Breaking down the BPO hiring process

This is a common topic customers ask about when analyzing their potential outsourcing partners. When having a meeting, they are intrigued about the hiring process, since the agents that will be hired will be interacting with customers, they need to make sure that those agents fit, both in skills and values. 

We understand you may have several questions about this, even after meeting with a potential partner. It is only normal that you show interest in understanding how the partner finds the right candidate and how performance is measured. 

In this article, we will discuss how we find the right agent, what our process looks like in a few steps, and how we adapt to the customer needs when finding the best talent.

Defining the Right Candidate Before We Start Hiring

The first step for a successful BPO hiring process is to have a clear understanding of what the right candidate looks like. So, the first thing we do is to ensure cross-department alignments where we discuss expectations. Then our Sales, Recruitment, and Client Services teams work together to define the next steps.

When a new customer approaches us, the Sales and Recruitment team collaborate on outlining an ideal candidate profile. Making sure it is based on a deep understanding of the customer’s needs, going beyond generic role requirements. Early steps include defining needs and customer experience goals, where project requirements that later influence hiring are discussed.

​​This shared definition ensures we are not simply filling roles, but identifying candidates who are best suited to represent each client’s brand. We take our customers’ tone of voice and brand personality into account when working on defining the right candidate, their skills, and traits.

We define the right fit based on the following criteria: 

Client values and needs

Sales and Client Service teams work closely with the customers to understand what matters to them beyond performance expectations. How agents must handle interactions, how to approach challenging situations, and what behaviors are expected from the agents.

These insights guide which skills and personality traits are prioritized during screening, such as positivity, proactiveness, and eagerness to learn. We want the customer culture to be well-represented through the teams we build for you, that’s why we don’t just define technical skills needed.

Brand voice

When hiring for customer service or other client-facing roles, you need to ensure the candidate adapts to the company’s tone of voice. This ensures consistency in every interaction and part of the journey. Technical skills fall short if the agent is not able to represent the company while interacting with customers, making it very important that brands have a defined personality to tailor the hiring process.

Technical skills and requirements

Even though these skills are not always the top priority, they are still very important to find the right candidate. Each industry has its own set of requirements and expectations, highlighting the need of personalizing the hiring process. For example, customer support for an eCommerce brand differs from a FinTech or compliance-driven role, where knowledge of areas like KYC/AML regulations is critical. 

To ensure the agent has skills and knowledge on technical aspects and regulations, we create tailored assessments and interviews.

Interests and relevance

Beyond skills, we pay close attention to candidate interests and preferences. Matching agents with brands or industries they genuinely relate to, such as fashion, health, or technology, helps improve engagement, contextual understanding, and long-term retention. Candidates who enjoy the subject matter are more likely to connect with customers, understand their concerns, and stay committed to the role over time.

This is very important for our people-first philosophy, as we believe keeping employees happy and motivated is key to a successful CX strategy. We encourage companies to hire agents who show true passion for their industry and products, which also highlights the importance of the potential customer to be involved in the hiring process.

Our End-to-End BPO Hiring Process (Step-by-Step)

1. Application & CV review

Our hiring process is designed to prioritize quality, relevance, and long-term fit, we don’t look for employees who don’t show passion or stability. Rather than hiring at scale and filtering later, candidates are evaluated through a structured process that progressively validates language skills, mindset, experience, and client alignment.

The first filter is reviewing what the candidate is looking for, their expectations, and the experience they possess.

1. Initial recruiter screening (language + communication)

The next step is for qualified candidates to complete an initial screening with a recruiter, where their skills will be evaluated through some initial questions. These questions focus heavily on spoken English proficiency and communication clarity. Strong language skills are essential for customer-facing roles; candidates who do not meet the required standard are filtered out early in the process.

We try to evaluate candidates with initial questions that highlight their role-specific skills, communication abilities, language proficiency, and industry/product knowledge. If their experience and answers match, then their process continues.

1. On-site interview & English assessment

This interview allows recruiters to further evaluate communication style, the agent’s attitude, and overall professionalism. Candidates also complete an English grammar assessment to validate written proficiency and consistency across communication channels. Clearance through this stage typically takes one to two days.

Not all candidates match their spoken and written language skills, so if you are looking for email or chat support, this assessment ensures they translate their ideas with clarity.

1. Role-specific or client-specific assessments

Depending on the role and industry, candidates may be asked to complete additional assessments. The idea is for agents to perform standardized tasks to evaluate their skills in real-world situations, psychological assessments, or client-provided case studies. The goal is to assess traits such as empathy, resilience, adaptability, results orientation, and the ability to work within deadlines, alongside any technical or industry-specific requirements.

Some assessments are standardized across roles, while others are tailored to the client’s needs and form part of Horatio’s internal evaluation approach. We try to include real cases where we can evaluate an agent’s ability to step up to the situations they might encounter at their job. Acting as a new filter, this allows for more in-depth skills and personality evaluations. 

1. Client Service validation & final fit check

In the final stage, the Client Service team interviews shortlisted candidates to see if they are a great fit for the specific client. This step focuses on combining previous filters to ensure they are here for the right reasons. The Client Service team acts as the client’s internal representative, ensuring candidates align with the brand, expectations, and service standards defined earlier in the process.

Candidates are only approved once Client Service confirms suitability for the role. Even if they excel at technical skills and language, if their personality and mindset don’t match your company’s standards, then they won’t be hired. Cultural fit is just as important as mastering role-specific skills.

1. Background check and candidate verification

Before any offer is extended, candidates undergo a government-certified background check focused on criminal history. This is a standard requirement across roles, background checks are a critical safeguard for client data, internal operations, and long-term partnerships.

Performing due diligence is a responsibility that’s critical as one final filter. Let’s say you have found a great candidate who has everything you were looking for, but they’re impersonating someone else, then you’d be involved in legal issues. 

1. Offer extension

Following successful validation and completion of required background checks, an offer is extended to the candidate. This final step reflects a hiring decision based on alignment across Recruitment and Client Service, ensuring the candidate is well-positioned for long-term success with the client.

As a result of these standards, particularly around language proficiency, Horatio’s average hire rate is approximately 8%, reflecting a selective process focused on quality rather than volume. 

Even though this is not our detailed process, these are the steps we always follow in every hiring process; some may be added if needed, but these 7 steps are the most critical to follow.

How We Assess Skills and Compatibility

Language proficiency and communication clarity

Strong English proficiency is a baseline requirement for customer-facing roles. Our specific requirements include a C1 English level, which we test through spoken and grammatical assessments. This ensures candidates communicate clearly and confidently with customers and will easily understand their needs.

Role-specific skills (tools, workflows, client requirements)

We know that even though there are some general customer support skills, they are not enough to cover industry-specific roles. What the customer tells us they need helps us assess for specific tools, workflows, or skills. 

We create the assessments based on customer needs, but they also contribute to creating them, as we won’t evaluate candidates without the customer approving the assessment. Some might even share real cases they’ve encountered to evaluate how agents would solve the situation. 

Psychological or situational assessments

Where applicable, candidates complete psychological or situational assessments to evaluate traits that influence performance under real-world conditions. We focus on attributes such as:

• Energy
• Resilience
• Empathy
• Adaptability
• Results orientation
• The ability to manage deadlines

This layer of evaluation helps identify candidates who can handle the emotional demands of customer support, adapt to change, and maintain consistency under pressure. Some people are not fit for some roles as they break down when facing big challenges or fail when needing to adapt.

Our custom approach 

While some evaluation methods are standardized to maintain consistency, others are customized as part of our internal approach. These client-specific and proprietary elements are part of our secret sauce approach to recruitment, which allows us to assess compatibility in ways that go beyond resumes or generic testing.

Our goal is to maintain quality and relevance always by matching candidates to roles and clients where their skills, experience, and working style are most likely to translate into long-term success.

We don’t want to fill hiring boxes only or bring people to fill in your team; we want to ensure the agents are motivated and talented enough to grow with your company. 

How Much Is The Customer Involved?

Client involvement is designed to be flexible, reflecting a combination of maturity and trust. Our goal is for customers to trust us to find agents capable of representing their brand. This means they will be required to be a part of some steps in the process, while still allowing us to perform as we usually do. 

The role of the Client Service Manager

All clients will have their Client Service Manager (CSM), who will act as their representative. The CSM needs to be a part of the entire hiring process, as they need to validate that we are focusing our efforts on the customer’s needs. They are in charge of interviewing the shortlisted candidates and validating that they are a fit for skills and culture. 

The CSM must ensure the agents’ values and knowledge match the role requirements, and they act as intermediaries between the BPO hiring team and the customer.

Options for direct client involvement

Customers can be as hands-on as they want; we don’t make them adapt to our processes, we decide how much we’ll be collaborating with them. Some will prefer to be directly involved in interviews, assessment evaluations, or background checks; that’s up to them. Others may entirely trust the CSM and our hiring team, and their involvement will be only when required. 

Customers have the freedom to choose, as long as we can ensure their satisfaction, we can adapt to their preferences.

A balance of control and delegation

The flexible hiring model allows companies to delegate the hiring process entirely, and this can be a great advantage for some BPOs. Those who can take over day-to-day repetitive tasks can win over customers with tight agendas. While those who can collaborate thoroughly with the customer will win over the ones that wnat to actively participate in the process.

The outsourcing relationship is based on trust and collaboration, so the customer has the opportunity to decide how to collaborate with our teams. 

Adapting the Process for Ramp-Ups and Growth

At Horatio, when a customer asks for a ramp-up, we always manage it through planning ahead and advanced preparation. Our goal is to maintain the same quality as a regular hiring process instead of bringing people to your team quickly just for the hiring’s sake.

How hiring scales without sacrificing quality: As we mentioned, keeping consistency is one of our biggest priorities, hence becoming our top strength. We go back to our initial hiring process for the customer, and collaborate with them to define any changes. If the decision is to keep the same guidelines as the initial process, then we immediately start searching for candidates. 

If we decide to change any needed skill, whether technical or emotional, we create a new ideal candidate profile to ensure quality in the hiring process. To support this, we maintain pre-vetted procedures and talent pipelines that can be activated during high-volume seasons. Allowing our customers to scale effectively while keeping their needs in mind.

Recruitment calibration during ramp-ups: Sales and Client Service teams need to collaborate again to define needs, deadlines, and the process to follow based on the customer’s needs. The CSM is in charge of communicating what the customer expects, so we can start working on the talent search. Then we decide whether to draw people from our pre-vetted pools or source new people. 

Maintaining standards under time pressure: To prevent timelines from interfering with the customer's needs, we always make sure the CSM is involved in every stage of the process. We don’t hire any candidate if they’ve not been previously approved by the CSM in accordance with the customer. We aim to keep satisfaction for both the customer and the employee, so we make sure everyone agrees they’re a great fit before moving on.

How Employer Branding Attracts Talent, and Culture Helps Retain It

The hiring process and retention strategies need to be aligned to ensure you are attracting the right candidates who are willing to grow with your organization. Attracting the right talent through great employer branding and retaining them is closely linked to your culture and reputation. Your hiring process is the filter to attract good talent, but that does not mean they will stay. 

If your culture doesn’t support an environment that motivates employees to grow, then you’ll just be role-farming. Hiring people just to drown them in a job they won’t enjoy ruins your company’s reputation.

You build a reputation based on your culture and how well your employees feel while working with you. Growth opportunities, company perks, and hiring standards play a critical role of how people will perceive your business. But a selective hiring process means nothing if you don’t build a strong culture that retains employees.

In customer support, where human interaction is central, this distinction matters.

Studies show that organizations with strong employer branding see up to a 28% reduction in turnover, reinforcing the link between reputation, hiring quality, and long-term retention.

We believe that keeping employees happy will translate into happier customers and stronger retention for both. That’s why we center our employees at the core of our business, investing in the following foundations for long-term retention:

• Competitive compensation
• Ongoing training 
• Access to modern tools
• Clear development opportunities
• Meals and transportation provided
• Wellness programs and access to mental health resources

Ensuring a human-centric culture through hiring

Customer experience is delivered through your employees, and your people’s performance is directly related to how they feel when working with you. If your culture is not well-translated or doesn’t connect with the employees, then you are wasting your efforts. 

If you believe that a human-centered culture is needed to retain your customers, then start by applying that culture internally. It all starts from the ground up; if your employees don’t feel valued, they won’t care about your customers, so you lose them both.

When you shift that mindset, and the main driver for all your efforts becomes offering a human-centric experience, every aspect of your business shows it. Reflecting itself in the hiring process as well. Transform your business into a workplace everyone wants to be in.

We believe that everyone deserves a great experience with us, whether it is through an outsourcing partnership, a job relationship, or just by reviewing our website. That’s why we focus our philosophy on putting our people first, translating it to every interaction. Contact us and let's start collaborating on creating the perfect team for your business.

Key Takeaways

• Customized "Ideal Candidate" Profiling: We don't just fill seats with generic resumes. Before hiring begins, our Sales, Recruitment, and Client Service teams collaborate to build a profile based on your brand’s specific values, technical requirements, and unique "tone of voice."
• A Rigorous, Quality-First Funnel: With an average hire rate of approximately 8%, our 7-step vetting process is highly selective. We filter for C1 English proficiency, technical aptitude, and "soft skills" like empathy and resilience through role-specific assessments.
• Interest-Based Matching for Better CX: We prioritize "relevance" by matching agents with industries they are genuinely passionate about (e.g., Tech, Fashion, or FinTech). This passion leads to higher engagement, authentic customer connections, and significantly better long-term retention.
• Flexible Client Involvement: You decide your level of control. Whether you want to be hands-on in every interview or prefer to delegate the process to your dedicated Client Service Manager (CSM), our workflow adapts to your schedule and trust level.
• Human-Centric Culture as a Retention Engine: We believe happy employees lead to happy customers. By investing in competitive compensation, wellness programs, and clear growth paths, we reduce turnover by up to 28%, ensuring your brand is represented by a stable, motivated team.

FAQs

How does Horatio’s hiring process ensure candidates are the right fit for our business?

Our process starts with a close partnership between Sales and Recruitment to outline the ideal candidate profile. We also coordinate a meeting with the client to get a better understanding of the project nuances, ensuring we identify the exact skills and personality traits needed for a perfect match.

What level of English proficiency do we require for customer support roles?

For customer-facing roles, we require C1-level English proficiency. Candidates are assessed through spoken and written evaluations to ensure they can communicate clearly, confidently, and with the nuance required for real customer interactions.

What types of assessments do candidates require to complete?

Candidates complete a mix of standardized assessments and role- or client-specific skills assessments. Client services look for language proficiency, technical tools knowledg,e or a psychological evaluation, if needed. 

How much involvement do clients have in the hiring process?

Client involvement is flexible. Some clients prefer to meet and interview candidates directly, while others fully entrust the process to their Client Service Manager. In all cases, Client Service validates final fit to ensure alignment with client expectations.

Who makes the final hiring decision?

Candidates are only approved after validation by the Client Service team, which acts as the client’s internal representative.

How does Horatio’s hiring process differ from a standard BPO?

Our approach emphasizes custom fit, language rigor, and long-term retention. We look deep into what a client does to ensure we find a fit that goes beyond basic requirements, focusing on quality over volume.

Why does employee retention matter so much in BPO hiring?

High turnover leads to repeated training, knowledge loss, and service inconsistency.

Is Horatio’s hiring process suitable for regulated industries like FinTech or healthcare?

Yes. For regulated or specialized roles, candidates are assessed for role-specific expertise. For example, compliance specialists are required to demonstrate a solid understanding of KYC/AML regulations and other industry-specific requirements before being approved.