The challenge:
As part of their ongoing commitment to enhancing customer service, EE aims to ensure that the demographic composition of their front-line staff reflects that of their customer base. This is particularly important for engaging with vulnerable customers and fostering more empathetic interactions.
The average age of hires in EE’s front-line contact centre teams was between 20 and 29 years, with females being underrepresented in overall applications.
EE required help in attracting candidates who were changing career or returning to work after a break as they recognised this as a cohort their direct hiring strategy and channels were struggling to reach.
The solution:
We collaborated with EE’s talent acquisition and contact centre leadership teams to develop an innovative new approach. Our programme specifically targeted career changers and individuals returning to the workforce, significantly boosting interest from both female applicants and older workers. Additionally, we implemented a high-touch engagement plan that included an onsite experience day and a customer experience foundations course. This approach not only enhanced recruitment strategy but also created substantial social value by investing in community skills development. Our teams undertook targeted outreach - by understanding the needs and preferences of our target demographic, we were able to connect with them more effectively and present EE opportunities in a way that truly resonated with them.
Removing bias: We adopted EE’s CV-less processes at every stage - critical for the success of the project.
Potential over experience: Our experts assessed those looking for work on transferable skills and behaviours - focusing on potential. When asked what they thought about the process, one applicant, said: “Reed Talent Solutions made me feel more confident in applying for this position, which was a little bit out of my comfort zone, so I appreciated the time and feedback.”
Pre-skilling to build confidence: Following an in-depth screening and engagement process carried out by the Reed Talent Solutions team, successful candidates attended an experience day and bitesize customer experience course onsite at EE - a new initiative we designed and introduced as part of the service. “I feel the experience day is a fantastic idea - it gives you a good understanding of the job and what to expect. The team at Reed was great and really helpful with the interview prep, I really enjoyed the process,” said one candidate after the experience day.
Guaranteed interview: Upon completion of these stages, candidates were guaranteed an interview with EE.
Our approach removed any perceived barriers to entry from those looking to work for EE, including misconceptions of working in contact centres, while providing them with the skills and confidence they needed to succeed in the process.
The results:
Head of Volume Talent Acquisition at BT Group, Matthew Howe, is delighted with the partnership, he said: “This work with Reed Talent Solutions has helped us unlock new talent pools within our contact centres. We’ve been able to attract and recruit people looking to return to the workplace or completely change their career by removing perceived barriers to entry and addressing skills gaps.
“The broader diversity has led to improved customer outcomes across our service teams while also adding to our culture.
“Our experience with the team at Reed Talent Solutions throughout the attraction, training and selection process has been brilliant. The project continues to deliver significant change in our diversity of hires with the average age of those we take on more than 20 years above our original age bracket.”
Delivering high-quality new cohorts of talent into EE: We continue to place a high number of people into EE’s contact centre locations across the UK.
Attracting career changers and returners: Over 150 people have been hired via the comprehensive solution.
Diversifying age demographic: Nearly 30% of the individuals employed by EE via the partnership with Reed Talent Solutions are over 55, double that of the average new hire age.
Empowering women in the workforce: 62% of those people place in contact centres as part of the programme identify as female.
Colleague retention: Considerable improvements have been made in EE’s colleague retention, indicating a more engaged and committed call centre workforce.
Reed Talent Solutions’ Solutions Director for Future Skills, Louise Reed, said the project continues to go from strength to strength: “We’ve reached people for the positions who, through our feedback surveys, said they would never have applied directly due to a lack of confidence, lack of skills or their perception of working in a contact centre.
"Our team continues to onboard people into EE’s contact centres from a variety of backgrounds, we have a large number of career changers including former police officer, accountant, chef, professional athlete and a small business owner. Not only that, but we also have several people returning to the workforce – even some who have previously been retired.
“EE continue to reap the benefits of hiring for skills rather than experience, allowing them to drive deeper and more empathetic conversations with their customer base, while driving up retention.”
To find out more about our future skills solutions, get in touch with one of our experts to talk through your needs.
