subject: Current Trends In The Collections Industry [print this page] Despite the fact that we are in the middle of a recession, many collection agencies are aiming to hire new trainees. According to a recent survey, over 55 percent of bill collection companies have plans to hire more staff in the first half of this year.
To reduce time and aggravation, and to foster long term growth, it is key that you hire the people who are the best fit for the job, preferably picking the right person the first time. In the collections industry, hiring the wrong person for the job eats up management time to train and it leads to an unhappy new hire who could hurt the credibility of the manager and company every time it happens. Legal fees, severance pay, and lost productivity are also all examples of the negative effects of a bad hire.
Interview styles vary from company to company. Behavioral questions are based on the fact that past actions may predict behavior in the future. This sort of style utilizes questions such as "give me an example of", or "what are your best and worst personality traits, and inquiries about how one handles stress.
But maybe the most important principle that any employer should know about interview styles is to get the candidate to be extremely specific. Usually, most interviews involved inquiring into a candidate's job history, but someone who is good at selling you their experience may not be best suited to do the specific job you have in mind.
The most effective way to interview is to cover less ground very thoroughly than to have a superficial sense of where the candidate has been. Do not take their first description as complete - you should try to find out more details.
Look for candidates who are passionate about what they do. By looking under the surface, you can find out if there is authentic depth behind what the candidate initially claimed. Looking beyond qualifications can provide you with details that can give you insight into the way the candidate approaches the job, and what their work habits are like.
