For those who want, there are opportunities in customer contact. This applies both to employers who are diligently looking for agents who stay on board for longer than three months, as well as to people who have difficulty finding a job. One of the programs is Aan Zet by VANAD Academy.  

 

'Aan Zet' is the VANAD Academy program in which people are trained and guided towards a job in customer contact. “This CSR initiative comes from VANAD founder Ad Nederlof," light Susanna Nevalainen, Creative Lead Engage Academy please. At the start of this program, there was still collaboration with other parties, but it has been running independently for four years now.

“It's a result-oriented program,” explains Nevalainen. “How do we ensure that people learn a trade as effectively and efficiently as possible, so that they can take a new step in their lives? In Ad Nederlof's eyes, we are generally doing well, which creates the moral obligation to help others as well. In those four years I have seen all kinds of stories of people who are stuck and don't know how to move on."

Education, certificate and possibly a job

The name of the Aan Zet program also contains the core of the content. An important theme in the program is therefore learning to take back control of your own life.

“The participants come from all kinds of backgrounds: three months (or longer) unemployed, burnout, people with job application problems, debt problems. For example, we know that people with financial problems are more likely to make unwise decisions because our brains function differently. Often there are several problems at the same time, people lose the overview. Sometimes people are stuck in a victim role. For some participants, functioning fully in society is still a challenge at the start.”

A clear line is drawn with the On Turn program: it is not therapy. Nevalainen: “From NLP principles we say: 'You have to do it yourself and you don't have to do it alone.' That is our slogan and we explain it very clearly during the first day. The trainers are there to help you as a candidate with an education, a certificate and possibly a job. We provide strict frameworks: who should you contact with which questions? The trainers at Aan Zet are good at setting hard boundaries and are also good at empathy, but they have had to learn quite a bit to do that in recent years.”

Rotterdam region

For the intake of participants, Aan Zet works together with job coaches from various municipalities in the Rotterdam region. The job coaches each have their own focus areas, of which working in customer contact can be one. “In order to participate in the Aan Zet programme, you must meet certain minimum requirements, such as a good command of the Dutch language. Job coaches perform the pre-selection from the municipality on the basis of information we provide: what does it mean to work at a call center? We then add a number of introductory days to this to get a good idea of ​​someone's suitability. The participants are therefore really 'hand-picked'. We also test a number of skills and, for example, do a language test. Of course we also check whether people could potentially work at VANAD Engage.”

More than KSF attainment targets

During five weeks, the participants are in training four days a week. Currently, 60 percent of this is classical and 40 percent digital. “The Aan Zet candidates also have to learn what it is like to work in a hybrid way,” explains Nevalainen. “In these five weeks we pay a lot of attention to personal development, such as communication skills, social skills, conflict management and skills with which you can organize your own life – including a bit of job application training. In the training, participants also learn how their behavior appears to others and how they can take others or rules and regulations into account. There is no room for aggression, we want to provide a safe learning environment.”

After five weeks, an exam is taken that, if successful, results in the KSF branch certificate (the so-called starter certificate, at MBO3 level). At that time, the participants have learned much more than just what falls under the CSF attainment targets, Nevalainen emphasizes. The success rate is 99,9 percent, but that requires testing, testing and quite a few conversations and training hours.

Three-quarters enter

Participants who roll off the line still need additional training on an Engage account before they can start working there. By the time someone gets their certificate, the participants have therefore already had conversations with the VANAD Engage recruiter to see which projects someone could be suitable for. “Three-quarters enter our organization, a quarter finds a job elsewhere in collaboration with the job coaches,” says Nevalainen.

The municipality pays for the training of the participants. Usually the participants have a social benefit; if necessary, the municipalities arrange childcare during the training, so that the road to work does not contain too many practical obstacles.

'Distance to the labor market'

“Over the past four years, we have trained a total of about 170 people,” says Nevalainen. “That means we have three to four classes every year. So it's definitely not a factory; it takes a lot of attention, love and customization. Once the municipalities have brought together a group of candidates, we will start a new round.”

This model is interesting for VANAD Engage because it offers access to less visible groups on the labor market. If candidates have successfully completed their training, they can move on to a job at VANAD Engage. Extra attention is required in the first months, and cooperation with the job coaches of the municipalities is also relevant during this period.

“Some people say 'that's that group of people with a distance to the labor market'. My response is usually 'do you have any idea how easily you could end up in that situation?'”

About 30 percent quit within three to four months, but the majority remain on board with Engage for a longer period of time. Nevalainen: “That is also thanks to the team leaders, who have all been guided by the recruitment team in recent years: what should you pay attention to in this group? At a certain point, the employees from the Aan Zet groups themselves no longer want a distinction to be made. Mothering is counterproductive, let people figure things out for themselves - then they grow. We also occasionally have to deal with people who say 'that is the group of people who are at a distance from the labor market'. My response is usually 'do you have any idea how easily you could end up in that situation?' One of our hobbyhorses is Kevin, who is now a team leader himself within the Transavia account.”

Scale up and inspire

In contrast to the prejudices of 'people with a distance to the labor market', there is a growing interest in the Aan Zet process itself. “It is of course my dream to use our experience in this area to scale up the model to other professions. It is a complex process with a lot of human attention, but with a clear philosophy. But it is also a process with which we can draw attention to the customer contact profession. I also hope that an initiative like Aan Zet inspires other contact centers. It can also be done on a very small scale. In my view, the contact center is a very social workplace where you can give excellent substance to inclusive employment.” Of course you have to invest extra in the first few months, but you do make a fundamental contribution to people's happiness at work and life, concludes Nevalainen.
(Ziptone/Erik Bouwer)

Read also: How do you get more people to work in customer contact? Six programs highlighted

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