The CC/CX Update - Volume 69

Hi Everyone,

Wow! I know a few of you noticed but the Update has actually been missing off your LinkedIn feeds for over a month as I wasn't able to produce the last fortnightly edition. For over 2 years I have always been able to find the time to write and edit this newsletter but the increase in market activity over the last 6 weeks has been akin to a hockey stick.

Now I have things under control I finally have time to summarise what's been happening for all of you hiring and looking to be hired so take a look below. Don't forget to click that Subscribe button up there to get this newsletter delivered to you twice a month, remember I don't do SPAM!

To look back over the previous content, including loads of expert interviews, check out the YouTube channel using the link below. It also contains LinkedIn "How To" guides and Career Development Tips!

Click here for CX related expert interviews

Lets dive in!

Current Recruitment Trends

Back With A Bang! In my last edition, on May 8th, I said big things were coming and anyone that has kept an eye on my LinkedIn feed will have a sense that this has indeed happened. Across Europe and North America a range of partners and consultancies are taking advantage of stronger market conditions and investing in their teams.

We all know that when big projects are won they are seldom delivered by teams that are provided by one company and there is plenty of white labelling going on at the moment. This drives recruitment across various hirers for similar skills and the boom in demand for CXOne in Europe demonstrates exactly this. However NICE are not alone as there is an increase in demand for AWS Connect too and a small amount of demand for Genesys Cloud.

What Comes After The Bang? I'm speaking to several companies that are strategizing on how to tackle the need for Microsoft digital contact centre platform skills when companies start buying this at scale. It will be a rapid growth area for jobs starting very soon and then probably wont go away for some time (12-28 months) before settling down.

A lot of professionals are talking about cross training now and I would absolutely recommend this as a way to ensure adaptability and resilience in your career over the next few years.

Training Still High On The Agenda. It's not just individuals that are thinking about training but plenty of employers are increasing their focus and spend on training their staff in CC and CX skills from the ground up. As CX is better represented at senior leadership level and in decision making it's being viewed as the important revenue stream it actually is rather than just a cost centre. Those training professionals and quality programmes that can deliver proper ROI to organisations through improving sales or customer experience are seeing an increase in demand.

From a recruitment perspective this does not lead to more L&D roles as we're talking about out sourced solutions. It might therefore mean experienced professionals offering gig or fractional solutions to larger companies. Particularly in developing markets and with BPOs.

Where's AI In All Of This? There are a decreasing number of AI specific vacancies being advertised in the European CX space. It's still top of plenty of agendas at trade events but customers are showing caution in spending on it and implementing it. Also the hiring boom for AI about a year ago created almost everything that is still being sold, by everyone, today so there is no real need to add further people to those vendor teams.

Where there is growth is in the entrepreneur space as it relates to AI products. We are seeing more small companies set up with a specific product and purpose in mind, and usually with a goal of being acquired fairly quickly. 2025 has been a busy year for acquisitions already and that will continue including several of these smaller AI business.

Return To Office. In some markets, the content about the call back to the office 5 days a week would have you believe every big company is at it. They're not.

I'm witnessing people that are walking away from opportunities at first discussion because those companies SLTs have decided everyone needs to work in the same building again. The internal recruitment teams are pulling their hair out trying to keep people interested in jobs that are not as competitive but cant do anything about it. They themselves are, in some cases, unhappy with the situation themselves and looking to leave. Is there anything worse for your recruitment strategy than an unhappy recruitment team that empathise with the reason people don't want to work for your company?

Some people will be happy with 5 days a week for various reasons and so there will always be some applicants for these roles. But, the majority of people now expect some flexibility in their work week and it consistently ranks as one of the top two reasons people leave a job or take a job.

In Demand Skills

What have companies been hiring for over the last few weeks, right up until today?

• CXOne Solutions Consulting (Engineering and Architecture)
• AWS Connect Engineering/Architecture
• Graduates (Software Developers mainly)
• CX New Business Hunters
• Genesys Cloud Engineers (Back on the list after a month away, but only just)

If you're in a role that isn't in the above list, what does that mean? It doesn't mean you cant find a new role in CX right now but it does mean that the number of opportunities will be less than ideal. Can you pivot your skills to some of these areas in 2025 or do you wait it out till 2026?

Customer Experience Industry Events - Europe and North America

18th - 19th June - Commsverse 2025 - Weybridge, UK

Register Here (be quick!)

2nd July - NiCE Interactions International - Twickenham, UK

Register Here (See you there)

17th July - UJET Ignite London - London, UK

Register Here (I'm speaking at this one)

6th- 8th October - Customer Contact Week Europe - Amsterdam, Netherlands

Register Here

Did You Watch This?

Knowledge Sharing

I'm working with a select group of other CX content creators that each bring something different in terms of skills and knowledge. My hope is that you'll find the CC/CX Update a hub for expanding your CX learning by connecting with all these excellent people!

Steve Sullivan with The Straight and Narrow newsletter

Steve is a compliance genius, providing regular expert content

Steve is always sharing valuable CX related content! I'd highly recommend giving him a follow for content and posts like this

Chris Holt with Holt CX Consultancy on YouTube (or wherever you get your podcasts)

Chris is a technical master who provides insight on a range of vendor platforms

Chris continues his brilliant, A Piece of CX, podcast by demonstrating platform functions from different vendors

Irina Hollatz is a prolific CX content creator with the wonderful WFM Unfiltered podcast and also runs her own WFM transformation consultancy RightWFM

Check out the latest edition of WFM Unfiltered here

Thanks

I'm now offering opportunities for paid advertising in some future editions of The CC/CX Update. If you have a relevant product, organisation, vacancy or event that you would like to advertise to our thousands of CC/CX subscribers, the wider connected audience and our global YouTube audience then contact me for details. james@ellisoncoast.com

James