Why Interviewing for Internal Roles May Be the Key to Your Next Career Move

Call Design on November 30, 2023

In many organizations, people are promoted because they’ve been in a role for a while, and they know the right buttons to push or the right people to work with. And I think that’s a problem.

Don’t get me wrong, I think internal promotion and giving people a career path is fantastic! Study after study has shown how important professional development and career growth are to retaining talent, especially younger generations. The point isn’t to say we should stop promoting people internally, but I think that people should be interviewed, even internally, when receiving a promotion.  

I can hear your comments now. “I shouldn’t have to interview for a position I’ve already earned” … “Interviewing for a promotion is just an extra hoop to jump through” … “I hate interviewing! If they make me interview, I’m going to tank and lose out on this opportunity.” I get it and I think your concerns are valid and should be considered as these processes and policies are implemented. But what you don’t realize is that the organization is doing you a disservice by not interviewing you for the role. Hear me out.

In my role, I’ve had an opportunity to help people move from one organization to another. Whether that’s hiring them into my team or coaching them through their job search process. One of the biggest challenges I’ve seen from people is their inability to articulate their value in an interview. “Why should we hire you.” It’s a common enough question but so many people swing-and-miss on this question and it’s such a critical answer for you to nail!

I’ve heard plenty of people mention how they are self-starters, self-learners, quick learners, self-motivated, team players, great communicators, etc, etc. These are likely all true and possibly valuable. However, why would I hire you, a self-starter who loves to collaborate, over someone else that expresses the same thing? There needs to be more definition, a finer point, or a better way to communicate your value.

And here is where interviewing for internal roles comes in.

When organizations interview for internal roles, it gives you the opportunity to practice articulating the “why me” answer. It gives you the chance to self-assess and look for the core nuggets of why you’ve been successful and then how to articulate that to other people.

There will be a temptation to simply point toward the projects you’ve run well or the team that has grown under you. The problem is that those examples don’t get to the core of your value add. Great, you ran a project well, but what was it about your skillset and unique ability that allowed you to do that? You’ve got to dig deeper and articulate something specific and unique.

So how do we do this and what does it look like? I’m so glad you asked!

You think you work well in team environments and that is a reason someone should promote you or possibly hire you. But when is that true and when has it not been true? Do you work best when teams are made up of certain people or in certain environments? So you refine your answer to “I’m a great team player with people who love to dream and cast vision”, but why is that true? What is it about working with them that you enjoy and that makes you so valuable in that environment? You refine further. “I love working in a team environment with people that cast vision and dream well because I don’t do those things well.” We’re getting closer but we don’t want to end on a negative. Plus, we need to go one level deeper. So instead of saying “I’m a great team player” you can say “I work well in team environments with individuals that cast vision well. I’ve found that my skill is in taking someone else’s vision and making it a reality. I love refining and executing big picture thinking and I work well in environments that include that.” You don’t just work well in team environments, you’re an executor and refiner!

For myself, I could just say “I’m curious and I like to ask questions”, and that might be a bit unique but it’s far short of what it could be. My answer is “I’m incredibly curious and love to ask questions. I’m very comfortable being the dumbest person in the room and asking the questions that everyone thinks but no one wants to ask. My questions typically help teams investigate assumptions and norms to ensure everyone is aligned and on the same page before moving forward. Simply put, you should hire me because my curiosity can help your organization improve communication and move faster by uncovering the unanswered questions.”

This type of self-assessment and ability to articulate your unique value can lead to greater confidence and impact, even in your current organization. When you don’t interview for internal roles and promotions you miss out on the opportunity to assess why you’ve been successful, find a way to articulate that and practice your answer well before trying to land that dream job, possibly at another organization.

Whether you’ve been with an organization for 2 years or 20 years, do yourself a favor and practice your answer to “Why should I hire you”, your next career move may just depend upon it!

At Call Design we believe that employees have the right to be happy, engaged, fulfilled, and aligned at work. Part of finding fulfillment at work includes knowing what you’re good at and what you love to work on. If you’d like help discovering your unique skills or being able to articulate them, please reach out and let us know. One of our coaches would love to work with you and help you find fulfillment at work!

Leading with Empathy: Showing Your Servant Leadership Style in the Interview Process

Call Design on April 21, 2023

Interviewing can be a nerve-wracking experience for candidates, but have you ever considered how you as the interviewer can make the process more comfortable and positive? As a leader, you have the power to demonstrate your values even during the hiring process. By serving and supporting the interviewee, you can communicate your qualities as a servant leader and ensure a more productive, respectful interview. Here are a few strategies for serving potential hires:

1. Help them reset in an interview

Interviews can be incredibly stressful for people and that stress can turn into an anxious spiral of death. Becoming more and more flustered as they can’t think of an answer, they’re confident they’re bombing the interview, and they’re pretty sure you can see they’re sweating through their shirt even through the fuzzy Teams connection. As a servant leader try to help them out by changing course, allowing them to settle in, and know it’s a safe place.

In one interview I was chatting with someone that had been distracted by their roommate coming in unexpectedly. They weren’t sure if they should get up to close the door or stay on camera. Also, their line of thinking was interrupted and they were clearly starting to spiral. Unable to answer my questions and re-center on the topic. To help them out I shifted to questions they knew backward and forwards. 

“You mentioned that you had some cats. How many? What kinds? What are their names? How old?”

This allowed the interviewee to get out of their anxiety spiral and into a space that they knew and loved, their cats! After a few minutes of small talk, we jumped back into the questions related to the job and the company. However, this quick detour helped because:

A) it created a safe space for them to reset and refocus on the interview

B) it showed them the type of boss I would be (one that asks hard questions but also cares about your cats)

Note, I didn’t change my questions or make them easier because they had started to spiral. I didn’t lower the bar for the interview to be successful. However, I was able to create an environment that signaled the interviewee was safe here and that I wanted them to be successful. Being able to serve them, even in an interview, helps them understand the type of boss I am and what they are getting themselves into by working with me. 

2. Connect them with other opportunities in the organization

I’ve interviewed multiple people that blew me away. They had strong experience, excellent answers, and clearly understood the vision of the organization. The only problem is that they weren’t right for my team. Maybe their experience didn’t match what I needed or their answers indicated they were looking for a more senior role. In these situations you can serve them by connecting them to other leaders and roles in the organization.

Oh, and be honest about where you’re at with them. I’ve said, more than once, “I don’t want to hire you but I do want to work with you!” Let them know why your role isn’t the right fit but how you are going to try and find another way for them to join the organization.

3. Provide genuine and honest feedback after or even during the interview

As someone that has done his fair share of being interviewed, I know how frustrating it can be to feel like you’ve aced the interview only to hear “There were many qualified candidates…” You wish the company well on their search and ask for any feedback they have on how you could have positioned yourself better, and then crickets. Not one ounce of feedback. I’ve even had companies tell me that they aren’t allowed to provide that information.

One more way you can serve people before they join your team is by helping them improve their interviewing skills and answers. 

One of my favorite questions to ask is simply “Why should I hire you?” The whole interview can feel a bit like a sales pitch at times but this one makes it super crystal clear “Alright, give me your best pitch.” What I’m looking for is how well do they know themselves and their unique value add. I’m less interested in their specific brand or value add and more interested in their self-awareness. On more than a few occasions I’ve gotten the cliché “because I’m a hard worker… quick learned… self-starter… eager to learn…” and while all of those may be true I tend to think they are giving me the answer that they think I want.

In some situations, I’ve tried to coach them away from those answers. Helping them see that their wide background is a huge asset as it allows them to understand the language of many teams around us and be a critical collaborator for the team. Or that they may be inexperienced but they have intentionally and strategically built a strong network that they can tap into at any time. “I may not always know the answer to your questions, but I’m confident that I have someone in my network that I can tap that would know. By hiring me you are getting someone that is eager to learn, open to coaching, and has years of knowledge at my disposal through my network.”

Lastly and most obviously, if someone reaches out asking for feedback, actually give them some! For people that I thought would handle it well I’ve even given them the notes from the interview. Helping them see what I was thinking during the interview and the answer to ultimately why I didn’t extend them an offer. You have to be careful here because some of the notes can be a bit too honest for people and you may want to edit based on how well you know the person. In the end, though, providing any feedback will go a long way and is a small way for you to serve them.

Being a servant leader during the interview process can go a long way in creating a positive candidate experience and signaling the values of your organization. By helping potential hires reset, connecting them with other opportunities, and providing honest feedback, you can serve them even before they join your team. So, the next time you’re conducting an interview, remember to approach it with a servant leadership mindset and see how it can benefit both the candidate and your organization.

If you’re inspired to become a servant leader and create a work environment that is happy, engaged, fulfilled, and aligned, then Call Design North America is here to help. We believe that every employee deserves to have a meaningful and enjoyable work experience, and we can offer you practical tips and advice on how to achieve that. Contact us today to learn more about how we can partner with you to create a workplace where everyone can thrive.

– Dan Smitley

Gamification for onboarding success

Call Design on March 16, 2023

For new hires, inhouse or work at home, gamification can help improve readiness and reduce attrition.

Call Design recently made some changes to our onboarding process. Like you, we’ve got a more than full plate of tactical work to do on any given day, so making time for improving infrastructure processes like onboarding is a real challenge. But we felt that having the best possible onboarding process was critical to keep employee experience (EX) at a continued high level. Making new hires feel welcomed, valued, and equipped for success on day one is key to that high level EX. 

Lots of companies are looking for ways to improve onboarding, it’s just that many of them are failing. A recent Gallup study shows that only 12% of surveyed employees “strongly agreed” that their organizations did a great job of onboarding new workers. 

Plus, as many of you do, we’ve got many of work-at-home employees, so we’re very familiar with the challenges of communicating culture and making remote team members feel supported. This experience drives us to search for the very best solutions to help our contact center and back office customers find new ways to solve new problems with onboarding, for inhouse as well as work-at-home agents. 

While there are different methods available to train new workers and prepare them for the job, one effective solution we offer for promoting fast employee growth and success is the gamification of the training process. Here’s how it can help onboarding in a contact center.

How Does Gamification Work 

Gamification is a motivational tool that uses game mechanics like leaderboards, challenges, dashboards, points, rewards, and recognition. It has been gaining traction across many industries with proven results at providing a fun and effective way of training new workers. While traditional training methods may involve one-on-one’s with busy team leads, or passively watching study modules, gamification can add to these methods by providing interactive gaming elements to motivate agents and boost training efficiency and engagement. 

Gamification can significantly enhance the training experience while giving supervisors and training managers more opportunities to provide meaningful feedback and analyze the strengths and weaknesses of their trainees. An Aberdeen study cited by ERG shows that a gamified onboarding process boosted engagement by 48% for new hires and decreased attrition by 36%. 

Gamifying the Onboarding Process

There are different ways to watch an introductory video or a module on HR standards—it can play in the background while an employee multitasks, or the new hire can actively listen, knowing they will be tested and rewarded based on the score. With a colorful scoreboard that’s accessible anytime, there’s no mystery to the new hire’s progress. When it comes to developing new training modules and processes, there are different ways to gamify the process. Some ideas include implementing leaderboards and experience points as workers progress through their training. It not only allows trainees to have a firmer grasp of their training development, but it also provides a means to measure their progress while adding a competitive element to their training. Healthy competition, when carefully managed, can boost engagement and promote new staff to quickly hone their abilities and learn new skills to keep up with their peers and stay ahead of the game. 

In addition to leaderboards and experience points, other means of boosting trainee development and motivation are adding achievements and shareable badges. We’ve all seen social media posts in which our contacts share their accomplishments by posting earned badges. For some, the thumbs-ups we get from our network are a more powerful motivator than a gift card. These game mechanics provide a measurable means for trainees and trainers to analyze personal development and growth while giving staff goals to work towards actively. 

By having benchmarks and achievements to strive for and actively seek, employees will be more motivated to actively engage with modules on company culture, new hire instructional videos, or tutorials on the tools the employee will use. The key is to find ways that workers and trainees can measure their progress and have goals to work towards actively. 

Benefits of Gamification for New Hires

  1. Getting to know you

Gamification is a proven way to improve objective performance, but even more importantly for new hires, it is an active path to becoming part of the team. It gives new employees a way to introduce themselves to their new teammates by encouraging social interaction. Trainees can appear on leaderboards, post their achievement badges, and receive likes and positive comments from established employees. 

  1. Team Building

Not only does competition between trainees and staff promote the development of the skills necessary to succeed, but it also encourages new teammates to work together towards shared goals. Some goals are for individuals, other goals can be set on a team level, and teams can compete against each other. For some trainees, individual competition with another individual agent may not be a strong motivator. But these same employees may feel highly motivated to help their teammates reach a collective goal. 

  1. Good First Impression

You never get a second chance to make a first impression. We want our new hires to get started on the right foot, with the right mindset, and at the right pace for learning. You believe that great Employee Experience is important, and you want your new hires to believe that you believe it. They must feel in their hearts that your commitment to your employees is as real as your commitment to your customers. That way, your new hires will immediately align with that commitment.

  1. Training

From the jump, it’s absolutely vital that our employees have the training they need to deliver the extraordinary experiences that our customers expect. Gamification encourages new hires’ development throughout the training process and helps to lock in the knowledge they need to master a challenging job. Having a tool that actively pushes employees to grow and learn will ultimately lead to better-equipped staff that not only make customers happy, but also stay with the company longer.

  1. Feedback

While providing goals and achievements that employees can seek is the first step towards encouraging development and growth, providing better and more meaningful feedback is also crucial for success. New hires can be anxious about hitting the floor to take real customer interactions—having measured feedback can help them confidently feel ready. 

Progress bars and milestones give trainees a measure of their progress and provide supervisors with data they can use. Depending on the growth rate or the achievements that staff attain, team leads can look at their progress bars to provide accurate feedback and encouragement to help teams develop even further. 

The Future of Onboarding

A robust onboarding and training regimen that promotes employee growth and development is a crucial foundation for every contact center, and with gamification you can take your onboarding process to the next level. If you are interested in learning more about gamification and how it can supercharge your workspace, Call Design is here to help. Contact us today to get started!

– Shawn McCormick

4 Ways to Reduce Agent Turnover in Your Contact Center

Call Design on July 23, 2020

One of the most significant challenges that contact centres face is an incredibly high rate of agent turnover, creating a cyclical problem where the Learning and Development team is continuously training new agents for them only to stay with the company for a couple of months. This can be expensive. In this blog, we have four strategies for contact centres that are hoping to retain their agents and reduce turnover.

Effective Strategies for Managing a Contact Center

Call Design on June 30, 2020

Contact centres are the frontline of your customer service operation, which means that your contact centre must be operating at optimum capacity at all times. The management of your contact centre is an essential element to operating successfully and providing your customers with the very best customer service.