randstad enterprise

enterprise talent advisory services.

Randstad Enterprise Talent Advisory provides an independent, outside-in review and analysis to find your talent edge.

 

dashboard home > customer service

2024 in-demand skills dashboard

choose a skill cluster.

customer service.

With a global workforce of 19 million, demand for customer service skills remains robust despite AI’s transformative impact. Humans are still better at managing personal interactions, building client relationships and leveraging soft skills.

Integral to global white- and blue-collar jobs, these roles face persistent talent scarcity. Experienced professionals often transition from customer service to other fields due to its entry-level image, limited remote opportunities and low compensation — the lowest across all skill clusters.

As a result, hiring complexity averages five times the market difficulty, with modest annual talent growth.

customer service.

what is enterprise talent advisory?

With 80% of CEOs believing talent strategy can impact business performance, talent has never been more critical for organizations. People are the reason any organization succeeds. Individuals alone contribute, but real progress happens when people connect, relate, create and express themselves in sync with business imperatives.

From understanding present and future skills, to anticipating people's AI-driven changing behaviors, to creating a long-term yet agile talent ecosystem, your people strategy is your business edge. This is the motivation to progress, to never stand still. We call this your talent edge.

take me to:

skills & motivations

skills demand

remote & hybrid working

skills supply

compensation

gender diversity

skills & motivations

With high demand across all industries, customer service professionals handle inquiries, resolve issues and ensure customer satisfaction. The role is vital to enhancing customer loyalty, brand reputation and organizational performance, creating customer interactions that form lasting impressions.

Success in customer service requires broad innate core skills encompassing communication, problem-solving and relationship-building, as well as sub-skills (learned skills) such as collaboration, experience with the right technologies and upselling. Motivations include a strong desire to help others, resolve problems and create positive experiences.

core skills

  1. communication skills
  2. empathy
  3. patience
  4. problem-solving abilities
  5. people-oriented
  6. adaptability
  7. organizational skills
  8. composure
  9. culture sensitivity
  10. negotiation
  11. sales skills

sub-skills

  1. collaboration and teamwork
  2. customer interaction platforms
  3. documentation and reporting
  4. feedback collection
  5. issue resolution
  6. product/service knowledge
  7. training and compliance
  8. upselling and cross-selling

motivations

  1. helping others
  2. winning negotiations
  3. professional growth and development
  4. performance incentives
  5. company mission and values alignment
  6. stability and benefits
  7. social interaction
  8. challenging work environment
  9. feedback and recognition
  10. work-life balance
  11. building relationships

talent acquisition excellence

Understand opportunities and create a business case for evolving TA through an in-depth review of people, data, processes and technology across all functional areas and business units.

services include:

    • maturity matrices
    • user experience ratings
    • competitor benchmarks
    • solution plans
    • business case development
    • RFP management

talent strategy blueprint

Build an actionable and sustainable talent strategy blueprint that aligns to business strategy and creates opportunities for accelerated organizational performance.

services include:

    • actionable talent strategy
    • governance frameworks
    • measures for success
    • executive business cases
    • talent and market intelligence

future of work

Lead and influence a partnership to develop and redesign how your organization conducts work. Bring the future closer to today, designed for humanity.

services include:

    • scalable models of work that differentiate
    • talent-centric work that drives performance
    • cross-organizational and skill pods for disruptive thinking

skills supply

what it shows

Skills supply data indicates the total number of individuals who have the skills required for customer service in each of the 23 markets we researched. These figures are based on a combination of verified, normalized labor market data by market and granular, skill-based data sourced from professional social media networks and job boards, and career sites.

Use the chart to understand the availability of skills (“supply map”), availability of sub-skills (“skill type”), talent with recent job search activity (“active talent”), as well as the share of talent who prefer permanent or contract work (“preferred employment type”).

need to know

  1. Hiring complexity is five times the average due to the skill cluster’s entry-level image, low compensation rates and limited growth opportunities.
  2. The U.S. has the largest customer service talent pool (66%) and accounts for 84% of global vacancies.
  3. India, Canada and the U.K. also have significant talent pools, while markets such as Argentina, Norway and Hungary have the smallest.

skills demand

what it shows

Skills demand data indicates job postings that require customer service skills in each of the 23 markets we researched. These figures are based on a combination of verified, normalized labor market data by market and granular, skill-based data sourced from professional social media networks and job boards, and career sites.

See demand for each skill cluster by market, explore demand for sub-skills within each cluster or view the job vacancy rate (JVR) — defined as hiring complexity — to understand market competitiveness for these skills. The higher the JVR, the more competitive it is to recruit.

need to know

  1. Persistent demand despite AI transformation suggests personal interactions, relationship-building and soft skills are challenging for technology to replicate.
  2. Seasoned professionals are 44% harder to find than average, with greater scarcity in Malaysia, India, France and Germany.
  3. Specializations with the highest job vacancy rates (JVR) include upselling and cross-selling, and technology/customer platforms.

compensation

what it shows

The data included in this graph shows the average salary brackets in U.S. dollars for customer service skills in the 23 markets examined. Compensation data is mapped and analyzed from combined sources providing current pay data.

Select the markets of interest to understand what salary ranges are considered competitive and in which markets you should recruit to stay within budget.

need to know

  1. Compensation for customer service skills is the lowest among all skill clusters, at approximately $30,000 annually. This is attributed to a high share of entry-level jobs.
  2. Compensation strategies for customer service skills are often localized and tailored based on role complexity, skill requirements and market conditions.
  3. Technical skills in systems/platforms and software installation lead to salary bumps of 15% to 31% in Western Europe, while sales- and marketing-related skills offer 22% to 27% increases in the U.S., Mexico and Australia.

remote & hybrid working

what it shows

Remote working data shows the percentage of job postings that offer candidates remote or hybrid work for customer service roles (noted as “demand”), as well as talent working preferences (noted as “supply”) in each of the 23 markets researched.

It is estimated that the actual share of remote/hybrid working opportunities is higher than advertised online. You can view the data by both skill cluster and individual skills.

need to know

  1. Just under 5% of job postings offer remote or hybrid work for customer service roles, with 36% of talent preferring it. This is the largest expectation gap across all skill clusters.
  2. The availability of flexible work options varies significantly across regions, showing high resistance or challenges in adopting remote work practices within the customer service skill cluster.
  3. Argentina (43%), Hungary (41%) and Poland (34%) are the most remote/hybrid-friendly markets, while the U.K. (>1%), Sweden and Germany (4%) offer fewer remote opportunities.

gender diversity

what it shows

Gender diversity data shows the current balance of male to female employees currently working in roles that require customer service skills in each of the 23 markets researched. Findings are based on self-identified, normalized data from talent supply sources.

Use the chart to understand in which markets you are more likely to engage female talent for customer service skills. You can view the data by both skill cluster and individual skills.

need to know

  1. Customer service is the most gender-diverse skill cluster, with approximately 43% female talent globally.
  2. Poland, Romania and the U.S. have slightly higher female talent pools than average.
  3. Female representation is highest for professionals with two to ten years of experience, suggesting a relatively balanced gender distribution across the core of the talent pool.

supply

Focusing on four key pillars — talent intelligence; talent experience; diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI); and digital strategy — Randstad Enterprise Talent Advisory audits, reviews and optimizes your talent strategies to ignite the power of your workforce and deliver on business objectives in any market condition. We help you decode the future, today.

Whether you’re seeking a complete review of your current talent infrastructure, want to build a more agile workforce, or are hoping to change the fundamental design of work at your organization for tomorrow, we use a talent-centric lens to ensure your people strategies and business goals align.

We know how to do it because we are you. Our talent advisory leaders have globally designed, built and pioneered the talent industry: from the first potential assessment to the first Relationship Value Proposition to data-driven offshoring decisions; we have designed the future of work in our everyday working life.

you get access to:

your talent advisory choices.

To help you find your talent edge and see the possibilities in your people, Randstad Enterprise Talent Advisory consulting services offer an independent, outside-in review and analysis of your talent acquisition and retention strategies. With access to global data, decades of experience, a tech-agnostic and multidisciplinary approach, and our own reality-based methodologies, we can help you renew talent acquisition, build your talent strategy blueprint and co-design your future of work.

webinar: reframe your enterprise talent blueprint.

March 16, 2023 | 10 a.m. EST | 3 p.m. CET

Join Cisco and The Josh Bersin Company to explore the 2023 Talent Trends findings and learn how your talent strategy can drive a sustainable, supercharged future of work.

 

the benefits.

According to our 2023 Talent Trends research, 80% of human capital leaders around the globe say the goal of their talent strategy is to have a measurable impact on business performance. But so many hurdles stand in the way of that important goal: from economic conditions and uncertainty, to skills gaps and rising talent expectations. Inefficient processes hinder progress, while great opportunities are left on the table and good intentions are left unrealized.

Randstad Enterprise Talent Advisory uses an independent lens to help you:

 

Over the years, your organization has built talent processes and technologies based on changing priorities. Maybe solutions were implemented or processes were established that just don’t make sense for your business anymore. Maybe your technologies don’t talk to each other in ways that you need today. 

Whether you’re a current Randstad client, or working with other talent partners, we provide a fresh, unbiased review and analysis that helps your business see past its familiarity and comfort zones to build talent strategies that deliver the results you need. 

Even if you’re facing shrinking budgets, it’s critical to keep people at the center of your strategies. In fact, according to Forrester Research, talent-centric organizations are expected to generate 32% more revenue than others over a five-year period. Our Enterprise Talent Advisory team can help you enhance the talent experience, from sourcing to offboarding.

Want to boost quality of hire, shortening time to hire or simply find new efficiencies? We will help you identify barriers within your talent acquisition and talent mobility processes, and develop clear plans to improve outcomes.

Don’t let outside factors like talent scarcity and economic conditions stand in the way of your talent and business goals. Building an agile and adaptable workforce means being able to scale as needed, shift and redeploy resources throughout the organization, and create skills abundance for your organization. Randstad Enterprise Talent Advisory will help you figure out how.

How can you inspire your people to do their best work daily? What are the factors that drive productivity at your organization? How can you create the most equitable workplace for your diverse workforce? And how will you make it all sustainable long term? We’ll help you answer these questions to support your workforce of tomorrow.

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take a deep dive into the in-demand skills research and find your competitive talent advantage.

create a business advantage from market uncertainty.

As hiring slows, and talent leaders catch their breath, they’re focused on the ways they can drive transformational change for their organizations through their talent strategies.

How will you put value creation back at the top of your priority list to create a business advantage?

 

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Employers know just how important diversity, equity, inclusion and sustainability are to building workplaces that people are proud of.

But are they taking the right actions to deliver meaningful work experiences? See trend 8 for details.

 

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84% of life sciences and pharma talent leaders say their goal is to have a measurable impact on business performance — up from 63% in 2022. Get the data and insights you need to create value along the enterprise talent life cycle and compete for the people who give your company a competitive edge.

 

about the 2023 talent trends research.

Now in its eighth year, our Talent Trends research has provided insights that human capital leaders need to drive business agility and results with their talent strategies. The 2023 Talent Trends research is a survey of more than 900 C-suite and human capital leaders at global and regional organizations, across 18 markets around the globe.

It is designed to help our clients and the broader business community understand the top HR and talent acquisition trends for 2023, and this year, to help employers look beyond the challenges of today’s environment to create a strong, sustainable and supercharged future of work.

Conducted by a third party on behalf of Randstad Enterprise, survey panels are composed of business leaders who influence both strategic and operational decisions for their organizations. Online surveys were conducted via external panels during Q4 of 2022.

> visit the Talent Trends archive
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