Daria PervaAs an increasing number of US businesses look to the Nearshore for outsourced call center operations, software development hubs, and professional services, certain recruitment complications tend to arise that are often unexpected.
Nearshore practices flourish in Latin America due to the cost effectiveness of outsourcing business to the region, as well as a reduced travel time, cultural affinity, and similar time zone – obvious benefits to anyone that already outsources from the US to the Nearshore region.
Even so, recruitment for Nearshore centers can be often be challenging if you don’t take the right hands-on approach, so we’ve complied five of our top tips for ensuring you hire the best people in the most effective way.
Have project managers fly over to interview and meet potential employees
If agents based in your Nearshore locations will have to work closely with managers in other countries, it makes sense that these managers should be the ones interviewing and selecting the candidates.
By flying project managers and other senior professionals to the Nearshore site, and asking them to interview potential employees of the operation, they can get an immediate sense of who they will be working with, and build rapport with the new team from the offset.
Organize campaign/blitz days to interview candidates faster
If hiring a large pool of talent in one go, perhaps for a large-scale call center operation, its good practice to outline a specific model of campaign days or “blitz days” to make sure you hit the numbers.
Each month of the recruitment drive, you can select three to four days for hiring managers to interview a larger number of candidates per day. At these events, your recruiters can quickly pre-screen and pre-select candidates that can then be moved to a final interview.
The effectiveness of campaign/blitz days is the ability to select a lot of candidates in one day. Usually it takes time for HR to collect feedback from hiring managers and agree the budget for offers, but if an HR manager is present at the end of the campaign day, they can immediately get feedback on interviews and agree on an offer.
Get to know your talent pool to find out what motivates them
For any nearshore center, a mix of graduate (junior employees) and senior employee hiring is usually needed, and each group requires a unique touch.
For instance, graduate or junior employees are often motivated by the prospect of traveling to client locations, so try emphasizing the opportunity they will have to do so, and to which countries. While they are on-site, they enjoy a social culture, team activities, and perks like on-site video games or free food. When they are being interviewed, ask them what could get them pumped to join the team.
When it comes to senior employees, they are more motivated by health benefits, pension plans, and flexible work times, as well as a salary that suits their level of skill. Measure what your competition is providing and try to offer at least the same to increase retention for these valuable assets.
Consider a recruitment partner
A number of recruitment consultancies offer RPO (Recruitment Process Outsourcing) solutions to help organizations with their nearshore hiring issues.
RPO is a practice where a business outsources hiring activities to a third party provider to manage them on their behalf, and is often opted for when there is a sudden need to hire a large number of employees – for example, a 300-agent call center contract.
A partner that can support your HR team in order to meet this temporary need may incur an additional cost, but the efficiency benefits far outweigh that initial investment, especially when the project is urgent.
Underline the need for speed when hiring candidates
One of the most common reasons that candidates lose interest is when the recruitment process is lengthy and cumbersome.
There is also a cost involved from your side when taking the time to invite candidates for interviews, taking the time to provide feedback, and then negotiating an offer.
If you don’t move fast, a candidate is more likely to accept another offer, often from a competitor whose hiring process is more efficient.
By applying the above advice – holding blitz hiring days, getting to know the talent pool, working with a recruitment partner, and flying in mangers to interview candidates – you can greatly improve the speed in which you bring on new team members, ensuring your new Nearshore operation kicks things off as smoothly as possible.
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