Do Women or Men Make Better Collectors?
I was listening to NPR while driving home last week and heard a story about how women still earn, on average, 80 percent of what men earn for the same jobs. The point of the story was not this so much as it was about the underlying fact that women tend not to negotiate their first salary, and therefore lose out on the compounding, if you will, that a higher initial salary would generate. One expert cited that women leave as much as $1 million – $ 1.5 million “on the table” over the course of a career.
Women’s failure to negotiate was the central point of the story. They went on to talk about the age old stereotype that women who negotiate are seen as too aggressive and men who negotiate are respected for it.
This led me to wonder whether there is any correlation in our industry. After all, the business of collections is all about negotiation with consumers. But it’s also about developing relationships, and making people feel at ease so they will be more willing to talk.
Are there any statistics that say that women, on average, are any better or worse than men at debt collection? If the above hypothesis about negotiation holds true, it might suggest that men are more productive. On the other hand, perhaps the more disarming approach of a woman would be more effective.
What are your thoughts?
A few related resources that some may find interesting:
This is a link to the NPR story I mentioned above: http://www.npr.org/2011/02/14/133599768/ask-for-a-raise-most-women-hesitate
This is a terrific talk given by Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook. It’s just under 15 minutes and well worth the time: http://www.ted.com/talks/sheryl_sandberg_why_we_have_too_few_women_leaders.html
This interesting. I heard the same story and had the exact same thought. Even started me working on a project to see if male and female collectors should be trained differently.
A caveat…I have absolutely nothing to back up the following statements except my personal experience.
I didn’t notice a difference in results between collectors who were equally trained however I did notice that more woman washed out during the training process. Not that were not capable but they more often then their male counterparts decided the job just wasn’t for them.
However female collectors always made up the majority of my collection floor. Far more applicants were female. Don’t know the socioeconomic reason for that…I also worked for an agency co-owned by three sisters and our culture tended to be very supportive to women.
In my humble opinion which based on personal experience working with women. – The citation above is just a myth. Women are better negotiators, its just that they are not greedy.
I have noticed that it tends to be portfolio defined. Although there are certainly exceptions, men tend to be the larger producers on the large balance bankcard or consumer loan products, while women tend to be more productive in the lower balance, higher volume portfolios. All said, both are valuable. Thats just my observation.
It all comes down to skills!!! Doesn’t matter if you’re a man, woman or trans-gender. That’s like asking if a Baptist would be a better collector over a Methodist. Either way, if you can’t convince someone to pay then you won’t collect dust!! HOWEVER, in my experience, women tend to be more empathetic to a debtors situation then men, if this really even matters.
I’ve seen studies in the past that said that regions of the United States respond better to certain sex voices. The south prefers women and the north give the advantage to me. But these stats are not full proof and they have never been enough to validate the need to separate staff by sex by region. Now there are also stats that suggest certain regions are better served by certain accents. Northerners prefer someone who talks faster. The south likes a person to slow down. I collected in KS and called north and south. If I was calling northeast I naturally sped up. If I was calling TX I slowed down and modified my accent and text to meet the other side. What does this mean? This means that a smart and driven collector will adapt to the situation to fit the person they’re working with. The ability to identify with and speak on the same level as the consumer often allows for a direct proportionate increase to the recovery rate. Funny note… A study done about 10 years ago showed that Scottish were the best phone collectors (by accent?) overall world wide. I would give my messages left an Australian accent and that would make people curious to call back.
Bottom line… An intuitive, driven, and bright collector, man or woman, black or white, with an ability to not get caught up in the stress and make collecting “fun” or a challenge will always be the most effective collection staff. I’d bet money. So, as management, how do you keep your staff excited or engaged? We know if they lose their interest their effectiveness goes down.
This piece made me smile Stephanie. When I broke into this business I was told two things; 1- women weren’t tough enough to be a bill collector and couldn’t handle the stress, 2- that I too pretty and that I would distract the men. What a crock!!! Thank goodness the latter ticked me off enough to find an agency that would hire me…as a collector. My performance rose to the top 1% of all recovery in over 80 offices worldwide. Did I get the same salary as the men producing far less? Of course not, but I still got boats loads more than the women in clerical. What I really got was a shot to compete and learn. Boy did I learn!! When I finally had enough of being told that men simply made more money than women…I quit on Friday and opened my own shop on Monday taking their clients, their staff, their revenue and their astonishment.
Women are doing a better job of sticking up for ourselves and each other in this new century. Most has to do with changing attitude and expectations. You get what you believe you deserve. No more and no less.
I have had the privilege of training and leading thousands of collectors over the years and I believe that Manager is absolutely correct. Some “people” are naturally better at communication and negotiations. It is not a gender issue, but a matter of aptitude and personality. It all boils down to hiring the right “person” for the job of bill collection, continuous education, expectation and encouragement.
Women are still behind in income and responsibility. Simple reality. I don’t believe it is because we are less able to negotiate Stephanie, but because we are less inclined to rock a boat. Consequences. The stereotypes that penalize women still exist to a lesser degree. We don’t have to notice.
Once again; I believe that we get what we believe we deserve. No more and no less. I have great hope for our sons and daughters.
What do you say; let’s go rock some boats!!
Sincerely,
Susann
Sbouchillon@professionalcollector.net
From working closely with our HR Department and the Collection Manager I have observed the following trends at our office:
1. Far more women apply for collection openings than men. Our latest ad has been online and in print for a week. Over 50+ women have applied VS. 4 Men (no kidding).
2. More women end up separating before, during or soon after their initial start date after deciding the position isn’t what they expected it to be (“this isn’t my cup of tea”).
3. Even after proper training, I have noticed men almost always seem more willing than women to become more aggressive when needed (keep in mind I said willing).
I firmly believe if someone has experience then they should be paid what they are worth regardless of any physical or mental trait. I’ve got just as many women as I do men on my staff. I find it interesting however how this used to be a male dominated industry and now it seems men are the minority! :)
Great question, Stephanie, and some great comments. Most of my experience (25 years) has been in healthcare debt. Since that amount of time is a generation, my overarching opinion is that things have changed. I think the skills have changed as women have found and are using their voice to excel at this work. While earlier in my career I would have observed that men were naturally better at being assertive, that is no longer the case.
I concur with comments about training, and comments about women being more likely on the front end to decide that collections wasn’t their cup of tea. Of the very best collectors I have known, all knew how to leverage their strengths (levels of assertiveness, all business, versus better at “selling” an outcome or decision to a debtor). Many women were good at healthcare collections because of their ability to express empathy WHILE staying focused on collecting the debt.