Stress mgmt in call centers

7/30/2019 Stress mgmt in call centers

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1. THE CALL CENTER INDUSTRY: A PREVIEW

Carrying out transactions over the telephone has a long history, beginning with

operator services and later, reservations lines, particularly for airlines. But in

the last 15 to 20 years, the introduction of information technologies and

telecommunications advances has expanded the types of work it is possible to

undertake, while reducing costs. Concurrently, ideas of service and service

relationships continue to be redefined as technology becomes increasingly

ubiquitous, rendering the public more receptive to mediated service

interactions.

There are a variety of factors, which have led to the increase of telephone

services, including the transformation of telephony by the development of

digital exchanges, intelligent telephone networks and their integration with

computer data bases; falling telephony costs and the introduction of toll-free

numbers; the high degree of penetration and familiarity of telephone

technology; and the ability to communicate complex information by phone in

real time. In addition to technological progress and social advantages, another

likely reason for the burgeoning of the call center industry in the early 1990s

was a significant period of retrenchment in a number of business sectors,

including a drive towards reducing costs and cutting staffboth of which can

be accomplished by centralizing services, reducing branch offices close to the

customer, and taking advantage of lower cost real estate and labor costs in

locations outside main business centers. Call centers, of course, permit all of

these activities.


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Today, Indian companies are offering a variety of outsourced services ranging

from customer care, transcription, billing services and database marketing, to

Web sales/marketing, accounting, tax processing, transaction document

management, telesales/telemarketing, HR hiring and biotech research.

Looking at the success of India's IT/software industry, the central government

identified ITES/BPO as a key contributor to economic growth prioritized the

attraction of FDI in this segment by establishing 'Software Technology Parks'

and 'Export Enterprise Zones'. Benefits like tax-holidays generally enjoyed by

the software industry were also made available to the ITES/BPO sector. The

National Telecom Policy (NTP) introduced in 1999 and the deregulation of the

telecom industry opened up national, long distance, and international

connectivity to competition. The governments of various states also provide

assistance to companies to overcome the recruitment, retention, and training

challenges in order to attract investments to their region. The National

Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) have created

platforms for the dissemination of knowledge and research in the industry

through its survey and conferences. NASSCOM acts as an 'advisor, consultant

and coordinating body' for the ITES/BPO industry and liaisons between the

central and state government committees and the industry. The ardent advocacy

of the ITES/BPO industry has led to the inclusion of call centers in the

'Business Auxiliary Services' segment, thereby ensuring exemption from

service tax under the Finance Bill of 2003.

These measures have led to a steady inflow of investments by large foreign

companies such as Reuters, for establishing large captive ITES/BPO facilities

across India. Moreover, the existing ITES/BPO operations of major multi-

nationals are also being ramped up to cater to the ever increasing demand for

better and speedier service. Almost all of India's top ITES/BPO giants have

announced some form of expansion and are in the process of hiring manpower

to fill the additional seats. India's competitive advantage lies in its ability to


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Buchanan and Koch-Schulte include in

their description the organizational

rationale for establishing call centers:

Call centers are a relatively recent

phenomenon made possible by the

dissemination of telecommunications and

information technologies. The technology

enables telephone service representatives

to deal quickly and remotely with customer

needs by connecting the representative to

the customers account information on

his/her computer as the call is relayed to

the headset. As call centers can be centralized in locations far from the

customers of a business, they allow firms to cut costs by reducing the number

of local service outlets.

In reviewing these definitions and descriptions, it becomes clear that although

there are variations in stress placed on different elements, there is general

agreement about which elements are the key ones.

Borrowing from this accumulation, we might, therefore, define a call center as

a specialized office where agents remotely provide information, deliver

services, and/or conduct sales, using some combination of integrated telephone

and information technologies, typically with an aim to enhancing customer

service while reducing organizational costs.


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3. STRESS - A MAJOR HUMAN ISSUE IN CALL-CENTER

INDUSTRY

Stress exists in every call center. Call centers are stressful work environments.

The demands of serving the customer in real-time helps to lay the foundation.

Add to this factor, things such as job repetition, potential job dissatisfaction,

poor ergonomics or low pay and the stress level climbs higher. If stress in the

workplace (i.e. the call center) is not on the agenda the results of stress are

revealed through higher absenteeism than other parts of the company, higher

Worker's Compensation claims and ultimately in reduced customer satisfaction.

For many employed in the call center sector,

the daily experience is of repetitive,

intensive and stressful work, based upon

Taylors principles, which frequently results

in employee burnout. Brown, more

vividly, characterizes the work as repetitive

brain strain. These descriptions are hardly

surprising, in a way, given that call centers

are established by organizations to create

an environment in which work can be standardized to create relatively uniform

and repetitious activities so as to achieve economies of scale and consistent

quality of customer service. This means, in other words, that workplaces are

organized in ways that weaken employee autonomy and enhance the potentialfor management control, and a loss of control is generally understood to be an

important indicator of work-related stress.

There is almost universal consensus that call center work is stressful. Even in

studies that report the observation that some staff actually enjoys their work,

mention of stress is still the norm, and a significant portion of the call center

literature is devoted to detailing the sources of stress in call center work.


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WHAT IS STRESS?

Let us try and understand what exactly we

mean by stress. We all know that stress is

something that doesnt feel good to us

physically and emotionally. What is even

more compelling is what happens below the

surface each time we experience stress.

Stress researcher Hans Selye, determined

what happens internally each time we

experience something as threatening or stressful. According to Selye, when we

perceive a threat in the environment the thinking part of the brain sends an

alarm message to the nervous system via the hypothalamus. The nervous

system then makes changes in the body that prepare you to handle the

perceived danger ahead. These changes include increases in heart rate and

blood pressure as well as pupil dilation. In addition, there are hormones and

chemicals secreted such as adrenaline that give the body the necessary push to

be able to manage the threat ahead. Although there are situations in which these

adrenaline surges are very helpful in helping us mobilize, the constant

adrenaline surges due to repeatedly perceived threats have a toxic effect on the

body. For example, recurrent adrenaline surges inhibit some of the other

important functions in the body including growth and tissue repair, digestion

and the immune response.

Just as the thinking part of your brain is responsible for turning the stress

response on, you can turn it off by changing the threatening appraisals you are

making. Once you are able to determine that a threat does not exist or that it

can be effectively managed, your thinking brain stops sending panic messages

to the nervous system. As a result of this reappraisal, the hormones and

chemicals cease to be released and the body returns to normal. Bringing the

body back to an "un-stressed" state is very important since almost every system

in the body can be damaged by stress. Although our bodies are adaptive and


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directly under management control. Some call centers are managed in such a

way that targets are set to realistically reflect local conditions, are interpreted in

light of other, more subjective information, and are not used punitively or to

intensify work. In some they are even used effectively to motivate and

encourage staff. For example, Wipro and JP Morgan Chase describe a series of

conversations with managers in their call center site where management

consistently conceptualized their performance reports (for example, one

commented that its human nature for productivity to drop before and after a

holiday), and used their stats as an excuse to praise good performance and

coach those who consistently had difficulty meeting targets: Our best bet is to

develop the people we have got one manager is quoted as saying.

6. Lack of communication

It is a call center disease that some call centers just gravitate to simply because

everyone is too busy with their job duties and with doing someone else's jobs

that communication is simply forgotten. Sounds harmless but if not addressed,

it could slowly but surely drag down a center's morale, employees' self

esteems, work life balance, job security, employees' productivities and the most

important increase stress levels.

7. High volume

This one is a little complex because the causes could be variety of different

issues. The more common symptom of high volume is poor workforce mgmt.

Simply put, the workforce team needs to be very proactive in correctly

forecasting the volume for two weeks in advance (within 98% of the actual

volume) and be ready with a staffing analysis of how efficient the CSR

schedules are by day for the center. If a team leader can get this every week

from its workforce team, the center will be well aware of its holes every day for

the next two weeks and staffing decisions can be made before the day happens.

If the workforce team is good, then the center will be better prepared to handle

spikes/lull in the volume.


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3. EYESIGHT PROBLEMS: Globally call center industry employees are

considered a high-risk group for eye-related problems. While the quality of

monitors might impact these disorders, sitting continually without adequate

breaks seems to be the truer reason. The number of people affected seems to

be on the rise-last year only 19% complained; this year it has gone up to

23%. At some point of time, this problem might also afflict the IT services

industry, but for the call center industry, no remedy seems to be in sight.

4. EAR PROBLEMS: More than 16% of the respondents inform that they

have hearing problems. Again, no surprises here, since a call center job

involves taking calls throughout the shift, sitting with headphones. While

quality of headphones does make a difference, it would not be correct to

completely wish the problem away by thinking that changing headphones

will solve it.

5. DIGESTIVE SYSTEM RELATED DISORDERS: Working long and

odd hours without any sleep, and eating food supplied by external caterers

everyday, has led to 41.9% of the respondents suffering from digestive

problems. Especially for the large number of girls working in the industry,

the problem is even more severe. Many call centers are now taking

additional care to ensure their caterers supply hygienic food; besides

stipulating strict conditions to maintain the quality of the food they serve

Other Stress related issues

The result of intense, stressful work may be an effect on workers health. There

are often high rates of absenteeism and sick leave reported in the literature,

although there is relatively little exploration of these issues, particularly when

compared to turnover. Most often, authors provide a brief list of known health

issues. For example, Richardson, Belt and Marshall write that Health concerns

have been expressed, including tension, sleeplessness, headaches, eye-strain,

repetitive strain injury (RSI), voice loss, hearing problems and burn-out, but


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they do not develop the point. More detailed descriptions of the causes and

effects of these ailments can be found in industry and trades union reports. For

example, the Trades Union Council (TUC) in its brochure targeted at call

center workers, cites the main illnesses to which call center staff are prone:

back strain and RSI, stress, eyestrain, and voice and hearing loss.

FACTS ABOUT STRESS

Stress identified as one of the most serious health problems in IT

industry, since 20th century

This problem is particularly relevant to countries undergoing

enormous economic and social changes like India, Kerala in particular.

Burnout, depression, addictions, marriage breakdown, and

deterioration of physical health are now commonly reported (U. S.

Occupational Safety and Health Administration, 1998) Among Asian

IT professionals the number is high (Asian Health Care Services, 2001)

- about 30%

a) Have weaker coping strategies

b) Seek quick symptomatic relief in tranquilizers and antidepressants

c) Feel the pressure of working in developed countries

d) Unresolved psychological issues related to their unrealistic ambitions

e) General reluctance to seek psychological help

f) Possibility of drug dependence


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2. Employee Assistance Program (EAP)

Employee Assistance Program is of prime importance when employees need a

thorough revision about the stress levels in their job. EAPs provide individual

counseling for employees with both work and personal problems.

ORGANISATIONAL LEVEL

At the organizational level a call center needs to broaden its outlook, because

under this approach instead of a single employee the firm focuses on dealing

with stress in the entire organization.

Under this approach the firm tries to reduce job stress by bringing in a

consultant to recommend ways to improve working conditions. This approach

is the most direct way to reduce stress at work. It involves the identification of

stressful aspects of work (e.g., excessive workload, conflicting expectations)

and the design of strategies to reduce or eliminate the identified stressors. The

advantage of this approach is that it deals directly with the root causes of stress

at work. However, managers are sometimes uncomfortable with this approach

because it can involve changes in work routines or production schedules, or

changes in the organizational structure.

As a general rule, actions to reduce job stress should give top priority to

organizational change to improve working conditions. But even the most

conscientious efforts to improve working conditions are unlikely to eliminate

stress completely for all workers. For this reason, a combination of

organizational level change and employee level change is often the most useful

approach for preventing stress at work.


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interventions on such measures tend to be less clear-cut and can take a long

time to appear.

The job stress prevention process does not end with evaluation. Rather, job

stress prevention should be seen as a continuous process that uses evaluation

data to refine or redirect the intervention strategy.

CONCEPT

EMOTIONAL LABOUR

Emotional labor is defined as the effort expended (and the concomitantphysiological arousal) to manage or regulate ones emotional reactions at

work. This effort is necessary for exhibiting those performance behaviors

valued by the organization, and suppressing the expression of less

acceptable behaviors. Call center employees are particularly vulnerable to

a demand for emotional labor, because their jobs generally require

maintaining a friendly and positive demeanor despite job characteristics

that may engender negative emotional reactions (e.g., irate customers,

complex problem solving, or hectic work pace). Any work setting which

engenders negative emotional reactions from employees, while requiring

the suppression of certain behaviors associated with these emotions (e.g.,

yelling, abruptly hanging up the phone, or scowling), is fertile ground for

emotional labor. The stereotypical customer service call center is such a

work place.


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3G arranges feel good

activities like an outdoor

picnic or an official dinner

once in three months. This

helps employees to talk to

their senior management in an

informal environment.

Employees are also given

recognition by being

designated as employee of

the week and employee of

the month. 3Global, a

Hutchison-Whampoa BPO,

has also appointed an executive to arrange sports events on a monthly basis. An

assistant manager (HR) of 3G says, We organise sports events like cricket

tournaments to ensure that our employees are engaged in physical activities.

The company recently concluded a cricket tournament where 300 employees

participated (10 people per team).

Other Facilities:

Bright and well done up canteen.

Conducts Voice & Accent and Product training simultaneously - 5 hrs are

given to each, in a single day.

3. IBM Daksh:


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IBM Daksh has worked with a pioneering group of global companies that have

successfully used BPO and BTO to execute a broad range of strategies with

strong results

It was just over five years ago that IBM Daksh was created. An independent

report in the US stated that more than two-thirds of online transactions were

abandoned due to inadequate customer support. It was the first step in creating

a new enterprise, in a new industry that had no history and no business model

to follow. But what IBM Daksh did have was sound leadership, a focused

vision and an undying passion.

By 2003, the company employed around 5,000 people and was acquiring blue

chip clients almost as quickly as it was attracting large numbers of ambitious

and talented young staff.

In April 2004, IBM Corporation acquired Daksh e-Services to serve as a global

hub to manage business processes for clients from across the world. With 14

service delivery centers in India (4 in New Delhi (NCR), 4 in Bangalore, 1 in

Mumbai, Pune, Kolkata and Chandigarh each) and 2 in Manila, Philippines,

IBM Daksh is a key part of a network of more than 36 BTO centers around the

world. Today IBM Daksh employs more than 20,000 people and has won

several major awards for employee and customer satisfaction.

IBM Daksh: THE VISIT

Location: Magnus Towers, Mindspace, Malad

Entry Mechanism:

1. Voice - Intro, Personal interview with HR Manager, Grammar Test, and

Personal interview with Operations Manager. 2. Web - Grammar Test, Typing

Test and Personal interview with HR.

Outstation candidates are put up at company accommodation at Mira Road.

Pay Scale:

Expect a start of Rs.11K in a voice process, if you're a fresher. Rs.18K if you

have experience. Offers Rs.10, 000/- to 14,000/- for web processes.


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Processes/Projects:

Their biggest project is Circuit City, which is for gadgets. It covers almost half

of the 5th floor plus some space on the 4th floor. Other projects include

Citibank, Wanadoo and UAL (United Airlines). There is 2 months of training.

The only web process is eBay.

Transport:

Offers home pick-ups/drops from 10.30 pm to 8 am. Other timings have a

station pick-up and a drop to Malad station.

MEASURES TAKEN TO OVERCOME STRESS

IBM Daksh has appointed

fun officers whose job is to

arrange a party or a movie

for the entire office once in a

month. Alongwith that it

arranges picnics for the

employees on continual

basis.

Other Facilities:

There are 2 mini-cafeterias on both ends of the 5th floor.

The recreation room consists of a TT table, a carom board and a punching bag.

There are 3 computers with Internet and a TV.


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4. SUTHERLAND

Sutherland Global Services was founded in the year 1986. Headquarters in

Rochester, New York. Oak Investment Partners and Standard Chartered Private

are the investing companies. Sutherland has maintained quality standards like,

COPC, Six Sigma, ISO 9001:2000, and ISO 27001:2005. Located in United

States, United Kingdom, Australia, Mexico, Canada, India and Philippine.

Sutherland as a BPO is less than 2 years old in Mumbai, although it's already a

big name in South India.

Sutherland: THE VISIT

Location: Opp. Just Parathas, Malad, Mumbai

Entry Mechanism:

There's a Grammar Test, Technical Test, and two personal interviews - one

with HR and the other with the Team Leader or the Operations Manager.

Pay Scale:

It pays around Rs.10, 000/-, for a fresher and about Rs.19, 000/-, for the most

experienced candidate with troubleshooting and other technical certifications.

Processes/Projects:

HP, Dell and Symantec.

Transport:

The station transport is regular. Home pick-ups/ drops for those who work

between 10.30pm to 6am.


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45%

17%10%

28%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%50%

Stress Lack of

further

scope

Low pay

packages

Bad quality

of working

life

Reasons why employees leave Call center jobs

The workplace environment plays an important role in the professional life of a

call center employee. It is the environment which can either boost or break

an employees morale.

According to the findings the main factors which strike off stress among the

call center employees are as follows

Workplace Environment

20%

25%

45%

10%

Good

Average

Satifactory

Bad


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incorporated in their companies and most of them treat it with minute gravity.

In short STRESS MANAGEMENT is still in its nascent stage in the Indian

scenario.

13. SUGGESTIONS TO BUST THE STRESS

1. HANDLING THE ABUSE

Agents handle an average of 110 calls a day, and 80 percent of the calls that

come in have some level of emotion. Usually a caller is calling in because

they're frustrated, angry, upset, concernedsomething has happened and

they're not happy. Therefore, it is crucial that agents and especially the call

center manager note these occurrences and become better prepared and

informed on handling them for the sake of their workers and their callers. In

these situations the task should become how to handle this type of emotional

call rather than instantly labeling it "abusive" and not acceptable.


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6. MONTHLY NEWSLETTER FROM THE COMPANY

This is a time consuming endeavor but if done right and done consistently,

could be a great medium to communicate new/revised policies, reward

employees/teams, train employees, and build strong team spirits.

7. DAILY DEPARTMENT HUDDLE

Each team/department should be highly encouraged to have a quickie huddle

daily with their employees. This goes a long way in building a strong bond

between employees and supervisors and the team leaders can also use this time

to communicate.

8. MONTHLY LETTER FROM THE BOSS

It could be from the VP of Ops, or it could be from the CCM. The point is, the

company will have an opportunity every month to speak to the workforce.

10. HUMOUR

A very unconventional way of dealing with abusive calls is to inculcate

HUMOUR in the office! It is nothing but, agents using humorous (or rude)

gestures towards the phone, or making faces at colleagues to defuse stress over

angry or abusive callers, and making jokes to combat the tedium of the day.

Some of the companies adopt a social approach to reduce tension, whereby the

staff often laughed and joked with one another in intervals between calls, with

managements approval. More formally, some call centers include stress

management as a component in training programs, and many have, or claim to

have, team de-briefings which permit staff to vent frustrations while discussing

difficult calls or dissatisfactions with elements of work.


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11. INFORM THE PROSPECTIVE EMPLOYEE

At the hiring stage itself, companies need to make the prospective employee

aware of what the job exactly entails and make an assessment of the potential

response of the candidate in such job settings.

Some other general suggestions would be:

Conduct specific workshop covering stress

Let the employees voice their specific stressors and develop actions to

overcome them and resolve what is inhibiting their performance

CONCEPT

STRESS PUNCHERS

Many International companies have started

adopting this innovative method of introducing

stress punchers orstress balls to the employees.

Now employees can vent out their feelings, anger,

and emotion all on a stress ball. These stress

punchers are soft and squishy and can be

distorted into any shape.


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You Indians suck!' an American screamed on the phone," recalled a soft-spoken Manzoor,25. "He was using a lot of four-letter words, too. He called me names left, right and center."

Call center executives and industry experts say abusive hate calls are commonplace, asresentment swells over the loss of American jobs to India. According to a survey in

November 2004 by an Indian information technology magazine called Dataquest, about 25percent of call center agents identified such calls as the main reason for workplace stress.The survey said the calls often were "psychologically disturbing" for workers.

"When some callers are unhappy with the service, their frustration often turns racist," saidAmit Narula, 25, a call center agent. "They would say, 'This is why you should not handleour work. Indians are not good enough.' "

As a result, the call center workers are feeling stressed. Manzoor said he developed highblood pressure and chest pain in November, and quit his job. But in two months, he wasback in another call center processing credit card applications for an American company.

The outsourcing industry earns $5.1 billion a year and employs more than 350,000 people,according to the National Association of Software and Services Companies, and is

projected to grow 40 percent in the coming year. The vast pool of low-cost, English-speaking and tech-savvy Indian workers has attracted back-office service operations ofcompanies such as American Express, Sprint, Citibank, General Electric, Ford, Hewlett-Packard, IBM and firms that process U.S. tax returns and welfare benefits.

Some of the offices serving these companies hold stress-management workshops, set upgyms and pool tables, and even offer classes in meditation, breathing techniques and yoga.

"This is a high-stress business, and most of our agents are between 22 and 25 working

during the graveyard shift. I have noticed a sudden plunge in their confidence level after anirate, abusive or racist caller," said Rohit Gadhoke, a senior quality analyst with Daksh callcenter, a subsidiary of IBM, adding that such calls were routine. "They begin to fumblewith words and get nervous. I counsel them not to take it personally."

Although a handful of call center companies now encourage agents to reveal their real nameand location when an American calls, many fear backlashes and still do not allow it. InBangalore, Ankur Jaiswal, 22, whose phone name is "Mike," answers calls from Americanswho need technical support with their computers.

"Many callers refuse to speak to Indians and ask for an American right away," Jaiswal saidin a telephone interview. "So I tell them, 'I am an Indian but I live in America.' They ask,

'Where in America?' I tell them I cannot disclose my location. But they are still suspiciousand start asking about the weather."

Industry watchers say some call centers have giant TV screens showing the weather indifferent U.S. cities, the scores from latest New York Knicks game or news about the latest

play on Broadway. The agents use the information on the screen to make small talk with thecaller and mask their location in India.

The training given to the call center aspirants not only involves diction, but also a crashcourse in American culture. Maneesh Ahooja, a voice and accent trainer for call centeremployees in Bombay, often makes them watch popular TV shows such as "Friends" and

"Dharma and Greg."


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"I also teach them about the nuances of American lifestyle," Ahooja said. "I explain to themthat unlike India, young people live on their own in America and not with their parents, thatin times of crisis they depend on friends more than family."

But many agents confessed that they empathized with the pain and anguish of the angry

callers.

"I would be mad too if somebody took away my job," said Vidya Ramathas, 24, who worksin a Bangalore call center servicing an American Internet company. "I love my job. It has

brought me freedom. I moved out of my parents' home. I don't ask them for moneyanymore. I do what I want to. I don't ask for their permission."

Ramathas, whose uses "Amanda" as her phone name, added: "In that sense, I am like anAmerican."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56474-2005Feb26.html

3. Abuse rattles Indian call centre staff

By Zubair AhmedBBC News, Mumbai

Shane Fernandes in Mumbai was recently speaking to a customer in the US about a creditcard scheme. He thought he had won over the customer, but just at the last minute theAmerican learnt the young, sweet-talking agent was calling from a call centre in India. "He

just refused to deal with me because he found out I was an Indian," recollects MrFernandes.

Others working in India's burgeoning call centers have been verbally abused and accused oftaking jobs formerly carried out in Europe or the US. Many Indian call centre workers are

relatively young, having joined straight from college, and they are not used to and oftenfind it hard to cope with the abuse. Some leave, others have their confidence sapped.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56474-2005Feb26.html


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True, tantrums by customers in the services industry are not uncommon in any country. Butit is the racial overtones that worry young professionals in India's multi-billion-dollarBusiness Processing Outsourcing industry.

"Some customers will ask us if we use electricity and watch TV," says Madhavi, a callcentre worker who declined to give her surname and who spoke to the BBC on thecondition that her company's name would not be mentioned. "You may keep smiling, but itleaves a bad taste in your mouth," says Gaurav Mantri of Transworks, a Mumbai-based callcentre. "You won't believe it. Once a customer asked one of my colleagues if he goes towork on a bullock cart."

An Indian organisation of professionals, called The Young Professionals Collective,recently compiled a report after talking to many call centre agents in Mumbai, Pune,Hyderabad, Delhi and Bangalore. The body has urged the country's labour ministry to lookinto the complaints of racial abuses and prejudices heaped on India's young workforce.

Mumbai-based lawyer Vinod Shetty, who formed the collective, says most of the abusesreflect the frustrations of the jobs being shifted to India. "Mostly they say Indians are dirtyand that they don't have brains and they are illiterates," he says. "Sometimes, the abusesreflect their prejudices and anger at job losses [in their own countries]."

Answering back

"Once a US customer called, after I read the welcome script he asked immediately where Iwas located. When I said India he said he didn't wish to continue and he hung up," saysMahal, who believes the problem starts when a customer is genuinely upset about a productor when he doesn't understand the heavy Indian accent. Team leader Nikhil urges his juniorcolleagues to take it on the chin and keep smiling. But Mr Fernandes answers back. "I don't

keep quiet on calls like these, but I make sure I don't cross the limits of decency." MrFernandes is lucky. Others who have answered back have been sacked. But customers whomisbehave are in the minority.

"Yes we get loads of callers who don't think well of us, but in my experience 80% of callersare pleasant and they even say how much they love India and the Taj Mahal," saysMadhavi, who has been working at a call centre for 18 months.

4. HR dept in call centres has its hands full

Source: The Hindu Business LineMUMBAI, June 15

FOR an industry with 40 per cent of its operational costs in people, a 25 per cent attritionrate is no small problem. The ITES industry - small but growing at 50 per cent yearly - isconfronting its HR issues head-on. At the recent Nasscom ITES-BPO summit, HRmanagers said that though the ITES industry has a pool of millions of graduates to choosefrom, it has a high turnover rate, it is facing a shortage of skilled labour and is looking atways to make itself an attractive employer. With an average employee age of 23, the still-to-mature industry has equally inexperienced youngsters for staff. Considering the night


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shifts they face and the impatient or angry customers they interact with, employees havehigh stress levels, one in two smoke too much and many of them quit the industry due tostress, according to Mr. Aadesh Goyal, Executive Vice-President and GM, Hughes BPOservices. "They do not consider it a career option."

"To grow the industry to a million plus jobs, over the next few years, we have to accept theproblems we face," says Mr. Goyal. Yet, these are not unique to India, says Mr. MartinConboy, President, Callcentres.net, a Sydney-based industry body. Call centers in the Westtoo face similar problems. Admittedly, the average age of the employee is higher in theWest, people consider it as a career option and are taught workplace stress management."Simply because they are older, call centre employees in the West will have acquired thelife-skills to deal with different types of customers," Mr. Conboy says.

"A typical Indian call centre agent is just out of college and, with a less than 4 per centfocus during training on stress management in the sector today, is ill-equipped to handle anirate, or downright rude customer on the phone," asserts Mr. Conboy.

There are also the physiological problems of night-time work, irregular eating habits andthe effect of the timings on their personal life, says Mr. Goyal. Hiring should result in only`stress hardy' candidates being chosen for the job, according to Mr. Conboy. "Psychometric

profiling of candidates will soon be adopted in the industry," he says. There are literallyhundreds of psychometric profiling techniques in the market, it is advisable for the industryto evaluate their suitability before accepting them, adds Mr. Suren Singh Rasaily, Sr. VP

NIIT Ltd and head, Planetworkz, and heading Nasscom's ITES-BPO HR initiative.

The industry is also facing the admittedly controversial issue of poaching employees, agreeHR managers. "That is only to be expected in an `overheated industry'," says Mr. PrakashGurbaxani, CEO, TransWorks Information services. Not only does the average HR

manager need 500 people suddenly, he needs them up-to-speed and delivering immediately.This can only happen if you hire from the existing pool of call centre employees. Whilethere is the example of Daksh eServices and Wipro Spectramind agreeing not to hire fromeach other, not only are such pacts impossible on an industry scale, but also undesirable,agree HR managers.

Measures such as training graduates and college students in language and communicationskills have been suggested by Nasscom and by several Governments keen on attracting call-centers to their States. These are too `long term' in nature, says Mr Gurbaxani. "Someone inthe call centre industry today needs to worry about what he is doing tomorrow. One waycould be for call centers to move to B cities such as Indore, Ahmedabad, Mysore orCoimbatore to reduce costs and attrition as well as to tap their most valuable and expensive

resource - people.http://www.hinduonnet.com/businessline/2003/06/16/stories/2003061601560200.htm

5. Indian Call CentersNot a Bed of Roses

Booming nascent industry is plagued by a high turnover rate

SOURCE: India currents

SAIKAT CHAKRABORTY, Sep 26, 2003

Mani was a normal 21-year-old till he got a job a year ago. Now, he is suffering from health

problems usually associated with people twice his ageinsomnia, fatigue, and indigestion.Recently, things have worsened. He has started exhibiting signs of a split personality. This


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Very Good Good Satisfactory Bad13. Your normal day at work is-Good Exciting Easy going Hard Boring

14. The environment of your workplace is-Very Good Good Satisfactory Poor

15. How are you rewarded for your good performance?_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

16. According to you, your work targets set by the company are-Achievable Hard to achieve Impossible to achieve

17. In case of inability to achieve the targets your TL/ Boss-Has a talk with you Screams at you Gives you another chance

18. Suggestions given by the employees are acknowledged by the management.Yes Somewhat No

19. What is it that makes your company different from others?_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

20. Would you refer this company to your friend as a good place to work in?Yes Maybe No

21. What is that you would like to change or include in your workplace?____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

22. Which is your dream company?_____________________________________________________________________

Thank you for spending your precious time!


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8. SAMPLE OF EMPLOYEE STRESS SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE 2

Rate the frequency with which you have experienced each of these items listed below.Take the last two weeks as your time frame. Use the following rating scale:

0= Never

1=Sometimes

2= Often

3= Very often

1. Loss of appetite _____

2. Tendency to overeat _____(Especially in response to stressful situations)

3. Fluttering motion of the eyes _____

4. Tightened muscles in the neck/jaw _____

5. Cold hands _____

6. Sweating of palms _____

7. Excessive sweating of the body _____

8. Tightness of body muscles _____ 9. Strained voice usually high-pitched _____

10. Hunching posture _____

11. Headaches _____

12. Trembling _____

13. Dryness of mouth _____

14. Tendency to be frightened or startled easily _____

15. Feelings of depression

_____

16. Irritability _____

17. The desire to escape from people or things or situations _____

18. Inability to think clearly _____

19. Inability to make decisions _____

20. Inability to solve simple problems _____

21. Impatience _____

22. Tendency to be critical of others _____


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80 and above Harmful level of stress


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BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Strategic Stress Management

- By Valerie J. Sutherland & Cary L. Cooper.

2. Managing Stress

- By Donald H. Weiss.

3. ABCs of Human Mind

4. Stress Management & Relaxation Strategies

- By Epstein

5. Building Call Center Culture- By Dan Coen


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WEBLIOGRAPHY

1. www.outsource2india.com2. www.tribuneindia.com

3. www.indiatogether.org

4. www.researchnews.osu.edu/archive/dispemot.htm

5. www.cdc.gov

6. www.rotten.com/library/culture/indian-call-centers/

7. www.tmcnet.com/channels/call-center-training/articles/.htm

8. www.callcenterops.com/topic-stress.htm

9. www.thecheers.org/article1810.html

10. www.iseva.com/news-events/downloads/iSeva-The-preferred-

employer.pdf

11.www.indiacurrents.com/news/.html

12. www.enterblog.com/200503010314.html

13. www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56474-2005Feb 26.html

14. www.stress.about.com/od/understandingstress/a/stress_basics.htm

15. www.youroffice.com
http://www.outsource2india.com/http://www.tribuneindia.com/http://www.indiatogether.org/http://www.researchnews.osu.edu/archive/dispemot.htmhttp://www.cdc.gov/http://www.rotten.com/library/culture/indian-call-centers/http://www.tmcnet.com/channels/call-center-training/articles/.htmhttp://www.callcenterops.com/topic-stress.htmhttp://www.thecheers.org/article1810.htmlhttp://www.outsource2india.com/http://www.tribuneindia.com/http://www.indiatogether.org/http://www.researchnews.osu.edu/archive/dispemot.htmhttp://www.cdc.gov/http://www.rotten.com/library/culture/indian-call-centers/http://www.tmcnet.com/channels/call-center-training/articles/.htmhttp://www.callcenterops.com/topic-stress.htmhttp://www.thecheers.org/article1810.htmlhttp://www.iseva.com/news-events/downloads/iSeva-The-preferred-employer.pdfhttp://www.iseva.com/news-events/downloads/iSeva-The-preferred-employer.pdfhttp://www.indiacurrents.com/news/.htmlhttp://www.enterblog.com/200503010314.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56474-2005Feb26.htmlhttp://www.stress.about.com/od/understandingstress/a/stress_basics.htm

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Stress mgmt in call centers