Collection Staff Hiring Practices
The cornerstone of any collection operation is the collector. At North American Recovery, we offer our collectors solid compensation plans, lucrative incentive programs, and extraordinary benefits. By providing a single location of operation, we do not have the high operational costs of multi-branch agencies; this allows us to re-invest a higher percentage of revenues in the collection process. The result is a tightly controlled, state-of-the-art collection operation.
With the advent of advanced technological breakthroughs—such as predictive dialers and online services—many agencies have forgotten that the collection process still relies on a talented, professional debt collector. We at North American Recovery realize that it takes a qualified, skilled collector on the phone every day, talking to neighbors, relatives, and finally, to your consumers. Our operation focuses on the collector with our technology in support, not the other way around.
When hiring collectors, we look for highly motivated individuals who will thrive in a competitive, professional environment. We do not require prior collection experience from potential candidates. This may sound odd, but we have developed such a comprehensive training program that it does not matter if someone has prior experience or not. In ninety days, we will have our new collectors trained and operating at full speed. In fact, it is usually easier to train "green" collectors because they have not developed bad habits from working for another agency. We look for the right type of person, one whose personality traits allow them to perform the difficult job using our proven professional techniques, which enables them to enjoy long-term success.
Every prospective collector goes through the same four-step interview process as all of our other employees. This process includes a first interview with a department supervisor, a criminal background check, a credit and reference background check, a second interview with a senior manager, and finally, a pre-employment drug test. All collectors (and all employees, for that matter) must also pass our FDCPA test before we allow them to begin performing their job. We hold re-training classes daily for collectors (weekly for all other employees), and we re-test everyone quarterly. We also train and test our collectors on state collection regulations.