Call center hiring solutions provider FurstPerson has produced a list of the seven best hiring practices:

1. Defining the Job. Carefully define the job by understanding the competencies that drive successful job performance. Typically, this is accomplished through a job analysis. For an organization seeking to improve new hire retention, the critical starting point is a job analysis for each major call type. The job analysis should define the abilities and behaviors that drive job success.

2. Recruiting and Sourcing Strategy. Unfortunately, many contact center organizations get caught in the turnover spiral. This means that high attrition forces constant hiring. Each week requires another new training class. Because the organization cannot recruit enough candidates into the top of the funnel, they reduce standards in the hiring process so they can deliver enough new hires into production.

3-4. Assessments are used for candidate evaluation and are validated against performance and retention. Using pre-employment assessments is another best practice, demonstrated by organizations with lower new hire attrition. Assessments allow the hiring organization to best measure the competencies outlined in the job analysis. For example, measuring multi-tasking is difficult in an interview but straightforward in a simulation.

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"The challenges associated with knowledge transfer in the information age is one that is growing more complex by the tweet, especially as governments wade into a cadre of social media strategies to communicate with constituents and manage information."

So says CivSource, remarking on the fact that this November 2, Election Day, knowledge management has the chance to play a large part in the results of the state governor elections, among others.

According to Booz Allen Hamilton's (News - Alert) Walton Smith, cited by CivSource, the information overload "suffered by most government organizations" is made worse by "antiquated communication and collaboration tools."

Smith leads the firm's internal corporate investment strategy to bolster Knowledge Management and Information Sharing Programs, including their internal platform, Hello.bah.com.

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 We understand that small and medium-sized businesses are looking for ways to cut expenses. CRM should not be on the chopping block.

Officials at DMC Software contend that following the economic crisis of 2009, "CRM systems have become essential components of the small business armory in order to maintain an edge over competitors in an increasingly aggressive market place."

We're not in an environment where price is the only deciding factor. If we were, well then small businesses would be justified in abandoning CRM. But since customer service actually does matter, SMBs should consider investing in CRM systems to enhance customer loyalty and remain competitive, DMC officials say.

Michael Austin, CRM Specialist from DMC Software, said CRM "should not be viewed by small businesses as expenditure, but instead as an investment. Small Business CRM products safeguard revenue and profitability by facilitating quality customer service and customer loyalty, which is essential to remain competitive."

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A leading healthcare sales and account management provider - with 14 service and production centers and more than 7,000 employees including 2,750 production claim processors and 3,250 customer service representatives - wanted to "continuously address performance gaps, business changes and technology enhancements without negatively impacting service levels was an ongoing challenge," according to a recent case study from call center management software provider Knowlagent.

More specifically the company wanted to "improve its customer loyalty by improving overall agent call quality."

So how did Knowlagent go about solving the problem? To address call quality issues, approximately 100 15-20 minute learning breaks were implemented by the company's own training staff.

According to the case study, "training was designed using a proven call model and was delivered to agent desktops during downtimes in call volume." This meant that specific training was assigned to agents based on individual performance with inputs from the company's quality monitoring systems, performance systems and supervisors.

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Never underestimate politicians' ability to find more ways to extract money from the productive sector of the economy to fund their campaign promises.

New York Senator Charles Schumer is proposing legislation to tax companies 25 cents each time a call is transferred to a foreign country, according to Connected Planet:

"According to reports, the proposal also would require companies to tell their US-based customers when their call was being transferred and to which country."

As a New York resident, Connected Planet's Susana Schwartz writes "I question whether Schumer's proposal is really altruistic in nature or just a potential ploy to make more money for the state," while noting New York state's $9.2 billion budget deficit. How a federal tax would benefit New York state's budget was unfortunately left unexplained.

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