Think I screwed up my interview then declined by Asda

InsideInsurance

LisaB85 wrote: »

He seemed impressed when I said I wanted to progress with the company

Be very careful with this!!!

It is getting increasingly common for companies to use a "recruit for attitude" type methodology, so match personality to both the role, the company and importantly the longer term objectives.

For entry level positions it is common for managers not to want people that say they want to progress! In fact in many cases they want people that will come in on time for every shift, put in a good days works and go home at the end of it without having aspirations of grandeur.

If you look at the call centre I used to manage, we had 15 call centre advisors for ever 1 team leader and we had 10 team leaders for every shift manager.

In the average year the company would recruit 1 shift manager, 3 team leaders and 240 advisors. All advisors were asked "where do you see yourself in 3 years time?" I would estimate 50% would say "team leader" and 15% would say "shift manager".

It is fairly simple maths to show that in 3 years time 65% of all new advisors will not have made it into the higher roles they are aiming at.

So of the 64.5% that fail to achieve what they were aiming at you find that a massive proportion simply leave, which is costly for an organisation, and most the rest are demotivated as they arent getting where they want to be. Of cause there are some that gave an answer they thought the interviewer wanted to hear where as reality is they are happy sticking at the entry level role.

I am not saying not to have aspirations, I started out as a call centre agent and worked myself up. Ironically I introduced RFA into my employer and noted that I wouldnt have gotten my original job if it was in place when I applied! But you should consider your responses to all interview questions well..... some companies want people happy doing basic jobs!

bevanuk

InsideInsurance wrote: »

Be very careful with this!!!

It is getting increasingly common for companies to use a "recruit for attitude" type methodology, so match personality to both the role, the company and importantly the longer term objectives.

For entry level positions it is common for managers not to want people that say they want to progress! In fact in many cases they want people that will come in on time for every shift, put in a good days works and go home at the end of it without having aspirations of grandeur.

If you look at the call centre I used to manage, we had 15 call centre advisors for ever 1 team leader and we had 10 team leaders for every shift manager.

In the average year the company would recruit 1 shift manager, 3 team leaders and 240 advisors. All advisors were asked "where do you see yourself in 3 years time?" I would estimate 50% would say "team leader" and 15% would say "shift manager".

It is fairly simple maths to show that in 3 years time 65% of all new advisors will not have made it into the higher roles they are aiming at.

So of the 64.5% that fail to achieve what they were aiming at you find that a massive proportion simply leave, which is costly for an organisation, and most the rest are demotivated as they arent getting where they want to be. Of cause there are some that gave an answer they thought the interviewer wanted to hear where as reality is they are happy sticking at the entry level role.

I am not saying not to have aspirations, I started out as a call centre agent and worked myself up. Ironically I introduced RFA into my employer and noted that I wouldnt have gotten my original job if it was in place when I applied! But you should consider your responses to all interview questions well..... some companies want people happy doing basic jobs!

Good point. But if you want to progress, tell them!
You don't want to get stuck in a place like the above where there is no progression, if that's what your looking for.
Best reason to be rejected for a job ever because you are to ambitious.

As for that call centre, how on earth do you intend on keeping your staff motivated if there is no progression for them?
If you want unaspirational staff then all recruitment should come through the job centre, for those that don't look for work!

InsideInsurance

bevanuk wrote: »

As for that call centre, how on earth do you intend on keeping your staff motivated if there is no progression for them?
If you want unaspirational staff then all recruitment should come through the job centre, for those that don't look for work!

Actually the theory was that you wanted middle aged women with children above the age of 4 - for a variety of reasons. The average age in the call centre for non-managers however was approximately 20. Naturally they didn't see things like discounted mortgages or child care vouchers as particularly attractive employee benefits so didnt build the retention expected by the higher organisation.

As to keeping them motivated, it naturally is a challenge when doing what really is a very repetitive activity and having to deal with people who neither like you nor want to speak to you if they had any other choice.

One of the answers was to create a number of different levels of advisor (historically there had only been advisor and senior advisor/ stand in team leader) and a progression plan from level 0 (just passed training) to level 5 (senior advisor/ stand in team leader).

The other is to generally recruit people that want to do a good job but not to get the responsibility of promotion.

LisaB85

I don't think I got the job, they said they would inform those they interviewed by cop today.

Not heard anything on the phone so I imagine those who don't get a call will get a letter saying they weren't successful.

I'm not really surprised as I don't have experience in telesales and I'm sure others do.

When should I contact them to ask for feedback?