WRITING SAMPLES

            I first had the opportunity to interview candidates for front-line employee positions as a supervisor in a call center environment. In the late 1990s, call centers were emerging as a new workplace option for unskilled workers with an aptitude for computer-based work and customer service skills. Many of our employees might have otherwise found employment in the retail or food service segments. For many, the call center environment provided a new opportunity to make a living wage and receive paid training for the work that they would be performing. The emergence of call centers, concurrent with burgeoning technology that allowed someone in a remote location to provide customer service, was changing the paradigm for unskilled workers. The training systems in place in most call centers allow new employees to become quickly acclimated to their new skills and enter the production phase of their new job quickly.

            As a Supervisor, I was assigned a certain number of interviews to conduct each week while our office was in a hiring phase for an upcoming new hire class. The recruiters contacted and vetted the candidates, and scheduled the face-to-face interviews based on the applicant’s résumé and initial screening results. In entry-level positions, such as call center jobs, candidates may have limited job experience to include on their resumes. Therefore, they rely on their ability to relate to the interviewer to get the job opportunity. Although interviewers attempt to be as unbiased as possible, human nature dictates that interviewers make determinations based on the information gathered in a brief impression. There is a limited amount of information to be obtained from a short discussion with the candidate. Based on my experience leading people, I was able to place many candidates into roles, and some proved to be very successful while others failed over time.

            As leaders, we sometimes looked to recruiting, human resources (HR), or training to justify the reasons for the candidates who were ultimately unsuccessful in their new roles. However, in truth, employee failure can often be attributed to a combination of factors in which many people in the hiring and onboarding process have a part to play. Employees who fail in new roles typically fall into one of two categories of failure: skill or will. Skill failures occur when the employee is unable to do the job due to the inability to follow directions, or complete tasks based either on the confines of their abilities or having received insufficient training. Failures will occur when employees can do the work, but merely choose not to follow directions, or prioritize their energy in areas outside the job, resulting in their lack of success.

            Most call center, new hire training programs last for six to eight weeks from the start date to productivity. During that time, it is not uncommon for several employees to be lost through attrition due to attendance, receiving alternate job offers, or behavioral concerns. Therefore, as interviewers, we were always striving to hire the best candidates, but also mindful of meeting the expectation of filling a class with adequately qualified applicants. If a class of twenty employees started on the first of one month, by the time the class graduated two months later, their numbers might be reduced to fifteen or even less. During my time as a Supervisor, I learned to balance my perception of the ideal candidate with the reality of appropriately qualified candidates. This newfound understanding served me well in my future roles.