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........I realize you need/want her to be faster, but this may be something that just takes time. .........
She has been there for six months. How much time does it take to learn a call center job? For a normal person about two hours, or as much as week if the job is complicated. Six months on the job and can't do the job, she is never going to be able to do the job.
Yes, some jobs take awhile to learn, but it doesn't take six months to learn how to answer a phone.
OP, rewrite the job description and try offering bit more money. Although the lady who cleans my house tried for 6 months to hire a worker for $25 an hour and for $25 an hour, couldn't get anyone who would show up on time or do decent work when they were there. For $25 an hour, she couldn't find anyone who could follow directions, and cleaning a house isn't all that complicated.
Think of benefits about the job and emphasis those: indoors in the air-conditioning, get to sit all day at the job, no dirt or heavy lifting. There must be something that is nice about the job.
The accountant says it is her personality. I have tried to explain that she needs to get faster. I have gotten downright angry. My boss has yelled at her.
What is it that makes some people slow? It is a call center. Speed is a requirement. I can’t fit in a third job. Sadly most employees are crap. I am tired of trying to train.
I agree with the accountant that it's her inherent personality and can't be changed. Just like you're a naturally fast person, she's a naturally slow person.
I know plenty of people in real life who's really slow. My son takes 20 minutes from the time he wakes up to when he's changed his clothes and can come out of his room for breakfast. While my other son takes 5 minutes to do the same thing. I'm a naturally fast-paced person and cannot comprehend why the crap it takes 20 WHOPPING MINUTES to brush his teeth and change his clothes, but that's how he is. You can't change him no matter how much you yell at him. Same for the slow lady. At least you're looking for a replacement. That job is clearly unfit for her.
Call centers are steps down in work ethic from those positions. I've done em all.
The nephew of a friend is doing time for bank robbery and is working at a call center that contracts out to private businesses. Apparently this is widespread around the country. But this guy was the head chef at one of our top local restaurants before his life took a wrong turn, so he must have some abilities to do complex tasks and manage other people.
That’s the plan. Had 400 applicants. 375 were junk. Zero experience. Wants to go from being a waitress, cashier, burger flipper or bus driver to call center employee...
5 we weeded out from social media drama. 6 we scheduled for interviews. 3 canceled. 2 were no shows and the last is supposed to come in tomorrow. Not much to choose from
I don't know what it is, but there seems to be a general ineptness and lack of care that has permeated our entire culture. It is so irritating. I have hired probably a dozen people over the years for my own business and I have two people now who are reliable. One has been with me for probably 5 or 6 years and the other is newer, maybe since the start of this year? It literally took me that long to find one other reliable and competent person. Reliable meaning they hand in readable work by the due date. Everyone else I've tried has either completely missed due dates (on the regular, I mean, not a one-time thing) or they handed me something that looked like their second-grader wrote it.
Even lawn care: I've been through a lot of lawn care companies. We live in Florida and need the lawn done weekly by a ride-on mower during the summer. It's too rainy and the grass grows too fast to do it with a push-mower (I mean, some people do, but it just takes forever and it's worth it to hire someone for $100/month to just deal with it in 15 minutes with their lawn equipment.) They usually come for a few months and then just stop showing up. Just... why?? So annoying! We just started with a new company and I hope they are more reliable than the last several.
My husband also has the same complaint at work. The workers want to stand around whining and wasting time rather than doing the job they are paid to do. Sometimes things go wrong with the job and they can't meet the deadline for circumstances outside of their control, but the vast majority of the time, if they don't make it, it's because someone was working at the pace of a snail or otherwise just goofing off and wasting time.
I'm just adding my own frustration to your post, OP! No advice or answers for you. I agree that it's troubling.
There’s no indication in OP’s post that the girl isn’t trying. Just that she’s not fast enough. Maybe she’s trying her best but just having a hard time with the job. Maybe she’s not a good fit for the job, but that doesn’t mean that she’s not a good worker. I move fast in general too, I walk fast eat fast talk fast, it doesn’t make me inherently a better worker than someone who has a naturally slow pace. And a job such as proofreading, she would probably be better at it than me because I would probably miss things cause I’d be in too much of a hurry.
She has been there for six months. How much time does it take to learn a call center job? For a normal person about two hours, or as much as week if the job is complicated. Six months on the job and can't do the job, she is never going to be able to do the job.
Yes, some jobs take awhile to learn, but it doesn't take six months to learn how to answer a phone.
Well, one of the issues here is that we really don't know the parameters of the job. When most of us hear "call center job," we immediately start thinking of those people calling to solicit donations for the Kidney Foundation or the PBA (I know I do, anyway). But, call center jobs run a wide gamut. My mom works what would be considered a call center job, and she and most of her co-workers make near or over a six figure salary working with very high-end clients.
Now, here's the thing. She's one of the "slowest" workers at her company. The higher ups are always getting on her about picking up the pace. However, the higher ups don't have to actually do her job, which requires a lot of meticulousness and attention to details. One missed detail could (and does with other workers) wind up costing her company tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars a pop. Plus, she's personable and friendly, actually taking the time to get to know her clients and their needs, which they appreciate. Many of her clients have told her that when she retires they'll no longer do business with her company. They won't do any business with her company on her days off because they won't work with another agent. She's consistently at the top of customer satisfaction surveys and referrals.
The reality is that many times in our current numbers-driven business world out there those at or near the top don't really understand what it takes to truly foster relationships that lead to repeat business. Great customer service truly is a lost art much of the time, and "speed" should not always be the name of the game.
Yeah, I don't know what's wrong with some employees, or what's wrong with some managers or companies.
I've witnessed some employees who worked very hard and got more work adding up on them from some manager. And there were some employees who worked very unproductively, and the manager took some duties off from them and added up on the hard and fast working ones.
And there were employees who called in sick all the times, even a few long sick leaves, and they still have their job. I understand that they are protected by the FMLA. And there were employees who rarely or never called in sick and worked hard, and it seemed like the manger thought they were strong and healthy, so they needed to do more, and they never got any bonus or reward.
With all my observations for a long time, I see that it's like the reward for working hard is more work. I expressed that opinion with some of my trusted co-workers, and they said it seemed so true.
That's the management or the employer's problem. They don't want to reward or want to save money from rewarding the good workers, and they cannot do anything with the slow/lazy and sick employees because there's the FMLA.
Well that is why I am now doing two positions. We have an older lady that we all love. She brightens the office walking in but she has failed in every position I have put her in with the exception of planting the flowerbeds and pots around the building. Our yard is beautiful but not a full time job.
Seriously, she loses checks from the post office box to the office. She is terrible on the phone, terrible at book keeping... but I think she is an amazing person. So I keep absorbing her jobs and she is down to filling the candy bowl, planting flowers and running to get lunch. ��
Are you sure about that? Around here call center jobs are where you go when you can't even hack retail, burger flipping, etc. In other words a job of last resort, and it doesn't exactly draw the cream of the crop. Call centers here have a reputation for being absolutely horrible places to work.
If the job you offer can be used as a stepping stone to a better career because you actually offer training in something useful (outside of a call center) then maybe emphasize that as a draw to widen your pool of better qualified applicants.
It is really not. I need them to learn enough about plumbing to answer technical questions and be able to send a tech out to a him to solve an issue with the right materials or at least close to the right materials. All while creating schedules that make sense area and time wise. Not that complicated.
My guess is that it’s the type of company that you work for that attracts a certain caliber of candidate. It’s a local plumbing company, not Google.
Secondly, it’s a call center job. Call center jobs are generally a minor step up from minimum wage. It’s not at all a bad job, and can often be used to segue into white collar, corporate jobs down the road. All that said, this probably explains why you’re attracting the candidates that you’re attracting.
Thirdly, it doesn’t sound like you’re willing to take a chance on anyone with little to no experience. Even though these individuals may end up being a quality candidate with some TLC.
So to recap, you have a low end call center job at a local plumbing company that probably pays slightly over minimum wage. You are upset that you aren’t attracting superior candidates. And you’re not willing to train any of the 375 applicants that are trying to advance in their own careers who might end up being a good fit. You get angry with your existing slow employees and yell at them.
This sounds like a prime example of choosing beggars.
If you talk like this at work, and this is how you treat your employees -or even people in general,- it's safe to assume some of this is repeated in the interviews you're conducting, or even possibilities for an interview.
There are plenty of Type A personalities out there looking for jobs, and you may think you're offering a reasonable rate, but unless you were offering waaaay more than other entry level employment, there's no way in hell anyone with any self esteem would subject themselves to that kind of hostile work environment, even if that hostility is being directed at someone else.
We are a small company and our benefits are amazing. Our core employees (now managers) have 10-20 years invested in working here, so it can’t be all that bad. We have generous salaries, vacation and benefits. A very relaxed atmosphere. Dress code is perfect. I wear sneakers, flip flops, tank tops and jeans or shorts every day. We can even bring our dogs to work.
And frankly you only get yelled at when you make the same stupid mistakes over and over. I have had jobs I hated and this is by far my favorite place to work. And I quit a government job to come back here a few years ago.
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