Hays Contact Centres
January - March 2012
Hotspots
Many organisations prefer to recruit candidates who can add immediate value. This is creating demand for Inbound and Outbound Sales professionals, where obvious value can be gained, and for Debt Collection professionals to build a more financially stable organisation.
At the senior level, candidates with SAP experience in addition to experience going through a SAP implementation or upgrade are sought. Given the popularity of this system, the ability to use it effectively and efficiently is critical.
Businesses are also looking to minimise costs and increase productivity, which is creating demand for candidates with proven leadership skills in either a sales or service environment to get the most out of their staff.
Overcoming skills shortages
Contact Centres are notoriously slow in the first and last month of the year, but this year many employers were proactive and contacted us to identify suitable candidates during this time. We've also seen an increased interest in passive jobseekers with specific industry or systems experience to help fill specific skills shortages.
The coming quarter
We expect to see a preference for temporary assignments until at least Easter, possibly longer.
Outbound will remain a major focus this quarter, whether companies are trying to grow their market share, develop, or retain their existing business. We are seeing this trend across FMCG, technology and service providers. With customer care at the forefront, some key Australian businesses are driving customer satisfaction by engaging with customers in outbound customer service campaigns.
Employer trends
While employers have kept salary offers stable, they have shortened their recruitment timeframe in order to secure the top talent for their teams. This is particularly the case for outbound sales roles due to a greater shortage of skilled candidates in the market.
Candidate trends
There are a large number of candidates who are passively looking at the moment. They have registered their interest but are in no rush and prefer to wait until their ideal role becomes available.
Towards the end of last year, Adelaide's candidate market increased in response to a large number of redundancies. These candidates are very active in the market.
Skilled sales candidates, whose experience is focused on cold calling or new business, are very commercially savvy in their job search and often have multiple opportunities to select from.
