Designing Stress Out of Call Centre Work Dr. David Holman Senior Research Fellow Institute of Work...

Designing Stress Out of Call Centre Work

Dr. David Holman

Senior Research Fellow

Institute of Work Psychology

University of Sheffield

Sheffield

Overview

• Causes of employee stress

• Comparing stress levels with other forms of work

• Organisational-level research.

• Ideas for re-designing work.

Employee Stress in Call Centres.

• Elements of employee stress

• Review of international literature on call centres and stress.

Elements of Employee StressPsycho-Social Stress.

– Anxiety / Contentment

– Depression / Enthusiasm

– Emotional Exhaustion

– Psychosomatic complaints

Musculo-Skeletal Disorders

– Hand, Wrist, arm, shoulder, neck and back problems

Stress Related Outcomes

– Absenteeism

– Turnover

Causes of Psycho-Social Stress

1. Job Design

2. Performance Monitoring

3. Social Support

4. Human Resource Practices

5. Customer-Employee Interaction

Causes of Psycho-Social Stress

1.1. Job Design Job Discretion. Participation Variety of calls and/or off-line tasks. Skill Utilization. Workload Problem load - but challenging work is o.k if

accompanied by high job control.

Causes of Psycho-Social Stress

1.2. Performance Monitoring• Arguments for - improves skill and coping.• Arguments against - threatening and demanding

• Content of PM - frequency of feedback, clarity of

criteria, frequency of monitoring. • Purpose of PM - developmental or punitive.

• Intensity of PM - its pervasiveness, feeling that it

cannot be escaped from, its intrusiveness.

Causes of Psycho-Social Stress

• Performance-related content of PM +ve association with well-being

• Beneficial-purpose of PM+ ve association with well-being

• Intensity of PM- ve association with well-being

Intensity has much larger effect on well-being.

Causes of Psycho-Social Stress

1.3. Social Support

Lack of supportive managers and team leaders

1.4. Human Resource Practices

Training

Performance Appraisal

Pay and Reward

Causes of Psycho-Social Stress

1.5. The Call.– Unpleasant calls

– Emotional Dissonance - emotions felt not in line with required emotional expression.

– Surface acting - faking it.

– Deep acting - trying to bring emotions felt in line with what is expressed.

– Not being able to provide a satisfactory service.

Causes of Musculo-Skeletal Disorders

• Poor work station design

• Repetitive physical movements due to computer-based work

• Workload

2. Comparing call centres to other forms of work

Well-being is generally lower in call centre workers.

BUT

CSRs in ‘healthy call centres’ can have

similar and sometimes better levels of well-being

than employees in comparable occupations.

What is a healthy call centre?

Good ergonomic design

Developmental monitoring

Empowered job designs

Social support - well trained team leaders

A focus on training and development

3. Organisational Performance in Call Centres

• Research in US and UK on 500 call centres

• Sickness - performance monitoring/poor job design

• Turnover - Poor job design

• Customer Satisfaction - performance monitoring

• Target Times - Human resource practices

4. How can work be re-designed?• Tools - Holistic and Participative

– Scenarios planning.

– Socio-technical tools - particularly useful if planning large scale changes in IT systems.

• Job and Work Designs

– Semi-autonomous work groups

– Participative performance monitoring

– Expanded and empowered job roles

• Stress Audits – quick and easy

5.Conclusion

• Well-being can be designed into call centres

• Need to take a pro-active approach to employee stress.

• Is a business, legal and ethical case to be made for a pro-active approach.

• For further details contact d.holman@sheffield.ac.uk.