Case Study: CareTech Help Desk- Instant capacity for expert recruitment.
Background
The Challenge
CareTech Solutions is a health IT subsidiary of HTC Global Services, a global provider of IT solutions and business process outsourcing services. CareTech offers its own customers a suite of award-winning health IT services, from implementing emerging technologies to support for day-to-day IT operations. An effective help desk is one key to ensuring the highest levels of support for these customized solutions. But as the company grew more rapidly, its internal recruiting teams couldn’t keep pace with the demand for IT call center personnel in its Troy, Michigan, facility.
Turnover rates soon climbed to as high as 57 percent. Morale declined, and unprofessionalism began to show on the call center floor. As another result, weekly training classes for new call center staff were not being filled. Technical ability was too often compromised. CareTech needed Softworld to help improve its recruiting, retention, and performance quickly, for hundreds of technical professionals across multiple shifts.
The Solution
As talent experts leveraging a proprietary mix of IT labor workforce analytical tools, the Softworld team could share deep insight into the local market and available talent. They first conducted a wage analysis for similar positions in the same area.
The client’s pay rates were discovered to be low—a major factor contributing to their challenges. The rates were more appropriate for customer service centers, and didn’t account for the skill or experience needed to answer critical technical questions about using the company’s software. CareTech agreed to try a wage increase.
The Softworld team next analyzed the client’s recruiting cycle for quality improvements. They implemented a double interview cycle, ensuring that two recruiters must sign off on the skill set and communication for each new candidate. Technical testing was put in place for digital literacy and analytical scenarios, as well as evaluations for basic customer service. These included soft skills like professionalism, manners, active listening, open ended questions, handling upset customers, shifting blame, and proper follow-up.
Softworld also delivered the instant capacity and extra reach that CareTech needed for sourcing new talent. A national recruiting team with more than 10 technology recruiters allowed the flexibility to find higher volumes on short notice as needed. A dedicated service manager oversaw all onboarding activities to help maintain a consistent process. These featured coaching classes for new candidates that reinforced attendance, professionalism, and career growth. The sessions set expectations around the option to hire, and what it would take to obtain a full-time position working directly for CareTech. They also covered detailed discussions about specific technologies that the client uses.
Finally, Softworld placed a program manager on-site to ensure that employee performance, attendance, and professionalism were reinforced daily. This local resource manages 24-hour operations in three shifts across numerous technologies. She has also served to increase productivity without compromising quality.
The Results
The Softworld team first brought the insight and expertise to add new IT talent that was well-aligned with the client’s short- and long-term goals. In a relatively short time, they effectively increased top local talent within the CareTech help desk organization, while significantly reducing overall turnover.
In just three months, Softworld hired more than 140 candidates for the client’s technical support roles. Every new professional was on-boarded, screened, and ready for their training class on time. The average assessment score for trainees was greater than 90 percent, reflecting the high caliber of talent that was sourced.
All of the strategies introduced by Softworld helped to reduce turnover by 42 percent from about 57 percent to 15 percent—in just two months. Meanwhile, recruiting capability was greatly enhanced. The team maintains the agility to add as much as 30 percent to 120 percent of average program capacity within five business days. By turning around its performance, CareTech may have also averted a short-term disaster to its own customer experience. Ultimately, the company gained a long-term partner for top local talent and reliable workforce solutions.
Client Testimonials
“We were struggling to find the right people with the right skill sets and keep them in training, and ultimately we were losing more people than we were gaining on a monthly basis. Kelly helped us fill those same positions with people who look at CareTech as a career destination, and who want to stay with us.”
– John Grady, Senior Director of Service Desk Operations, CareTech Solutions
“SE Michigan is a very competitive market where a lot of companies are looking at similar talent, and IT candidates have multiple options. It’s important that we found a partner like Kelly with deep roots in
the local area. They know the market, and can play a big role in helping us to succeed there, as well as in other locations.”
–Venu Vaishya, Executive Vice President,
HTC Global Services, Inc.