The call-centre sector is emerging from recession. Customer-service skills remain in demand, but findingthe right candidate in a sector where attrition levels are high and the war for talent is intensifying, is about more than calling on someone with a good telephone manner.

The call-centre sector industry is hiring again. Only last month Indian-based telecoms company Firstsource announced it is to hire 500 people for a new call centre in Middlesbrough and there was further good news for the sector with call-centre operator HEROtsc’s announcement that it is to recruit 250 staff for its latest operation in Warrington’s Birchwood Park.

This news is tempered by employers’ intentions to outsource jobs abroad, however. The latest quarterly Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD)/KPMG Labour Market Outlook reveals 9% of private-sector companies plan to offshore jobs in the 12 months to June 2011. Of these firms, 65% intend to offshore to India, a third to China (36%) and to Eastern Europe (29%), with the most common function outsourced being call centres (55%).

For UK firms that are hiring, sales skills are just as important as customer-service skills, says Tracy Burrell, HR manager at Domestic & General, Nottingham.

“I think for us, it is a case of finding people who have a balance of skills in sales and customer service. We ideally look for people with sales experience, but we also want to ensure we get someone who can also give excellent customer service and can deal with a wide range of situations. As a company, we have an obligation to our customers to drive business forward, by achieving high sales, which can only be done with strong customer-service skills.”

Edwards says the sector seeks administration and office support staff that are not only experienced in the chosen sector, but can provide the right cultural fit, which Francesca Randle, director at Cactus Search, says is just as important when recruiting call-centre managers.

“You can have a fantastic client and send them to one client and the client says this person is rubbish and you can wonder if you have really missed the mark, but the next client loves that candidate.”

She adds that some organisations will experience rising attrition levels due to a failure to invest in talented workers.

“The challenges they face will revert back to the attrition problems they have always had. They don’t have enough trained and developed staff. Training and coaching is always an issue. They don’t have adequate retention plans. As the market is transient, they will lose their workers again.”

Kwik Fit Insurance is one firm that has succeeded in addressing this situation, according to Marie Stewart, Kwik Fit Insurance group recruitment and induction training manager.

Stewart told Recruiter that it had invested an average of £750 per employee in training, running a series of internal courses and formal post-graduate courses, as well as introducing a chill-out zone and a healthy living club, which includes a gym offering a range of fitness classes and a variety of beauty and massage treatments, which she says has cut staff turnover.

“Our staff turnover has reduced significantly from 40% in 2004 to 22% in 2009 and we believe that this is closely related to the employee engagement initiatives we’ve implemented. We have also calculated that this reduction in staff turnover saved our business about £250,000 in 2009.”