Hire Talent, Not Accent: Unblocking the CX Talent Funnel

A senior CX leader shared a frustration with me recently: “Out of ten people who apply for an agent job, I can only find six who are qualified.” At first glance, it sounds like a talent shortage. But look closer and you’ll see it’s not a supply problem — it’s a filter problem. 

The biggest culprit? Accent. Even when candidates demonstrate strong English skills, their accent often becomes the deciding factor — screening out talent before real ability is measured.

Think of it as a hiring stack. Today, many organizations I talk to sort candidates in this order:

1. English proficiency
2. Accent
3. Talent

The accent step is where too many strong candidates are screened out for their voices instead of their skills. It creates an artificial shortage, driving up costs and dragging out hiring cycles. Meanwhile, talent is abundant, but locked behind the wrong filter.

Whether you’re trying to hire faster in established hubs or unlock new talent in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities, I’ll break down why accent bias has become such a bottleneck and how rethinking the hiring stack can widen your pool. And as you’ll see, the gains aren’t just theoretical: in real-world assessments, agents improved whole CEFR levels once accent was no longer a barrier.

The Accent Bias Bottleneck: Why Common Fixes Fall Short

What feels like scarcity in CX hiring is often an illusion created by accent bias. In metro hubs, companies compete fiercely for the same candidates, while vast pools of talent outside city centers are overlooked because their accents sound “too strong.” The result isn’t just a smaller funnel, it’s an artificially constrained system.

This bias ripples across the talent lifecycle:

• Talent pipelines stall as qualified applicants are rejected for perception, not performance.
• Attrition rises when agents who do get hired struggle with customer understanding and burn out.
  Operations absorb hidden costs when QA tools penalize capable agents simply because of accent interference.

Organizations see the problem, but the most common fixes fall short. Some add extra screening, hoping to identify candidates who “sound neutral.” Others extend onboarding with accent drills and handling practice. Still others rely on rigid scripts designed to minimize misunderstanding.

Each of these workarounds carries a cost. Hiring slows. Training budgets balloon. Calls still remain hard for customers to follow. And agents pay the steepest price: being asked to suppress or reshape their voices, which can erode confidence, accelerate burnout, and strip authenticity out of conversations.

Instead of widening the pool, these approaches reinforce the very bias that made the funnel too narrow in the first place.

Reordering the Stack: Hiring Talent, Not Accents

What if the stack was reordered? Instead of ranking English → Accent → Talent, imagine a hiring process that removes accent as a barrier. The order becomes:

1. English proficiency
2. Talent

That’s what Sanas makes possible through Accent Translation. In simple terms, accent translation is real-time AI that preserves what someone says while making it easier for others to understand how they say it. It doesn’t change the words, and it doesn’t erase identity, intonation, or inflection, it simply removes accent as a source of bias in communication.

With accent translation in place, candidates are evaluated on their actual ability, not how their voice is perceived. Leaders who once said, “We can only hire six in ten,” now see eight or more candidates qualify. The same ten applicants suddenly yield a stronger pipeline.

And the results aren’t just qualitative, they’re measurable.

Leveling Up: How Sanas Boosts CEFR Levels

The shift from scarcity to abundance isn’t just a theory, it shows up in the data. In a recent pilot with a global BPO, 56 candidates completed Versant assessments (an industry standard CEFR-aligned framework that provides standardized language proficiency assessments) both with and without Sanas enabled. The difference was striking:

• Without Sanas only two-thirds (66%) passed at a hirable level of B2 or above.
• With Sanas nearly all passed (98%).
• Of the 19 who initially failed, 18 advanced to hirable levels (95%) without having to alter their natural speech. 

Even candidates who already passed improved further. On average, fluency jumped by 28%, pronunciation by 31%, and vocabulary by 16%, showing that the benefits extended well beyond borderline candidates. And there was zero negative impact: no candidates experienced score decrease while using Sanas. 

And when you look at CEFR levels, the gains are even clearer: 44% of agents improved by one CEFR level, 26% improved by two levels, and 21% improved by three levels.

The takeaway: accent bias was hiding talent in plain sight. Once removed, nearly every candidate who would have been screened out qualified for hire.

The ROI of Removing the Wrong Filter

When accent is no longer the gatekeeper, the change is immediate. What once looked like a shortage of qualified people is revealed as a surplus of overlooked talent, and the value shows up everywhere: in both the numbers and in the people.

For the business, the ROI is clear:

• Faster time-to-hire and lower cost per hire
• Expanded reach into Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities, and even remote markets
• Reduced attrition, turning hiring gains into long-term workforce stability
• Stronger performance: higher CSAT, faster resolutions, fewer escalations

For agents, the improvements are just as important:

• Authenticity at work: valued for what they say, not how they sound
• Less stress, more confidence, and stronger connections with customers
• Careers that last, as agents succeed while speaking in a way that feels natural to them.

Together, these outcomes shift the equation from scarcity to abundance. By removing the wrong filter, companies don’t just find more people, they find stronger teams, better experiences, and a more sustainable path to growth.

Unlocking the Talent We Already Have

There’s no shortage of CX talent, only outdated filters. Accent bias has kept too many capable people off the phones, driving up costs and slowing growth.

Remove that filter, and the math changes fast. Hiring accelerates. Attrition drops. Customers get better experiences.

The path forward is clear: stop filtering for accent, start hiring for ability. The talent is there. The question is whether we’re ready to hear it.