Verint has shared predictions for workforce management and customer experience as we shift towards the end of 2021, with changes in interviewing candidates and talent wars identified as two fascinating new trends.
David Singer, VP of Go-to-Market Strategy at Verint, believes flexible scheduling and ‘micro shifts’ will be common trends next year as well as a transformation around contact centre employment and ‘intelligent interviewing’.
He said: “As companies worldwide accommodate for a remote workforce, embracing flexible work models is crucial. Today, micro shifts and shift splits are exploding in popularity, and organisations need help from their workforce management tools to meet new staffing requirements and promote work/life balance.”
He added that with the shift to digital, agents have the flexibility to design their job profile that best fits their needs and maximises their earning potential.
He added: “All on the same day, a person can split shifts as a customer care agent during the hours when their home is most quiet, run DoorDash deliveries in between, and drive for Uber during peak hours.
“In 2022, offering flexible scheduling to promote ‘anywhere, anytime’ work models is a perk that will help employers win the talent war.”
He also mentioned the value in so-called ‘intelligent interviewing’, which he believes will help transform talent management in the contact centre from the new year. Over the past two years hiring practices have shifted due to the pandemic, making it challenging for recruiters. Singer explains that hiring large amounts of customer care agents to respond to contact centre volume surges due to the pandemic has acted as both a “blessing and a curse” for businesses.
He adds: “In addition, relief packages, stimulus checks, and unemployment benefits fuelled the incentive to not return to work. Employers must work harder to attract, recruit, and retain the right-fit person and avoid the high cost of turnover.
“In 2022, adopting new intelligent hiring approaches using advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and analytics tools are becoming fundamental to talent acquisition strategies to engage with candidates earlier in the pre-hiring process to ensure successful employee engagement and the right “fit” right from the start.”
Singer adds another prediction in 2022 will be around contact centre readiness for social messaging customer experience.
He said: “Customer engagement through social channels such as Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp will leapfrog traditional ways of contacting customer services such as phone, email, and live chat. Today, consumers and customer care agents alike are familiar and skilled with asynchronous messaging platforms as most have these channels already installed on their mobile devices.
“With asynchronous messaging, a customer can continue engagement with a customer care agent over a more extended period – sometimes hours or days – and the nature of these interactions requires organisations to revamp their performance and quality management approaches.”
