CareerBuilder Leverages Product Knowledge Surveys

By Margery Weinstein

Changes occur regularly in the job search and recruitment industry, and daily within CareerBuilder, so the company needed a way to keep its customer service representatives’ knowledge up to date. The Product Knowledge Survey (PKS) was established to ensure all Customer Care Representatives are knowledgeable about product changes and CareerBuilder’s Website, as well as updates to the company’s internal processes.
CareerBuilder shares the key components and results of this program:

• Brief, 10-question surveys are distributed monthly to all customer care representatives, and require 10 to 20 minutes for completion. The PKS quizzes representatives on relevant changes to CareerBuilder’s business and company based on recent e-mail product releases, press updates, and market trends in the recruitment industry.
• Along with expanding knowledge, all teams compete quarterly to win the PKS banner, which is passed between teams. The winning team is presented with the banner at CareerBuilder’s quarterly awards ceremony and receives a PKS pizza party.
• The contest encourages participation by adding 100 bonus points to the team’s average score. Managers are notified of their employees’ monthly scores, and the PKS scores are reviewed during individual meetings.
• Each team since has devised individual strategies for winning, ranging from creating a participation checklist to distributing calendar-invite reminders.
• At the culmination of each month, team results are distributed to the entire department to update teams on the current competition and recognize those in the lead.

In the first month of the contest, participation increased 56 percent from 41 to 64 participants in CareerBuilder’s Client Support group. The company increased the number of people scoring 100 percent from six to 21.

Participation has remained consistent since the contest’s inception, and on average, CareerBuilder receives about 18 scores of 100 percent each month.

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