A recent study by Malcolm Higgs (2004) involving 289 call centre agents from three companies found that high performing agents were better able to:

• recognise and manage their own feelings in a range of situations,
  
• focus on service delivery in the face of personal challenge or criticism, and
  
• provide a clear commitment to a course of action.

This research has led to a recent launch of a program tackling the challenges facing busy call centre agents. Building Emotional Resilience™ is a one day workshop that helps agents develop the ability to manage emotions and perform under pressure. The techniques delivered in this workshop have helped hundreds of individuals recognise their own emotions and implement strategies to deliver results while maintaining relationships with both customers and colleagues.

Building Emotional Resilience™ provides participant’s with a unique self-appraisal of their level of emotional resilience using the latest Emotional Intelligence (EI) self-assessment tool. This is completed on-line prior to the workshop and provides participant’s with an individual plan for EI development.

The program has generated a lot of interest in call centres where agents are responsible for both inbound and outbound calls. It is particularly relevant in roles involving debt recovery, personal hardship and other situations where strong customer emotions are present. For more information on the program please contact us at team@talentsolutions.com.au.

The call centre study by Higgs also identified the benefits of recruiting agents with high emotional intelligence. These benefits aren’t just limited to the call centre environment. We are finding that many companies are now asking for ways to more reliably measure the Emotional Intelligence of candidates for leadership, sales and service related roles. Up until now most EI self-assessments have been vulnerable to candidates ‘faking good’ (or presenting an overly-favourable impression). The reason for this is that the questions in most EI self-assessment tools are quite transparent and the results can be easily manipulated in a recruitment situation.

We have overcome this widespread limitation in EI assessment with our recently released EI Select™. This is a unique on-line EI self-assessment with an in-build impression management scale. The EI Select™ gives employers valuable information regarding the candidate’s EI abilities as well as any tendency to overstate their ability both at a conscious and subconscious level. For more information on how this tool can assist your recruitment process please contact Anthea Hickey in our Sydney office (02 9221 9344 or anthea.hickey@talentsolutions.com.au).