English Customer Service Outsourcing within the Plurinational State of Bolivia in South America: the Advantage and Process of Recruiting Highly-Proficient Bilingual Bolivian English/Spanish Speakers

Bolivia: The Reputability of its English Language Education

Though its official language is Spanish – specifically that which is in accordance with the linguistical standards of the Royal Spanish Academy (Real Academia Española), Latin America’s Plurinational State of Bolivia is a technologically-advanced South American country that places itself amongst most of South America when it comes to reputable education in the English language, offering mandatory English language studies in the majority of public and private secondary education schools from kindergarten to high school, as well as giving Bolivian graduates the opportunity to continue their English literacy coursework in both private and public universities. As of late, Bolivia’s overall literacy rate has reached a strong percentage of 92.5%, placing the country amongst the middle average of all the world’s countries in terms of global language literacy. When it comes to higher education, all of Bolivia’s top and semi-top colleges – such as: Universidad Mayor de San Andrés, Universidad Mayor de San Simón, Universidad Católica Boliviana San Pablo, etcetera – offer graduate students reputable academic programs in language studies and linguistics that teach English from the intermediate to the mastery levels; furthermore, generally-speaking, in public and private universities – and especially in private language institutions – the language teaching standards are extremely high, preferring that colleges and institutions either contract native American English or British English professors or teachers or contract English teachers that have rigorously studied the English language and can prove that their knowledge of the English language is at native proficiency – likewise, proving that they have received accreditation from a reputable language institute.

In addition to the contracting of highly-proficient English professors, public and private universities and language institutions not only provide conversational English language training, but they also provide TOEFL level language preparation as well as business level English to successfully prepare Bolivian students for success in the business world.

Callnovo Contact Center in La Paz, Bolivia: Recruitment Process of Highly-Proficient Bilingual Bolivian English/Spanish Speakers

Within our Bolivian call center office, our recruitment and training process is pretty straightforward – promoting efficiency in the rapid hiring and training of only the most competent customer service agents that demonstrate no less than the highest English and Spanish language literacy which is suitable for the position and tasks associated with customer service outsourcing; the recruitment steps are as follows:

1. Online Application – since Bolivia’s internet penetration rate currently ranks a high of approximately 65%, our Bolivian recruitment management team has determined that soliciting customer service (CS) candidates via online application is the most effective means of getting candidates.
2. Interview – a step that is performed in various phases:
   1. Phase One – Once customer support candidates have applied online for a customer service position, their resume (also known as curriculum vitae) is then reviewed by an experienced customer service call center recruiter who then decides if the CS candidate is a worthy prospect.
   1. Phase Two – Once the curriculum vitae (CV) document has been reviewed and the candidate has been decided upon, then an initial phone interview is set-up whereby recruitment has the opportunity to get to know each candidates’ experience, as well as to get to know their personality via a first impression.
   1. Phase Three – Candidates are then scheduled for a personal interview with our Human Resources (HR) department whereby they are acutely tested on key skills associated with the CS position – such as: communication and language skills, cognitive abilities, technical skills, their perception on and sound judgement of hypothetical situations, and also their competency and experience in various skills associated with their particular position.
3. Verification – After being interviewed by the HR department, HR will then correctly verify each applicant’s education and work experience/history; candidates at this point are provided with a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA), Non-compete form, and authorization request form that gives HR the permission to perform a nationwide background check in order to assure Callnovo that candidates do not have criminal records.
4. 2^nd Interview and Training – Once candidates gone through recruitment steps 1-3 and are still considered for hire, they are then given a personal video interview that includes the Bolivian operations manager – as well as the client account manager.
   1. The video interview gives actual account managers the opportunity to get to know the CSR on a personal level; CSRs are tested on certain factors such as: native language proficiency, service attitude and enthusiasm, logical thinking skills, and product and troubleshooting service experience – amongst others. If both the operations manager and the account manager agree on the CSR’s competency to fulfill the account’s specific job requirements, then the CSR starts training for the specific campaign and passes onto the next step.
5. Certification – Candidates must pass campaign-specific tests – and a certification call must be made by the account manager or vendor manager – before they are promoted to the operations floor.
6. Hiring and Onboarding – The last step is to finalize the hiring and onboarding process; HR provides the hired customer care representatives with work contracts, creates local bank accounts for the customer care agents, has CSRs fill out their appropriate insurance information, and then informs the CSRs on company policy and procedures. CSRs are then cleared for service.