Loss of Talent Through a Duplicate Process
In the fast-paced world of hiring for contact centres, it's a known problem that a lot of people apply for these jobs. But when more than one agent sends in an application for the same job seeker, it causes problems. It makes it harder for businesses to find skilled job seekers to hire and slows down the hiring process.
The first step in hiring is to check for duplicates, no matter where the candidate applied from. This includes social media, recommendations, and other ways. If a company finds the same application from another recruiter, they often say, "Sorry, we can't help you," which means the job seeker misses out on a great job opportunity. Companies are losing out on the opportunity to hire thousands of people simply because they are duplicates.
It's even more challenging for agencies like LRP because we place multilingual job seekers into EU contact centres. We work with big companies and aim to fill all their job openings. But if a job seeker is marked as a duplicate, it means losing a skilled addition to the team. As these roles are already difficult to fill, because they require relocation, the duplicate issue makes it even harder, because someone might change their mind after a few weeks of thinking about making the decision before they decide to accept it. Once they decide this is something they want to do and contact a new agency about the role, they become a duplicate and can’t work for the company at all until the ownership period of 365 days is over.
The problem is with "job seeker ownership."
Normally, the agency owns the job seeker once they're added to the system, even if they haven't been talked to yet. This ownership isn't always clear and can lead to disagreements between agencies and companies. Sometimes, it's hard to know who really owns a job seeker, and this can cause job seekers to be missed or lost.
In the contact centre industry, employees change jobs between 3 to 6 months of starting. So, it's crucial to find and hire the best people quickly. Duplicate applications cause problems at all levels of the business. If employers can't fill job openings fast, contact centres end up understaffed, and customers have a bad experience, which will make these companies lose customers. Employees who work in contact centres are also affected by this shortage because they would have to work longer hours to make up for it. This would mean they wouldn't get lunch breaks and provide poor customer service. This would also make it more likely that unhappy employees would leave their jobs because they feel overworked.
When a candidate is marked as a duplicate, they have to wait for a year to apply again. Sadly, this situation doesn't benefit anyone. It stops people from getting hired and stops employers from hiring. But why should people who want a job and try to get noticed by applying more than once be punished?
When we think about it that way, it doesn't make sense. Employers are missing out on skilled people who want to work for their company. Instead, they have to hire someone just because they aren't a duplicate. Rather than someone who meets all the standards to work, wants to start right away, and might stay longer than the 6 to 12 months that most job seekers do.
Just because this process is in place, doesn’t mean it's the right one.
This duplicate process is continuing to happen based on the fact that it is a habit. The contract between agents and companies should be more clear, to fix this problem. It should explain who owns the job seeker in different situations and for how long. This can make it easy for agencies and companies to agree on payment and hire people. It makes sure that no job seeker is turned away because of an issue over ownership.
At LRP, we think that the duplicate process needs to be reviewed and the time frame needs to be cut, especially in an industry with such a high turnover rate. The duplicate timeframe is longer than the average length of time someone works in a contact centre. Having a duplicate period of just one month would still let recruitment agencies work around the invoicing problem to make sure it can't be sent to more than one agency. It would also let us hire skilled talent who are excited to fill the position that is on offer faster, reducing other problems, such as being short-staffed, working longer hours, missing lunch breaks, and customers getting bad service from overworked employees.
Duplicates are a huge problem in contact centre hiring and do not benefit anyone in the way they are intended to. It's time to change our thinking and do things in a better way. After all, in an industry that is always looking to hire, every job seeker is important.
Ready to overcome duplicate problems and secure skilled job seekers for your contact centre? Contact us at Logical Recruitment Partners, your dedicated recruitment agency specialising in multi-lingual professionals for the BPO industry across the EU.