Hiring at scale is a whole different ball game. From managing thousands of applicants to navigating sky-high attrition rates, volume hiring for contact centers presents challenges that
require a distinct strategy.
It’s not simply a larger version of your standard recruitment process; the stakes are higher, timelines tighter, and missteps more costly.
Let’s break down the four key factors that make high-volume hiring for contact centers so complicated—and how your team can meet these challenges head-on.
What's in?
1. It’s a Numbers Game
Processing hundreds (or even thousands) of applications is no small feat, and doing it efficiently is crucial to keep things running smoothly. Imagine receiving 80,000 applications to fill a few hundred roles within weeks—manual resume reviews and phone screeners aren’t going to cut it. With even a 10-minute screen per applicant, you’d lose thousands of hours on low-impact tasks.
Standardizing your process is essential for cutting down on manual work. Implementing automated, unbiased selection criteria helps you …
- Streamline the application process.
- Ensure every candidate is assessed fairly.
- Quickly surface top talent with the skills and personality traits that predict high performance.
2. It’s About Scalability
Volume hiring means everything is larger—including costs and time. Contact centers already face notoriously high attrition rates, with turnover as high as 45% in some cases.
If your organization has 10,000 employees, that could mean replacing 3,000 staff members annually. When each instance of turnover costs roughly $2,500, your losses quickly add up to millions.
Attrition is often accepted as a given in the industry, but that doesn’t mean it has to be. Optimizing your hiring process can significantly reduce turnover, saving both time and money.
Mis-hires waste resources and lead to a vicious cycle of rehiring, but a strong selection process ensures that you’re bringing in the right people from the start.
3. Data is Mission Critical
In high-volume hiring, data is (or should be) the lifeblood of your process. Without continuous, actionable insight, you’re flying blind—especially when handling thousands of applicants.
It’s not just about gathering data—it’s about having timely, accurate, and easily interpretable metrics. Effective data analysis allows you to optimize at scale, improving efficiency and addressing bottlenecks before they spiral out of control.
By tying on-the-job performance to hiring metrics, you can …
- Fine-tune your selection process.
- Identify hiring trends.
- Make data-backed adjustments to drive success.
4. Skills Matter More Than Resumes
In volume hiring, relying solely on resumes to evaluate candidates is a common mistake. Especially for entry-level roles, past experience isn’t always the best indicator of future success.
Just because a candidate has previous contact center experience doesn’t guarantee they’ll thrive in your organization—and the opposite is also true. What matters more than a job title is the skill set and personality traits that predict success in your specific roles.
By focusing on these factors rather than experience alone, you can tap into a broader talent pool and ensure that every hire has the potential to excel, regardless of background.
Volume hiring for contact centers is wildly different from regular recruitment. To navigate the intricacies successfully, it’s essential to recognize the key factors that make hiring at scale unique and adapt your strategy accordingly.
In doing so you can not only meet hiring demands efficiently but also improve retention, reduce costs, and build a more resilient, high-performing workforce. In a fast-paced, customer-centric environment, getting hiring right can be your most powerful competitive advantage.
Ready to optimize your contact center hiring strategy? Sign up for a Harver demo today to get started.
