The hiring process in contact centers has always been challenging, and recent shifts in the labor market have introduced new obstacles.
In fact, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projects that employment for customer service and call center representatives will decrease by 5% by 2033. This is being driven by factors such as automation and artificial intelligence (AI), self-service solutions, and a broader shift toward digital and omnichannel communication.
AI can enhance traditional hiring processes by handling routine tasks or by harnessing trends…
From ghosting to high turnover rates, hiring managers face numerous challenges that complicate efforts to build and maintain a stable workforce.
Do Not Fear AI! While AI could contribute to a long-term reduction in contact center employment, it also offers new opportunities to address common hiring challenges without replacing employees. AI can enhance traditional hiring processes by handling routine tasks or by harnessing trends from previously inaccessible datasets, acting as both a companion and an amplifier for HR teams.
I’ll present the six most pressing hiring challenges in contact centers today and the potential AI-driven solutions that can help overcome each of them.
1. Ghosting
The Challenge:
At the top of the list of problems for contact centers is ghosting. This is when job candidates disappear without a trace.
Ghosting is increasingly frustrating for hiring teams across all industries, but it is particularly detrimental for contact centers, which often need to hire large volumes of employees quickly, where and when every second counts. When candidates suddenly stop communicating, it disrupts the entire recruitment process.
This phenomenon is so widespread that both employers and job seekers report experiencing ghosting themselves – what we call the “Ghosting Paradox” – 60% of both employers and job seekers report being frustrated by ghosting from their counterparts, a seeming contradiction (HR Dive, Indeed).
In bulk-hiring situations, the impact is amplified, leading to missed hiring targets and unnecessary delays.
How AI Can Help:
Conversational AI-driven communication tools can play a critical role in mitigating ghosting. These tools can automate interactions, ensuring that candidates remain engaged throughout the hiring process.
From answering questions to sending reminders, AI-powered chatbots provide continuous, responsive communication.
AI can even analyze candidate behavior to predict which applicants are most likely to ghost, giving recruiters a chance to intervene before it is too late. By keeping lines of communication open and consistent, AI reduces the likelihood of candidates disappearing.
2. High Turnover Rates
The Challenge:
The contact center industry is notorious for high employee turnover, with rates often hovering between 30%-45%. This churn not only drives up recruitment and training costs, but it also affects customer service levels.
Stress and burnout are leading contributors to turnover, with nearly 80% of contact center employees reporting high levels of workplace stress. This constant need for new hires strains resources and decreases efficiency.
How AI Can Help:
AI can help address turnover by using predictive analytics to project expected turnover so you can plan your hiring accordingly. AI also can identify candidates who are more likely to stay in the roles long-term so companies can focus resources on helping them develop further.
By analyzing past hiring data, AI can spot trends and traits that correlate with employee retention, helping recruiters focus on candidates with the highest potential for longevity.
Additionally, AI-driven onboarding tools can make the transition smoother for new employees, reducing early-stage attrition by fostering a better initial experience.
3. Inconsistent Candidate Quality
The Challenge:
Contact centers often receive a large volume of applications, but quantity does not always translate to quality. Sorting through hundreds or even thousands of resumes can be time-consuming, and the mismatch between applicants and job requirements slows down the hiring process.
How AI Can Help:
AI-powered applicant tracking sytems (ATSs) streamline the screening process by automatically filtering candidates based on your set requirements, such as skills and experience.
AI can also automate screening candidates based on concrete job requirements such as certifications, improving quality and saving time: up to 30% per hire.
By narrowing down the applicant pool and removing unqualified applicants, AI improves both the speed and quality of hiring. Which, in turn, boosts overall contact center performance.
4. Scaling Quickly for Seasonal Demands
The Challenge:
Many contact centers face significant seasonal fluctuations in demand, often requiring rapid scaling of their workforces. Traditional hiring methods can struggle to ramp up to meet these peaks in demand, leading to operational inefficiencies and missed opportunities.
How AI Can Help:
AI can automate much of the recruitment process, making it easier to scale quickly. From posting job ads to screening candidates and scheduling interviews, AI can take on the heavy lifting, allowing recruiters to focus on more strategic tasks.
During peak seasons, this AI-enabled scalability is crucial for maintaining service levels. By accelerating the hiring process, AI ensures that contact centers can ramp up staffing efficiently without compromising on candidate quality.
5. Bridging The Skills Gap
The Challenge:
As the role of contact center agents grows more complex – with the advent of new technologies and rising customer service expectations – the skills gap between what candidates bring and what the job requires continues to widen.
The days of “just pick up the phone, take a number, and say thank you” are over. Agents now need to navigate unfamiliar technology, deliver exceptional customer service, and possess data literacy to understand their performance metrics. Additionally, agents are often required to diagnose and resolve complex issues within limited timeframes.
This skills gap leads to longer training periods and higher rates of early employee turnover, which can be costly for contact centers.
How AI Can Help:
AI-driven training programs can help bridge the skills gap by providing personalized learning paths for new hires.
By assessing each candidate’s existing skills, AI can tailor training programs to focus on areas that need improvement, making the onboarding process more efficient.
AI can also assist during recruitment by identifying candidates who already possess the skills needed for success, reducing the training burden, and accelerating productivity.
6. Expanding The Qualified Labor Pool
The Challenge:
As one of the most established high-volume hiring industries, many contact center organizations have developed effective—but entrenched—hiring systems.
While the age-old adage “nobody ever got fired for using (insert behemoth job board here)” holds true, the downside is that this approach can lead to missed opportunities to reach a broad range of talent. Relying solely on familiar candidate sources also brings a more significant risk, namely unintended bias: which can reduce the available agent pool and limit candidate quality.
Hiring diversity isn’t simply about recruiting and employing individuals from a wide range of backgrounds; a core tenet is thoughtfully expanding your talent pool. Diversifying how and where you hire is an impactful way not only to improve hiring diversity but also to enhance engagement, retention, and performance across your organization.
How AI Can Help:
At a basic level, AI can assist you in identifying potential candidate sources specific to your company and industry. For instance, using a prompt like “What (industry) job boards exist where I can advertise my (open position) role?” can reveal lesser-known boards that often have lower costs and qualified applicants.
Additionally, AI can analyze sourcing data from your ATS or hiring platform to identify candidate sources that may be low-volume but high-quality. This data can guide you in exploring ways to increase output from those sources.
Looking Ahead
The challenges facing contact centers today – from high turnover to candidate ghosting – are significant, but they are not insurmountable.
AI offers a range of solutions that not only make the hiring process more efficient but also improve the quality and retention of employees. By automating repetitive tasks, providing valuable data insights, and engaging candidates more effectively, AI helps contact centers streamline their operations and achieve better hiring outcomes.
…AI can assist you in identifying potential candidate sources specific to your company and industry.
In your rapidly changing and competitive industry, embracing AI is no longer a luxury: it is a necessity. Contact centers will continue to face the pressures of high demand and tight labor markets, therefore leveraging AI will be critical to staying ahead of the curve and building a resilient, engaged workforce.
