Job Analysis Report
- Job Description:
The job under consideration in this report is Customer Services Representative (CSR).
The job description of Customer Services Representative, as taken from O*Net is as follows:
- The basic task for a customer service representative is to reply the calls of the customer to provide the information about the product and services. The CSR should also be capable of obtaining details of any complaints.
- Take or enter the orders from the customers
- Keep the records of customers’ transactions
- Resolving the customer’s problems related to billing, monetary refunds and bill adjustment
- Ask for the sales of any new product of the company
- Order tests that could determine the causes of product malfunctions.
- Tools, Equipment and Technology Used:
- Using the automated computer systems
- Telecommunication Technology
- Office Equipment of daily use also the copy and fax machines
- Knowledge:
- The CSR should have the knowledge to operate automated computer systems
- Knowledge of correction of bills and follow ups
- Knowledge of the office practices and procedures
- Alphabetic and numeric filing systems
- Knowledge of financial and statistical terminologies used for record keeping
- Knowledge of mathematical calculations
- Knowledge of English language
- Skills:
The skills required for the job of CSR are:
- Interpersonal skills: for persuading the customers
- Communication skills: for talking to others to communicate effectively
- Critical thinking for resolving the problems related to customers
- Active listening to respond to the customer’s call efficiently
- Abilities:
- Oral Comprehension: the CSR are should be able enough to listen, understand and analyze the ideas and orally can provide solutions
- Oral Expression: CSR should have an excellent oral expression therefore other can understand his or her wordings
- Speech clarity: The CSR should speak clearly.
- Education:
No specified professional degree is required for the CSR job. Any combination of training and experience that provides the related understanding, expertise and capabilities which helps the candidate to perform the duties of the job efficiently are sufficient for the position. A high school diploma or equivalent length of study is more than sufficient for the duties of this particular position.
- Values at work:
- Relationships: The CSR must have excellent interpersonal skills, and must form strong relationships with coworkers and clients in the workplace; these skills are fundamentally important for success in the position
- Support: there should be an effective support system of team leader for CSR
- Selection Process:
For hiring a CSR, the following internal recruitment methods can be applied:
- The current employee from the organization can be promoted that is referred to as internal recruitment (Beach, 1980).
- Asking the current employees, if they can recommend new staff
Similarly, following external source of recruitment can be used for hiring CSR (Beach, 1980).
- Use social media and internet-based marketing for recruiting CSR
- Contact the state’s unemployment agency and mention them about the job specifications
- One can make use of newspaper for advertising the job postings, or advertisement can be done through the use of online job sites (e.g. jobbazar.com)
- An employment agency can be hired to find the ideal candidate for the job.
Selection Process: The selection process follows a standard set of procedures which includes initial screening of the candidates followed by tests and selection interviews (Mondy & Noe, 2005).
- Initial Screening: The initial screening occurs when selected candidates are chosen from the pool of applicants for further testing and interviewing. This is done via CV analysis.
- Tests: Selection testing has three main areas of consideration. These areas include aptitude tests, logical reasoning tests, and essay writing tests. The successful candidates are then referred to Group Discussions on the same date.
- Interview: The selected candidates are involved in group discussions the same day as their testing. Out of those chosen for the group discussions, the successful candidates are given the first interview call. Those who qualify are called upon for 2nd interview with GM’s and VP’s, who again assess the caliber of the candidates by asking them detailed questions. Those who meet the requirements and make the best impression on the interviewers are then selected by the interviewers. If the job is administrative, then the importance of interview is more to judge the competencies of employee insofar as performing the job is concerned. However, if the organization needs quality control or different types of processing workers, then the practicality and skill development is taken into consideration (Schuler, 1989).
The selection process usually followed for hiring and selecting the potential candidate is comprehensive and detailed, to ensure that the best-fit candidate is selected for any given position. Almost all popular sources for recruiting the potential applicants are applied to ensure the right candidate is found. All these sources provide the maximum applicants who are relevant for this job. When going through each step of selection process and complete screening of the applicants, the best candidate can be recruited. This candidate will flourish by creating his or her own career path and will also enhance the organizational performance of the business or organization. Furthermore, for hiring an ideal and outstanding Customer Service Representative, the organizations should develop criteria which define specifications of an ideal candidate; this protects the organization legally, and also gives the candidate a better idea of what a job will entail. An ideal CSR should have a unique combination of behavior, values and personal skills.
- Recruitment Reform:
Good recruitment practices require a concerted attempt to find the best candidate who is most suited for the job requirements. The selection criteria for any given position within a firm should include knowledge on how the firm is managed; it should also disclose the kind of skills, behaviors and attitudes that are required in candidates for jobs in the organization. The research studies have suggested that the good recruitment process should clearly identify the important skills, behaviors and attitudes that are required in the candidate who is applying for the job, along with this the process should also consider candidate’s cultural and attitude fit (Pfeffer, 1998).
Affirmative action plans should be used for hiring the employees in positions where these plans are relevant and legal. As this plan is an important management tool, it is used to ensure the equal employment opportunity for all the citizens of the state. The basic principle underlying the affirmative action plan is that over time, absent discrimination, a contractor’s workforce will represent the gender, racial and ethnic profile of the worker from which the employer recruits and selects. (Hoque, 2000).
The following recruitment plan has been developed with the express purpose of utilizing both internal and external forms of recruitment for the CSR position:
Internal Sources:
Desseler (2002) has proposed the following internal sources of recruitment:
- The promotion of the existing employees
- Transferring the capable employee where he is needed the most
- Posting the vacancy advertisement on company’s notice board or circulating an email to all employees
- Sometimes retired managers can be called for the job on temporary basis
External Sources:
Guest (1987) presented the following effective external sources of recruitment:
- Management consultants are used for hiring the senior level staff
- Public advertisement is posted the local newspaper as well as in the national newspaper, as well as on relevant job posting websites, and so on.
- Recruitment agencies now play a vital role in recruiting and selecting the potential candidates. They maintain a database of quality applicants, which is very extensive and detailed. This knowledge pool must be utilized to find an excellent candidate for the position.
Recruitment Plan
- Legal Issues & Concerns:
Greenlaw, Paul and Kohl (1986) reported in their research that all employers, regardless of the size of organization, have to complete the following to be in compliance for appointing a new employee:
- Complete and file a Federal W-4 Form (search: Federal W-4)
- Complete and file an I-9 Form that verifies the legal status of the employee to be in this country and to work
- Reporting any new hire which is required by the state and in which the employee is paid as well.
One can easily find these forms online, and instructions for filling out and filing these forms are also easily available online. It is also required that the employer maintain originals of these documents in company’s files while the new appointee remains employed; it is also recommended that, after termination, such files are maintained for a period of seven years from the date of termination.
- Selection Battery Proposal:
The selection and hiring process for potential applicants has already been discussed in depth, but there are other ways that the pool of applicants is sorted by those in charge of the hiring process. The pool of applicants is developed by using internal and external sources of recruitment then the applicants are shortlisted, and then tested for the post of Customer Service Representative. When individuals are being considered for the job openings that are available with an employer, the individual has to pass and qualify the selection process.
This process is usually tailored to the employer, and it aims to measure a potential employee’s expertise, capabilities, and individual characteristics which are necessary for performing well on the job. This will prove beneficial for the job applicant as well as for the company. This process enables the company to hire only those who have the necessary skills to perform well on the job. Different researchers have demonstrated that different kinds of ability and performance tests provide meaningful and precise measures of individual’s expertise, capabilities, and individual characteristics that can be used by hiring managers to choose an excellent candidate. For this reason, an employer must make use of different tests to identify the people who suit best to the job (Roberts, 1997). Here are the few tests applied for testing the applicants for the job Customer Service Representative:
Skills Testing: This test is used in order to evaluate the competency level of the applicants for software programs, computer operating or testable skills such as customer service responses.
Personality / Psychometric Assessments: This type of testing is perfect for the assessment of teamwork behavior, motivation, and working styles in the field of customer service, sales and a wide range of other types of skills that are related to the industry. It is a superb instrument, which helps to enhance the interview questions and assess appropriateness for a team.
CSR Tests: The CSR test is a predictor of a different types of behaviors that an individual will exhibit or experience in a job, such as customer service. It will also predict the individual’s computer literacy, as well as their ability to do marketing and sales. There are four sections in a test. The stimulation is timed in one of the sections, but not all. The four test sections are comprised of:
- Information about the individual’s background/experiences
- Job simulation (timed)
- Measurement of reasoning skills
Standard Interviews: often, when the process of selection starts, interviews of the candidates are conducted. The questions which are often asked during the interviews might include:
Q1. Who have you spoken with so far during the selection process and what did you talk about? This question is asked to analyze the ability of an individual to retain knowledge, and also to gauge the level of research that he or she has done about the organization.
Q2. What are your job responsibilities in your current job? What do you love at work and what do you dislike about your current job environment?
Q3. What were the problems with the products or services you have supported in your previous employment?
Q4. How do you respond to the question when you don’t know the answer?
Q5. If the customer is saying “you are taking too long to resolve the problem” how would you respond?
Q6. How would you change an unhappy customer to a cheerful and satisfied one?
Q7. Give some examples of great support you received from your team in the past.
Q8. Have you tried this company’s product, and what do you know about this particular organization?
Performance Dimensions:
Reliability and Validity:
The research studies have depicted that when organizations are conducting a process of hiring the employee, making use of standard recruitment and selection process the construct validity, content validity and criterion based validity are very important and play a vital part (Cooper, Roberston and Tinline, 2003).
Reliability can be estimated by using two different methods. The first method is known as the test/retest method, which emphasizes getting the same result in two different tests and then calculating the correlation between the two tests. The second method of measuring internal consistency centers on designing questions in such a format that they in turn make the measurement of the required job skills in the same direction (Gatewood, Field, Barrick, 2004).
Evaluating the Proposed Selection Battery:
The selection battery proposed in this proposal is detailed and comprehensive. All these selection tools will be valuable and act as a facilitator for hiring of a customer service representative, and all should be utilized. The selection tests are very appropriate and relevant for evaluating a candidate for the job of CSR. More evaluation test can be added to this recruitment plan. Also some preliminary interview can be arranged before testing the applicants. This will facilitate in developing the content of the test.
References
Beach, D, S. (1980). Personnel-The Management of People at Work. New York: MacMillan Publishing Co. Inc.
Cooper, D; Robertson, I, T & Tinline, G. (2003). Recruitment and Selection: A Framework for Success. London: Thomson Learning Emea.
Dessler, G. (2002). Human resource management. India, New Delhi, Prentice Hall.
Greenlaw, P, S. & Kohl, J, P. (1986). Personnel Management. New York: Harper & Row Publishers.
Guest, D. E. (1987). Human resource management practices and industrial relations. Journal of Management Studies, 24(5), 503-521
Gatewood, R; Feild, H, S. & Barrick, M. (2004). Human Resource Selection. New york: Cengage Learning.
Hoque, K. (2000). Human Resource Management in the Hotel Industry: Strategy, Innovation and Performance. London: Routledge
Mondy, R.W & Noe, R, M. (2005). Human Resource Management. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson/Prentice Hall.
Pfeffer, J. (1998). The human equation: Building profits by putting people first. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
Roberts, I. (1997). Remuneration and Rewards. In Beardwell, I. & Holden, L. (eds). Human Resource Management: A Contemporary Perspective. London: Pitman.
Summary Report for: Customer Service Representatives. (2013). Retrieved Feb 5, 2014, from http://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/43-4051.00
Schuler, R.S. (1989). Strategic Human Resource Management. Human Relation, 42, 157-184.
