Collections Team Leader at Confidential · City of…

ABOUT THE ROLE

As Team Leader you own the daily performance of a team of collection agents. You will build the weekly roster that decides how each agent spends their day across dialer queues, WhatsApp follow-up and email, monitor call and talk-time performance, coach agents on negotiation and Promise to Pay quality, and manage the monthly incentive grid that determines what your team gets paid.

You will also be the point of contact for external debt collection agencies on placed accounts, and you will manage the issuing of paid-up and settlement letters.

This is a hands-on operational role, not an administrative one. You will spend your day on the floor with your agents, in the data, and on escalated calls. Your results are your team's results.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Build the weekly roster at the start of each week, allocating every agent to specific time slots on dialer queues, WhatsApp follow-up, email responses and administration.
• Keep the queues covered throughout the day by staggering breaks, and concentrate calling effort in the windows with the best contact rates.
• Monitor daily performance per agent: calls made, failed calls, voicemail, meaningful contacts, talk time and average conversation length.
• Investigate why calls are not connecting and act on it, rather than simply pushing for more dialing.
• Track Promises to Pay from creation to outcome, and drive the broken-promise re-contact cycle.
• Listen to calls, score them against the quality framework, and give agents specific, usable feedback.
• Hold monthly one-on-one performance discussions and manage underperformance constructively.
• Maintain and sign off the monthly bonus grid accurately and on time, and explain each agent's outcome to them.
• Approve settlement offers within your delegated authority and escalate those above it.
• Coordinate the generation, checking and dispatch of paid-up and settlement letters.
• Act as the single point of contact for external collection agencies on payments, balance updates and account queries.
• Ensure the team works within the National Credit Act, POPIA and the Debt Collectors Act at all times.
• Report daily and weekly to the Collections Manager, and propose improvements to campaigns, queue strategy and contact data quality.

SKILLS & COMPETENCIES

• Team Leadership: Ability to set clear expectations, hold people to them, and get performance out of a team without losing them.
• Coaching: Ability to listen to a call, identify precisely what went wrong, and change the agent's behaviour on the next one.
• Planning & Organisation: Ability to build a working roster that keeps queues covered and productive time protected.
• Data Literacy: Confidence working in Excel or Google Sheets with performance and incentive data, and the ability to turn numbers into decisions.
• Accuracy: Incentive calculations affect people's pay. They need to be right the first time, every month.
• Negotiation: Strong collections instinct, with the credibility to take over an escalated call and close it.
• Stakeholder Management: Professional handling of external collection agencies and internal departments.
• Compliance Awareness: Sound understanding of what a collector may and may not do, and the discipline to enforce it.
• Resilience: Ability to carry team targets and floor pressure without passing stress down to the agents.
• Integrity: Complete honesty in performance reporting, including when the numbers are bad.

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS

• Grade 12 / Matric or equivalent.
• At least 2 to 3 years' experience in collections or recoveries in a call center environment.
• Micro-lending or credit provider experience is advantageous.
• At least 1 year in a team leader, supervisor or senior agent capacity is a strong advantage.
• Excellent spoken and written English is mandatory. Additional South African languages are a significant advantage.
• Solid Excel or Google Sheets ability, including building and checking performance reports.
• Experience with outbound or predictive dialer systems and collections / CRM software.
• Available to work on site Monday to Friday, 08:00 - 17:00, with availability at month-end close.
• Clear criminal and credit record checks, subject to consent.

Pay: R15 000,00 - R25 000,00 per month

Application Question(s):

• Available immediately

Experience:

• micro-lending/credit provider: 2 years (Preferred)
• Collections Team Leader: 3 years (Preferred)

Location:

• City of Cape Town, Western Cape (Required)

Work Location: In person