Call centre roles attract a very large number of applications in Kenya, most of them from people who can do the job and a few from people who will be excellent at it. The difficulty is not finding candidates. It is telling them apart.
Paper does not help. Here is what does.
Write the advert honestly
Three things belong in it, and most adverts omit all three.
The pay. State it, or state the range. Adverts without pay waste everyone’s time and filter for desperation rather than suitability.
The shift. If it includes evenings or Saturdays, say so in the advert. Discovering it at offer stage costs you the candidate and your reputation.
What the calls are. “Customer service” could mean anything. “Answering questions from SACCO members about loans and statements, about sixty calls a day” tells somebody whether they want it.
An honest advert gets fewer applications and better ones. That is the trade you want.
Screen on the phone, not on paper
This is the single most useful change you can make.
Do not shortlist from CVs. Ring the first forty applicants for four minutes each. You are listening for four things:
- Can you hear them clearly? Their line, their environment, their voice.
- Do they listen? Ask a two-part question and see whether both parts are answered.
- Can they explain something? Ask them to explain anything — how to get somewhere, how something works. Clarity is the job.
- How do they handle being interrupted? Interrupt them once, politely. Some people lose the thread entirely.
Four minutes each, forty calls, under three hours. You will have a better shortlist than any amount of CV reading produces, and you will have tested the actual skill.
The trial that tells you the truth
Shortlisted candidates should handle real calls, supervised, before anyone is hired.
Half a day, listening first and then taking calls with somebody beside them. You are watching for:
Do they recover? Everyone gets a call wrong. The question is what happens next — do they fix it, or do they go quiet?
Do they write anything down? The agent who leaves a useful note is worth two who do not, because the next person to speak to that customer inherits it.
Are they still fine at call fifteen? Enthusiasm at call three is easy.
Do they ask? Someone who says “I do not know, let me find out” on day one will be good. Someone who guesses confidently will cost you customers.
Pay people for the trial. It is work.
What to stop screening for
Perfect written English on a CV. You are hiring for the phone. Some excellent agents write poorly; some polished CVs belong to people who freeze on a call.
Long call centre experience, specifically. It helps, but it also brings habits from floors run on metrics you would not choose. A retail or reception background with the right temperament often outperforms it.
Degree requirements that are not real. If the job does not need one, asking for one shrinks your pool for nothing.
Decide quickly
Good candidates in this market have other offers within the week. A process with four rounds across a month loses the people you most wanted.
Advert, phone screen, paid trial, decision. One week, start to finish. If your internal approvals cannot move that fast, fix that before you advertise.
Then keep them
Hiring well is the cheap half. Churn is the expensive part, and most of it is decided in the first fortnight — which is why the first week matters so much.