The client

Our client, a division of a larger global group, provides customer assistance across travel, health, household, commercial insurance and protection services to customers worldwide.

Central to its operations are contact centres handling calls from people at some of the most difficult moments in their lives. The agents in those centres need to be technically capable and skilled at managing multiple sensitive, high-pressure conversations.

The challenge

Our client was recruiting high-calibre candidates into its contact centres, but too many were leaving within the first 12 months.

Candidate profiling lacked rigour, quality was inconsistent, and attrition was too high. The business had already centralised recruitment for its managerial and professional population; the contact centre presented a larger, more complex challenge across multiple geographies and regulatory environments.

Looking for an experienced partner that could work with pace and flexibility, rather than the overhead of a large consultancy, they asked Change Associates to help.

What we did

We embedded a lead consultant to run the project day-to-day, across a two-year engagement, supported by specialist change management expertise for the final six months before launch.

1. Defining the right candidate profile

We worked with the client to develop a new candidate profile that reflected the full demands of the contact centre role: emotional resilience, communication skills and interpersonal judgement, alongside functional competency. This became the foundation for the process and operating model work that followed.

2. Redesigning the recruitment process

We redesigned the end-to-end recruitment process for the contact centre population, working within the constraints of a corporate talent acquisition platform implementation already underway.

The result was a more rigorous, consistent process that could operate reliably across geographies.

3. A new hub-based operating model

Previously, recruitment had been managed locally, with individuals handling sourcing, interviewing and offers end-to-end.

We redesigned the model around two regional hubs: one is split across two locations covering the Americas, the other provides EMEA-wide coverage across four locations.

Each location was selected based on a combination of language, volume, and time zone requirements.

The transition from a traditional recruiter model to a fully distributed solution introduced a clear separation between the sourcing, screening and assessment teams and the professional recruiters. This shift allowed recruiters to work directly alongside business partners on strategic workforce planning. Ultimately, it created a more scalable and consistent operation, enabling regional hubs to support one another during periods of high demand.

4. Implementation and social plans

We mapped existing capabilities across the recruitment function, identified gaps and managed external hiring into the new hub roles. The restructure required formal social plans in France and Spain, which were managed with full consultation and aligned with local employment requirements.

5. Change management

In the six months before launch, our change management consultant worked with HR directors across the affected geographies to develop the communications approach and ensure that the impact on people in the business was handled with care and transparency.

The result

  • All six service locations became operational in January 2026, following two years of structured delivery.
  • Business case included potential savings of €3-9m.
  • FTE recruitment reduced by 25% with structured plans for further reduction as the model matures.
  • The organisation now has a consistent, profile-led approach to contact centre recruitment operating globally.

The engagement has since expanded. Change Associates is now working with the CHRO on a full redesign of the HR operating model, building on the foundations laid by this project.