“Our best producing agents are our next supervisors and managers!” said no great contact center leader ever!
I like metaphors, so let’s use one. I’m a baseball fan. If you look at Major League Baseball, the managers of billion-dollar franchises are often unknown, ex-players, but they were the best leaders regardless of their batting average! They understand the nuances of the game. They have earned the respect of coaches and players. Your highest producers certainly deserve recognition. That doesn’t mean they deserve a promotion, and it certainly does not mean they should be leading others. Bruce Bochy, who managed the Texas Rangers and San Francisco Giants, was at best a sub-par player but went on to win 4 World Series rings as a manager. How do you find your Bruce Bochys?
Not to pile on, but now you have the added complication of your teams being dispersed across multiple environments like in-office, remote, and hybrid. The search is still just as important. The process just got more complicated, not impossible. Stick with me here, and let’s talk through it!
Don’t let the nearest desk choose your shortlist
Picture two experienced agents helping new hires through the same process. One sits a few desks from your office. You hear the explanation, see the patience, and notice the follow-up. The other does the same work from home through a conversation you weren’t a part of. When a supervisor position opens, whose name comes to your mind?
That is proximity bias, and it’s robbing you of opportunities to move your company forward. In its 2025 research, CIPD surveyed 2,050 UK HR professionals and found that 32% of employers were concerned about home and hybrid workers being treated differently in areas such as career development and progression. Careerminds published a 2025 survey of more than 1,000 full-time U.S. workers in which 48% of remote workers reported feeling overlooked for promotions, projects, or skill-development opportunities, and only 17% of remote workers got access to leadership programs. People who feel passed over may look for greener pastures and an opportunity to showcase their talents. Don’t let proximity bias ruin your leadership pipeline.
Also, the answer isn’t to swing the pendulum in the other direction and discount agents in the office. Give everyone a fair chance to demonstrate the same skills!
Look for leadership beyond the production report
So, what can you do? First, don’t tear up your production reports. Just do not treat them as holy canon. They’re a piece of a larger puzzle that you need to put together. Here are some other effective steps you can take.
Notice who teammates trust. Your agents will tell you all you need to know if you just talk to them. Ask agents across environments who helped them recently and what made the help useful. Ask them who they go to when they have a problem. You will find it’s often not their current supervisor. It’s your next supervisor. Then, follow up with a trainer or supervisor who worked alongside that person. Look beyond popularity to how well they explain the work and whether teammates leave better prepared.
Listen to how they bring you a problem. Invite candidates to explain an issue during a shared huddle. Listen for what happened, what they tried, and where they need a decision from you. Ask them how they would fix the problem or coach other agents through it. It’s not a presentation. It’s a conversation. Who cares if they can create a PowerPoint? You need someone who can communicate a problem even to people who weren’t there.
Watch what their initiative creates. An agent spots a recurring problem. They come up with a solution. What do they do next? Do they take that solution through the right channels, or do they just tell everyone around them to do it differently? Processes be damned! Ask those other agents how that went. How your potential leaders solve a problem is just as important as whether they solve it. Pay attention to whether the candidate seeks the right approvals. You want a leader and not a rogue agent causing chaos in your workflows.
Pay attention when things go sideways. Let’s face it, contact centers have plenty of sideways moments to go around. During those moments, notice who shares useful updates with colleagues and helps them through the problem. You don’t need someone who never gets frustrated. You need someone who responds instead of reacting when they do get frustrated.
Look at what gets better around them. Have a candidate support a new hire in another location or environment, with a supervisor or trainer in reserve. Check back with both people afterward. Find out whether the new hire learned to handle the task or the candidate simply took it over. That follow-up tells you more than counting the number of offers to help another teammate.
One great example I recently observed was with a current BPO customer. During nesting, they have one training manager, but that is not who assists the nesting agents. This company brings in experienced agents to run the nesting program under the guidance of the trainer. This allows the new teammates to get practical experience from people that do the work, but it also allows the training manager to report to leadership about how those mature agents worked with the trainees.
Give everyone a fair chance to lead
Not everyone wants to be a leader. Some people thrive as followers. Start by asking who actually wants to supervise. A great agent shouldn’t be “voluntold” into a management career. Invite interested people across shifts and locations into the same development opportunities.
As an example, over the next 30 days, rotate small responsibilities such as leading a huddle or supporting nesting. Schedule the time and adjust production expectations so helping others doesn’t make a candidate look less productive. Have supervisors participate enough to understand the work, then note what the person did and what happened afterward.
At the review, compare specific examples rather than feelings. Check whether remote, hybrid, and office-based candidates received comparable opportunities. A blank page of notes may mean you haven’t worked closely enough with someone, not that they lack potential.
Use the month to decide who merits further development. One good huddle doesn’t make someone ready to lead and one bad one doesn’t eliminate them.
Bring the team together before choosing who leads it
Times have changed. Your environments have changed. You can’t just walk the floor anymore…or can you? You knew it was coming at some point, so here you go. You can “walk the floor” with the right tool that was purpose-built for today’s contact center environments. CollaborationRoom.ai’s Virtual Floor platform brings remote, hybrid, in-office, and multi-site teams together on one Virtual Floor, with huddle rooms, private conversations, and live coaching. That gives you a shared environment to work with candidates and understand how they support people beyond the people you can talk to at the water fountain.
Use it to involve a remote agent in nesting or let someone in the office lead a remote team discussion. You still have to make the promotion decision. You just have more to base that decision on than production KPIs and the people you happen to pass each day.
Your Bruce Bochy may already be helping your team through a rough shift. Bring everyone onto the same “floor”, so you can get to know that person before the position opens. One World. One Floor. One Team! You can make this happen, and we are here to help!
