The compound annual growth rate of the call center market is expected to reach $73.63 billion by 2030.1 This reflects an increasing demand for customer service capabilities across industries.
As demand surges, companies are under pressure to staff up quickly while maintaining the service quality. Hiring too slowly leaves existing staff overwhelmed and customers frustrated with long wait times. However, rushing to fill seats with anyone available often results in poor service delivery, high turnover, and costly rehiring cycles.
This article reveals strategies for the three critical phases of call center seasonal hiring that keep quality high even when you need to fill positions fast.
The 3 Main Aspects of a Fast, High-Quality Hiring Process
SHRM estimates that hiring a new employee can cost around $4,700.2 This means that the speed of hiring can’t be your only focus during surge season.
Each poor hiring decision that results in hasty turnover essentially doubles your costs when you must restart the process. So, to successfully manage call center seasonal hiring, you need to pay attention to three critical phases: screening, training, and onboarding.
Read more: Rapid Hire Wins: How to Fill Critical Roles Before Year-End Deadlines
Screening
Quality starts at the gate. Your screening process determines whether you’re building a capable team or setting yourself up for costly turnover before surge season even peaks.
1. Use Structured Phone Assessments Early in the Process
Traditional screening relies heavily on resume review and in-person interviews that consume significant time. For call center seasonal hiring, implement brief structured phone assessments as your first screening step after application review.
These five- to ten-minute conversations evaluate communication clarity, phone presence, and ability to follow instructions. You can quickly identify candidates with strong verbal skills and professional demeanor while eliminating those who struggle with basic phone communication.
2. Assess Customer Service Aptitude Through Scenario Questions
Include scenario-based questions during screening that reveal how candidates naturally approach customer situations. Present common call center scenarios like handling frustrated customers, managing multiple system screens simultaneously, or dealing with requests outside their authority to resolve.
Listen for candidates who demonstrate empathy and problem-solving skills, which are strong indicators of success in customer service roles.
3. Verify Schedule Availability and Attendance Reliability Immediately
Call center operations depend on precise schedule coverage, making attendance reliability crucial even for seasonal roles. During the initial screening, verify that candidates can commit to your specific schedule requirements.
Ask direct questions about topics that can be a source of conflict when discussing schedules. Check references specifically for attendance patterns rather than just general performance.
Training
Training differs from onboarding in a critical way: training teaches people how to do the job, while onboarding helps them fit into your organization. During surge season, your training must be laser-focused on immediate job performance.
1. Develop Condensed Training Modules Focused on Core Competencies
Create condensed training modules that focus exclusively on the core competencies required for immediate productivity. This typically includes your phone system operation, basic troubleshooting steps, common customer issues and their solutions, and escalation procedures.
Strip away nice-to-have knowledge about company history or career development content that does not apply to seasonal roles. This focused approach gets people taking calls faster while maintaining the quality standards customers experience.
2. Implement Shadowing and Supervised Call Practice Before Go-Live
Research shows that 68 percent of leaders recognize a direct link between employee enablement and business growth. So, properly preparing your seasonal staff directly impacts your business results during critical peak periods.3
Build shadowing time into your training. Follow shadowing sessions with supervised practice where trainees take calls while a coach listens and provides immediate feedback. This identifies specific areas where individuals need additional coaching before they work independently.
3. Create Quick Reference Tools That Support Real-Time Performance
Even well-trained representatives forget procedures or encounter unfamiliar situations during live calls. Develop quick reference tools that help representatives find answers without lengthy searching. For example:
- Laminated cheat sheets
- Searchable knowledge bases
- Desktop shortcuts
These tools allow newer representatives to handle more call types independently and reduce the burden on supervisors who would otherwise field constant questions.
Onboarding
Onboarding goes beyond teaching tasks—it integrates new hires into your team culture and sets them up for success. For rapid seasonal hiring, effective onboarding prevents the isolation and confusion that drive early turnover.
1. Assign Peer Mentors to Support Seasonal Hires
New seasonal hires benefit from peer mentors who can answer questions and help them navigate informal norms that training programs never cover. To achieve this, select experienced representatives who demonstrate strong performance and positive attitudes to serve as mentors for small groups of new hires.
The goal is to reduce isolation and overwhelm that drives early turnover while building relationships that improve overall team dynamics despite the temporary nature of their roles.
2. Schedule Feedback Check-Ins Within First Week
Waiting until formal performance reviews to provide feedback means problems become entrenched and correctable issues go unaddressed. Schedule brief feedback conversations with each new hire within their first three to five days on the floor.
Acknowledge what they are doing well, address any concerning patterns before they become habits, and give new hires opportunities to ask questions or raise concerns.
3. Build Team Connection Through Surge-Specific Recognition
Seasonal employees sometimes feel disconnected from permanent staff and company culture. This can reduce their engagement and even increase turnover.
Prevent this by creating recognition programs specifically for your surge teams. Celebrate their contributions and build identity around successfully supporting customers during peak periods.
Read more: Tips for Temp Success: How to Effectively Onboard and Integrate Temp Roles in the Workplace
Ready for surge-season staffing that doesn’t compromise on quality?
Partner with Masis Staffing to secure customer-ready agents fast—without sacrificing screening, training, or onboarding rigor. With our 72-hour fast-track hiring process and end-to-end talent management, we deliver pre-vetted, fully onboarded personnel who are ready to hit the ground running.
Whether you need call center agents or workforce schedulers, we’ve got you covered for holiday waves and mid-season capacity scaling.
Contact us today to learn more about our services!
References
- “Call Centres Market – Global Forecast 2025-2032.” Research and Markets, Oct. 2025, www.researchandmarkets.com/report/call-centres.
- Navarra, Katie . “The Real Costs of Recruitment.” SHRM, 11 Apr. 2022, www.shrm.org/topics-tools/news/talent-acquisition/real-costs-recruitment.
- “Zendesk for Employee Experience: Applying CX Strategies for Better Internal Support.” ZenDesk, 8 Aug. 2022, www.zendesk.com/newsroom/articles/zendesk-for-better-internal-support/.
