STRESS | Call Center General findings

Two-thirds of call centre staff reported experiencing stress. Stress is not only caused by the need for agents to present a positive image; it can also be caused by workload. The Tayloristic principles applied in call centres frequently result in repetitive and stressful work that can lead to ‘burnout’. Indeed,  call centre where the average call duration was said to be 32 seconds. If the agents were working all the time, this would equate to over 800 calls per shit!

Stress and emotional exhaustion can be caused by a number of factors including job autonomy, length of tenure, degree of self-monitoring and work hours. In addition, role overload, role conflict, workload and work pressure have been found to increase stress.

When people suffer undue stress and emotional exhaustion the characteristics they demonstrate are o en tiredness, low energy and lack of demonstrable emotion. People experiencing emotional exhaustion depersonalize their interactions with others, which can lead to negative scoring of their work performance with the potential to create a vicious circle where increased stress leads to further stress.

Possibly the worst example of exploitation is the practice of a ‘sacrificial HR policy’. This requires advisers to invest high degrees of energy into calls and when they become emotionally exhausted they are encouraged to leave and are replaced by ‘fresh’ new hires.

General findings

Drawing from the preceding discussions a number of observations can be summarized about training and development within contact centres:

• The segmentation of provision into a mass-production model, the hybrid mass-customization model, and the professional service model will tend to create a stronger emphasis on training for the higher value professional service model.
• There is an inherent tension between ensuring and standardizing the quality of the interaction which requires formalized scripts and protocol and providing a skilled and satisfying job.
• A reduction in induction training would appear to be increasing the levels of customer dissatisfaction. It may also lead to increased turnover of staff although other labour market opportunities may also be contributing to this factor.
• The growing use of video and e-mail contact may introduce new training requirements.
• The continual introduction of new technologies will mean that there will be ongoing training required in hard skills. So skills will be less affected but will still remain important.
• First-time resolution of calls means that advisers generally need a greater level of knowledge about the organization.
• There is a tension between the value of qualifications to the individual and organizations that o en recruit on the basis of attitude.
• The provision of qualification options is growing as the industry matures.
• More staff are becoming involved with selling, requiring new skills.
• Employees are encouraged to relate to the main organization or client through visits, branding and clients providing training.
• Training reduces employee turnover.
• Operational scheduling requirements impact on the organization of training.

THE CUSTOMER SERVICE IMPERATIVE

Call centres are increasingly the focal point of an organization’s communication strategy and so are o en the main contact with the customer. Thus, the agents’ roles are very important and are the ‘best set of tools for influencing customer decisions and shaping opinions’. Sturdy placed even greater emphasis on the importance of the interaction and stated, ‘Customer service has now become a global business “imperative”.’

In face-to-face operations an organization is able to embody its image through a variety of elements including décor, packaging, signage, staff uniform and store layout. A contact centre does not possess these options and the only way to transmit a brand is through the quality of the communication with the customer. The manner in which employees appear, sound and behave ‘are themselves part of the product’.

The customer’s perception of the quality of the interaction is strongly influenced by a combination of two factors: 

1) Did the customer achieve the outcome he or she desired or, indeed, a be er outcome? 

2) Was the communication process with the CSR as friendly and encouraging as possible?

Through a process of ‘emotional contagion’ people are inclined to be ‘infected’ or ‘catch’ the feelings of others. To encourage this positive atmosphere agents are frequently required to ‘smile down the telephone’. If an employee displays positive behaviour this can result in feelings of wellbeing in the customer; likewise, negative behaviour can produce negative impressions.

For these reasons, organizations wish to control the interaction that occurs between their frontline staff and the customers so that the outcome is favourable. To do this they specify the attitude required, o en provide scripts for the conversation and restrict the degree of flexibility the employee has. Therefore, many of these interactions involve a high level of personal involvement, or ‘emotional labour’.

In many industries, eg car manufacture, a highly positive attitude is not considered important by employers as long as the work is undertaken satisfactorily. This is not the case for service workers who interact directly with the customer in retail, hospitality, call centres, etc. They have to present a positive image, which requires believing in or pretending to enjoy what they are doing.

Unfortunately, much as we may desire it, being happy and jolly all the time is not natural for most of us. Moreover, expressing emotions that are not felt or suppressing emotions that are felt can cause emotional dissonance and increase the possibility of stress and burnout 

SUPPORTING REGENERATION THROUGH TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT

Calls centres in Britain, France, Spain, the United States and many other nations have been relocated to other countries that possess suitable language skills and offer cheaper labour costs, eg India, Algeria, South America and the Philippines.

At national levels agencies are competing to attract inward investment and incentives include taxation-free periods, grants and subsidies, and support at organizational levels. Non-governmental organizations have also been successful in positively communicating the skills and financial benefits of offshoring, eg Nasscom in India.

Promotional material from Trade New Zealand highlights an advanced telecommunications infrastructure; support from the local government; well developed language skills; and a well educated and low-cost workforce. A Call Centre A raction Initiative encourages the development of an infrastructure of call centre consultants and training providers to deliver advice and support. In addition, Work and Income New Zealand also provides support for relocating companies through the supply of training course.

In England, support for inward investment is also provided at regional levels as a means of boosting local economies. Regional Development Agencies such as North West RDA funded the development of CallNorthWest and Yorkshire Forward funded The Yorkshire and Humberside Call Centre Network to provide the supportive infrastructure for the industry.

One means by which regeneration agencies provide support is through education and training initiatives, which are considered to be a very important strategy in providing potential employees. This is because some incoming employers believe certain groups do not possess the necessary skills. To address this agencies have funded pre-employment training courses thus creating an employee supply line.

These pre-employment programmes can be relatively expensive and given the high rates of employee turnover it is important to select suitable candidates. To add to these challenges, one employer was still reluctant to recruit programme participants because it believed the trainees might not have the required levels of skills. Therefore, it is important that development agencies carefully direct their funding. ‘We need to make sure that the money we spend on training these people isn’t wasted’.

The objective of regeneration agencies is to improve the economy and get people into employment. Pre-employment training is one means of achieving this but it would sometimes appear to be of a variable standard. Belt and Richardson noted a mismatch between training providers and call centre employers regarding skills requirements. They recommend that training providers avoid playing the ‘numbers game’ of ge ing people into employment and instead focus on long-term employment sustainability.

The links between trainers involved with pre-employment training and employers would sometimes appear to be inadequate. One piece of research noted:

[There is a] general lack of engagement between trainers and employers. In fact, in one of the case study training programmes, none of the trainers had even set foot inside a call centre. Meaningful and ongoing dialogue between trainers and employers on skills issues was infrequent or nonexistent in all but one of the case studies. Unsurprisingly, this situation seriously restricted the ability of the initiatives to meet employers’ skill needs.

Although most regions and countries consider the introduction of new jobs positively there are some critics. Call centres have been described by Belt as being mainly ‘careerless’. She referred to the TUC and stated that employers were ‘accused of providing large numbers of part-time, low-skilled, highly repetitive, pressurized and dead-end jobs’. She also concluded that because call centre jobs tended to be located in old industrial areas there was a developing production of geographic inequality.

To achieve the best outcomes inward investment agencies and call centres need to work cooperatively together and develop their relationship. For example, in a list of ‘top tips’ employment agency Adecco  recommended that contact centres, ‘Assess initiatives, such as pre-employment training as a way of demonstrating commitment to the local area and building links with potential employees of the future.’