Doing It All At Once: Multitasking as a predictor of call center agents' performance and performance-based dismissal

Abstract

Multitasking has become an important skill in many jobs. Still, the predictive validity of job-applicants' multitasking abilities has rarely been tested empirically. The current study focuses on the multitasking ability of call center applicants. Results from a Dutch call center show that applicants' multitasking ability as assessed during personnel selection indeed predicts their later job performance as call center agents as well as their likelihood of losing their job for poor performance. While some of these relationships could be explained via applicants' fluid intelligence, results also support the usefulness of including measures of multitasking ability in the current selection procedure. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.