhere in the world. This gives hiring managers a realistic preview of a candidate’s contact center skills, such as computer, multitasking and data entry skills. Leading simulations have evolved from quasi-interactive situational judgment tests to microcosms of modern centers, complete with training, interactive dashboards, timers, and branching that allows candidates to escalate or deescalate a customer’s emotional response based on how well they manage the interaction.

Data from FurstPerson’s CC Audition® simulation show that most candidates react favorably to completing the simulation.

Asking a candidate to play the part of a contact center representative creates an engaging experience, presents a realistic preview of the job, and provides a company’s talent acquisition team greater visibility into the candidate’s likelihood to perform well in training and on the job.

This blog post is adapted from the authors’ contribution of Chapter 7 – “How to Measure Contact Center Skills Using Multimedia Simulations” – in Simulations for Personnel Selection published by Springer.