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 Stress Psycho-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