Examining the Future of the Call Center Industry Employment: Comparing the Nature of Work between Inbound and Outbound Call Center through Employee Perception

(EMBED THE FIX INTO
THE PROCESS FOR GOOD)

DEFINE
THE
PROBLEM

IDENTIFY
POSSIBLE
CAUSES

EVALUATE
POSSIBLE
CAUSES

MAKE
A
CHANGE

TEST
THE
CHANGE

TAKE
PERMANENT
ACTION

1. Recognize that what you are doing is a “PROCESS”

2. Identify the commodity
being processed.
– Process Inference

3. Define some measurable characteristics of value to the commodity.

4. Describe the “PROCESS”
o Process Flow Analysis’s
o Flow charts
o List of steps

5. Identify the “Big” problem
o Brainstorming
o Checklists
o Pareto analysis

6. “BRAINSTORM” what is causing the problem.

7. Determine what past data shows.
o Frequency distribution
o Pareto charts
o Control charts
- sampling

8. Determine the relationship
between cause and effect
o Scatter diagrams
o Regression analysis

9. Determine what the
process is doing now
o Control charts
– sampling

10. Determine what change would help

Your knowledge
of the process

Scatter diagrams

Control Charts
- sampling

Pareto analysis

****Then make
the change.

11. Determine what change worked (confirmation).

Histograms

Control charts
- sampling

Scatter diagrams

12. Ensure the fix is embedded in the process and that the resulting process is used.

Continue to monitor the process to ensure:

A. The problem is fixed for good.

and

B. The process is good enough

o Control charts
- sampling

****To ensure continuous
improvement, return
to step 5

Fig. 2: Total Quality Management process of Improvement ( 2000)

2.9 Turnover rates

As stated in the pervious section of this chapter, most call center agents whether inbound or outbound, experience lots of stress in the workplace. Most of the agents could not cope with the factors that stress them out. As a result, they would rather leave the call center industry. Call centers worldwide reported that turnover of the industry in general is around thirty-three percent (2004). According to the (2004), this rate is ten time higher compared to any other job.

Even though, many people are enticed by a career in the call center industry, call center businesses are still being threatened by the presence of high turnover rates. According to a survey conducted by ( 2000), high turnover rates resulted to 38 percent decrease in earnings and stock prices in four industries including call centers. This means that many call centers are losing precious capital in attempting to replace seasoned agents. They would have to re-invest in training new hires so that they will be able to meet the metrics set by the clients. In offshore call centers, this means that new hires will have to undergo trainings ranging from speech, accent and product training. This can take up to a month, while if seasoned agents had not left their post the call center would have been profiting from their already.

The table below shows how expensive it is to replace lost employees. However, call centers can actually reduce their turnover rate by soliciting the views of their employees. Dialogues as well as coaching session can be helpful in determining the factors that causes stress. Agents know their jobs well. Therefore, they also know what are things needed to be able to perform better. The objective of this research is exactly to get call center agents to talk about issues concerning their work in the hopes of securing the future of the industry, thus, ensuring employment in the future.

Fig. 3: Call Centers Employee Turnover Rates (Dybis, 2004)

2.10 Human Resource Management

High turnover rates are just one of the issues that human resource managements programs are attempting to resolve. In contrary with the past notion that human resource management is only concerned with employee hiring and payroll management, today’s view of human resource management is broader. It now includes activities such as personnel management, employee training as well as dealing with performance issues. It is often the case tha human resource managers turn to training as a means of resolving performance issues at the same time enhancing the skills of their current and future workforce.

According to (2003), the quality of the employees are determined by their development through training and education. In turn, quality employees are factors in defining the long-term stability and profitability of the company. It is a fact that the rigorous hiring process of many companies a ways of ensuring that they will only be hiring the best of the best. However, this is not enough to say that the people they hire will be delivering effective performances. It might be true that they can see potential in those people and that is why they hired them. Nevertheless, these potentials cannot be put into use unless they are accordant with the company’s visions. This is the reason why training must take place.

These reasons are closely linked to the company’s sustainability and profitability. According to (2002), training is being used to facilitate education. In addition, training is also seen as a tool to retain employees, improve corporate culture and design incentive programs for employees ( 2002).

Trainings are also being conducted so that the company will be able to create a pool of employees that can readily and adequately replace those who have left the company. Due to fats technological developments, employees must be continuously and/or regularly trained to be able to adapt to the developments that will affect the company. Training also motivates a team by allowing them to become more efficient. If a company is able to train and develop highly-competent employees then they will be able to fill positions needed for expansion (2003 ).

Since training can develop efficient employees and create rooms for expansion, this means that training can also result to lower employee turnover rates. As stated earlier call centers are included in the three industries suffering from the ill effects of high-turnover rates. If trainings can reduce turnover rates, this means that trainings can also reduce the cost of production. The saving that companies will be able to get from lower turn over rates can later be passed on to their customers.

In attempting to create an effective training program, factors must first be taken into consideration. These factors are more connected with the suitability of the employees to undergo training. They are also factors that will be able to help companies in designing the appropriate training module. This part of the proposal will be presenting these factors in order to help the research in answering some of the questions posted earlier in the statement of the problem.

Since training is basically motivation and transfer of information, the characteristics of the trainees is very important in ensuring the success of the training programs. According to (2002), there are 8 factors that affects employee training.

Trainability

Cognitive ability

Basic Skills

Personality

Conscientiousness

Goal Orientation

Anxiety

Age

Employee training and development can start a chain reaction. When the company is able to produce effective employees then their profitability will increase. When this happens, they will also be able to compensate their employees based on their contribution to the company’s growth. In turn, it will create a feeling of satisfaction that will motivate them to improve further their efficiency and then the cycle will once again begin ( 2005).

The need to conduct training for both new hires and current call center agents, for both inbound and outbound programs, is reinforced by the survey conducted by Leadership IQ (2005). The survey states that within 18 months 46 percent of the new hire in the call center industry will fail. On the other hand only 19 percent will achieve undeniable success. The survey blames for interpersonal skills for the high failure rate within the call center industry. Even managers who were interviewed for the survey Admitted that the lack in interpersonal skills is often overlooked.

Among the 46 percent of the new hires who failed within 18 months 26 percent of them were found to be unable to handle feedback, 23 percent had problems understanding and managing emotions. Furthermore, 17 percent lacked the motivation needed in to excel in the call center business while 15 percent were found to have failed because they have the wrong temperament for the job ( 2005). These reasons prove that they could have been prevented if only the employees were trained on such aspects.

Unfortunately, call centers focus more on training their employees on product knowledge and accent or culture training if the center is offshore. Call center management often forget that most of the new hires are first timers in the business and are not yet emotionally ready for the rollercoaster ride ahead. The cultural background of the employees dictates this readiness, which means that call center managements must be able to recognize that in order for training to fulfill the promise of lower turnover rates, they must design a training program that will help employees cope with the pressure and stress of the job.

As proof MetLife conducted a survey were they were able to discover that lower turnover rates are present when agents have lesser interactions with customers or when agents feel that they have full control over the interactions ( 2005). This suggests that a feeling of satisfaction can prevent turnovers. In turn, satisfaction can come from agents knowing that the way they interact with customers is the way it is expected to be done. All of these are possible if agents were trained.

All of the statements made in relation to HRM implies that it is also an activity that aims to improve the quality of service that a company provides. Therefore, HRM is also a part of Total Quality Management. At this point, it is clear that total quality management serves as an umbrella business activity that includes every other activity that an organizations part takes in to improvement the quality of their products and/or services.

2.11 Preliminary Conclusion

The statements and arguments presented above suggest that the nature of work of inbound and outbound call center agents are virtually the same. The only difference lies in the technicality of who is calling who. It is not always the case that inbound agents do not deal with sales, which is considered to be more stressful. Therefore, is can be concluded that the nature of work of inbound and outbound call center agents is dependent upon the kind of management they have received. In addition, the sustainability of the industry is also dependent on this management, specifically total quality management.

Chapter 3

Methodology

3.1 Research Design

The research design used in the study is descriptive research. Descriptive research intends to present facts concerning the nature and status of a situation, as it exists at the time of the study ( 1994). It is also concerned with relationships and practices that exist, beliefs and processes that are ongoing, effects that are being felt, or trends that are developing. (1970) In addition, such approach tries to describe present conditions, events or systems based on the impressions or reactions of the respondents of the research (1994).

In addition, the descriptive method is widely used in studies concerning behavioral sciences. This means that this method will be able to capture the essence of the study, which is to investigate the future of the call centre industry through the exploration of the perception of employees. In the previous chapter, it has been identified that one of the reasons for the high turnover rates in the call centre industry is the level of stress that agents have to face. In turn, this high turnover rate causes business to loose more in terms of operating cost.

The use of the descriptive method also suggests that the research will be focusing on obtaining qualitative data. Qualitative research is an umbrella that refers to various research traditions and strategies. This type of research design was chosen since it gives emphasis to attitudes and beliefs of that explain the way they interpret and make sense of their world. In the case of the study at hand, the perception of the employee regarding the nature of their work affects the growth of the industry that they belong to.

To achieve the objectives of the research, there is a need to first identify the variables that will be used to investigate the trend of call centre employee. In any research, two variables are always present – independent and dependent. The independent variables pertain to the variables that are perceived as the ones doing the causing, while the dependent variables are the variables being studied to conclude the effects of the independent variables.

In this case, an independent variable has been identified. It is the stress factors. It is recognized that there are different kinds of stress factors present in the call centre as a workplace. However, to simplify the task of analyzing the data gathered, the collected term stress factors were used to signify the presence of these factors. Since the study is correlation in nature, the independent variable will be observed and not manipulated. This also goes hand in hand with the over-all descriptive nature of the research.

On the other hand, the identified dependent variable is the employment trend within the call centre industry. Based on the literature review presented in Chapter 2 of this research, human capital is one of the main problems that call centers face. The fact that high levels of stress can be obtained form a call centre workplace indicates that the charm of call centre career can be quickly turned reversed once stress sets in. Various studies previously presented also determined that stress drives agents to resign from their posts leaving countless seat needed to be filled. At first, this may seem as an indication that stress will result to the abundance of employment opportunities within the industry.

However, following sections of the previous chapter also stated that call centers loose more whenever they have to replace seasoned agents with new hire. This is brought about by the fact that new hires are usually inexperienced individuals who will be handling calls for the first. The performance of stressed agents will most likely be more able compared to the performance of an inexperienced new hire. The business world is being run by profit; this means that if companies are no longer profit from their businesses a shut down might follow. If this happens, the employment opportunities within the call centre industry will decline.

This means that the stress levels that call centre agents experience indirectly affects the call centre industry in terms of productivity and ensuring the profitability of the company. Agents who are stressed out tend to perform poorly. Below average performance is unacceptable to most call centres who aim to provide their clients and their client’s customers with the bets possible contact and customer experience possible. This suggests that if customers do poorly in ensuring the satisfaction of their callers (for inbound agents) or increase of sales (for outbound agents), their respective clients might pull out their account and bring it elsewhere. The worse case scenario will be the clients never wanting to entrust their business to outsourcers.

Upon first reading, it may seem as a far-fetched idea. However, the chain of events that is threatening to changes, if not already slowly changing, the employment trend in the call centre industry is being seen as a factor that needs to be constantly observed. This what the research aims to achieve. By gathering and analyzing data from call centre employees, the research will be able determine if the employees themselves see stress as a factor of turnover rates. The relationship bet the turnover rate and the changes in the employment opportunities in the call centre industry has already been established in the literature review.

Given this, the researcher focused on gathering data that will strengthen the hypothesis that there is a correlation between stress and the high turn over rate in the call centre industry. The following sections of this chapter will be furthering the discussion on the details of the methodology used to complete the data gathering part of the research. Succeeding pages will be focusing on the steps taken by the research in ensuring the credibility of the findings of the research.

3.2 Participants

Respondents in the study are call centre agents who were chosen randomly from different inbound and outbound call centre service companies across the country. It was important for the participants to come form various call centers as this ensure a good representation of the population. In doing so, the research will have lesser margin to generalize the results. In addition, the fact the participant came from various call centre companies suggests that they have different experiences regarding stress in the workplace. This is because every call centre tends to have different corporate cultures being practices. In one way or another, this difference in corporate culture affects how people within the organization are being stressed out. This means that the participants will provide various setting under which the hypothesis can be tested.

This means that the participants of the research have different demographic characteristics as well. In the beginning, the expanse of the demographic differences among the participants of the research proved to be problem that needs to be addressed immediately. It was recognized by the researcher that the demographic differences of participant will result to irrelevant variables that can affect the analysis of the data. However, this was immediately addressed and will be discussed in detail in the following section of this chapter.

Overall, there were 1000 participants for the research. There were eight call centers contacted regarding the intention of the researcher to survey their agents. The call centers contacted were not purely outbound or inbound centers. They all cater to both inbound and outbound calls. However, they have a definite number of people delegated to outbound and inbound works. This allowed the researcher to be divided the call centre agents into four groups, which will be discussed later on.

To ensure proper representation on each call centre, the 1216 participants were divided among the eight centers. This resulted to 152 agents per call centre. Since the call centers involved in the research cater to both inbound and outbound work, there was a need for the researcher group the agents per centre into four. The first group was composed of female inbound agents, the second male inbound agents, the third female outbound agents and the fourth male outbound agents.

The division was implemented to ensure that both sexes were equally represented in the research. This grouping yielded an outcome of 38 members per group per call centre. This kind of division also worked for the call centre that agreed to participate in the research. The smaller the number of participants the better since work will not be disrupted as much as when the participants from each centre is big.

It is important to not, though, that the researcher did everything to prevent any work disruption from taking place. The surveys were done before and after work to prevent work disruption and to observed changes in the perception of the employees after a stressful day at work. When the researcher needed to observe the behaviour of the agents on the floor, it was done on a very discreet manner. Oftentimes, the researcher would use the technique being used by quality analyst to screen calls. Through this method, the researcher was able to observe how the agents converse and assist customers whenever they are under stress.

The observation/survey period for all the centers lasted for two months. The researcher coordinated with the operations manager of each centre in order to forecast the days when the site will receive the most number of calls and the days when they are expecting to receive the least number of calls. These days are crucial in the study since it is believed that the more calls an agent gets the more stressed he/she becomes. This means that the changes in the performance of the agents can be best observed during these two days. It is also the case that heavy call flows usually result in pressuring the agents to make more sales of handle calls properly to be able to accommodate all calls.

For outbound agents, the observation dates were set during times when the site is on a deadline to meet the clients expected sales figures and relatively relaxed days. In the same way that heavy call volumes affect the performance of inbound call centre agents, pressure from the client to hit the target can push the agents to their limits and thus resulting to stress.

The move to ensure that both sexes were represented in the research was done to eliminate some margin for error brought about by the presence of a significant amount of irrelevant variables. The researcher recognizes the possibility that the results of the research might be questioned on the basis that the response and/or perception of the participants may have been influenced by factors other than the independent variable. As such, ambiguous findings will not prove to be credible and thus the findings of the research can be jeopardized.

Due to the importance of making sure that irrelevant variables will not affect the result of the research, the researcher observed other measures while gathering the need data for the research. The following section will discuss other measures implemented to avoid as much irrelevant variables that can result to error variability.

Error variability can be avoided, if not eliminated by using an effective sampling and research design. Randomization was one of the sampling methods in the research. This allowed the research to prevent systematic differences between groups as a result of the presence of irrelevant variables. However, it is the case that even if randomization was used random differences will still occur. In addition, it might be questioned that the research design presented above does not look like random since the researcher went to certain height to ensure that both sexes are represented.

It is true that the population of the participants have equal representation of both men and women. This is due to the fact that the research did not only use randomization but also used some of the irrelevant variable as independent variables. In doing so, the researcher had to group the participants by sexes and type of agent (inbound or outbound). Aside from this, the participants were picked based on their employee numbers to reinforce stratified sampling.

The next section of the paper will be providing a complete discussion of the sampling design used in the research. The sampling design will explain the process of stratified sampling as well as the further discussion on the need to use irrelevant variables as independent variables.

3.3 Sampling Design

It is important that the researcher be able to define the target population to be able to determine the sampling method that needs to be used. This is the case since sampling methods to be used will be the reflection of the characteristics of the target population defined.

Sampling can be classified into probability or non-probability. Probability methods describe the target population as a population where every member has non-zero probability of being chosen as subjects. Non-probability methods describe the target population as a population where members can be selected to be subjects in some random manner.

For this particular research, the sampling methods used are those from the probability methods since the target population was chosen regardless of gender, race, experience or status. It is stated the participant were chosen regardless of sex since members of both sexes were included in the population of the participants.

The utilization of the probability methods can also prove to be advantageous since sampling errors can be calculated. This means that the researcher will be able to determine the degree that sample differed from the population. There are three kinds of sampling under the probability method that can be used – random, systematic and stratified. The three samplings can be used independently or simultaneously (2005).

The participants were chosen through stratified random sampling. The stratified sampling was chosen because it is more superior compared to random when it comes to lessening sampling errors.

Stratum refers to the subset of the population that shares, at the very least one, common characteristics. In this case, one of the stratums used was male and female and inbound or outbound call centre agents.

It is very important that the sampling design is effective in lessening or eliminating margins for error. In analyzing the data gathered for the research, the scores that they yield will have two components. The first component is known as the treatment component. These components reflect the effects of the independent variable. This means that the treatment components are the most relevant scores in concluding the research. Treatment components are the ones that will be able to answer the research questions.

On the other hand, there is the error component. In contrast with the treatment component, the error component reflects the effects of the independent variable on the dependent variable. The presence of error variability accounts for the presence of error variability.

Error variability is variability in the scores that cannot be credited to the independent variable. If in the process of analyzing the data large amounts of error variability are observed, there is a tendency for the treatment components to be obscured and thus making the findings inconclusive.

It is also important that each stratum be represented sufficiently. The use of the term sufficient means that the sample size must be large enough to be confident to state that the stratum represents the population. The research can only meet the minimum given the constraint on the time and resources available for the research.

However, it has been ensured that number of the participants for the survey as well as the interview is sufficient to represent the population. The number of participants used in the research was based on the minimum of most SPSS software, which is minimum of 1000 and maximum of 1500.

The fact that the SPSS software was able to provide comprehendible figures based on the variables inputted in the interface is a good indicator that the number of respondents in the researcher is within the sufficient range. In addition, the number of participants in the survey/interview process of the research allowed the researcher to

3.4 Research Instruments

Various research instruments were used to gather the data needed for the research. Given that the research was primarily after qualitative data, the research instruments used were geared towards this purpose. These instruments included self-report in the form of a survey questionnaire, the occupational stress indicator and interviews. The mentioned instruments set out to measure both satisfaction and stress levels of the call centre agents who took part in the research.

A five-point Likert Scale will be used to measure the level of satisfaction of the employees on each statement in the questionnaire. The survey was divided into two parts. The first part measures the satisfaction of the employees in terms of the nature of their work. This part included questions that aimed to determine how the employees perceive their work. Some of the questions are listed below.

1. How committed are you to maintaining your job long-term?

2. How satisfied are you with the compensation and benefits provided by the company?

3. Does the company recognize the contributions of their employees to the growth of the company?

4. How you satisfied with your job?

5. Would you consider your job as stressful?

The second part of the survey aimed to determine the various factors that were contributing to the stress levels of the employees. Different aspects of the workplace were included in this part. The participants were asked about the programs of the company that are implemented to lessen the stress of the employees. After which, they were asked if these programs were effective.

1. Does the company have programs aimed at relieving the stress of their employees?

2. Are these programs effective?

3. Can interpersonal skills help in combating stress within a call centre?

4. Is stress a factor in your want to continue working with the company?

More specific questions were included in the survey to determine what causes employees in the call centre industry to experience high levels of stress. These questions are more related to the routine that they carry out within the workplace. For example, both inbound and outbound call centre agents were asked if certain types of calls result to stress. They were asked to describe the kinds of calls that they get and identify the ones that will most likely stress them.

In addition, the relationship of the agents with their supervisors and co-workers were also investigated. This part of the survey aimed to establish if the interpersonal skills of the employees, as stated in the literature review, affects their stress levels. For example, if an agent is not used to receiving feedback this might cause him/her to take the feedback in a non-constructive manner and thus result to stress. Some of the questions asked are listed below.

1. Do customer interactions sometimes result to stressful circumstances?

2. Does pressure to hit clients metrics result to stress?

The occupational stress indicator (OSI) (2003) will also be used as an additional questionnaire to determine stress level of the respondents. The OSI will also utilize a 5-point Likert Scale. In the Likert technique, the degree of agreement or disagreement is given a numerical value ranging from one to five, thus a total numerical value can be calculated from all the responses (2004). The equivalent weights for the answers will be:

Range Interpretation

4.50 – 5.00 Strongly Agree

3.50 – 4.00 Agree

2.50 – 3.49 Uncertain

1.50 – 2.49 Disagree

0.00 – 1.49 Strongly Disagree

Finally, personal interviews were conducted on both employees and supervisors to determine the technical nature of work of inbound and outbound call centre agents. This will be done with a guide of an open interview questionnaire regarding the matter. The interviews were conducted to verify and to further investigate the answers of the employees on the survey. These interviews allowed the researcher to ask additional questions that will help clear things or further the description of certain incidences that were not able or could not be accommodated in the survey. Data will be analyzed with the use of the latest SPSS software and will be compared with the use of chi-square.

The utilization of the Likert scale as well as the OSI provided the qualitative data of the research while the quantitative data were gathered through the review of statistics within the call centre industry. For example, recent data showing the turnover rate of the industry in general were used to determine if the industry is indeed suffering from high turnover rates. As such, turnover rates of the call centers were presented in order to make the connection between stress factors and turnover rates.

3.5 Data Collection

It has been reiterated in the previous sections of this chapter that the research mainly gathered qualitative data in order to determine if stress affects the turnover rate within the call centre industry. The completed survey forms, answered by both inbound and outbound call centre agents, provided the qualitative data. In addition to the accomplished survey forms, the researcher was also able to gather data through a series of interviews conducted with the call centre agents.

Qualitative research as a method of data collection is also known as the participative observation. This suggests that the researcher be immersed among the participants of the research instead of just observing them from a distance. Malinowski advocated this method at the turn of the century of research (1992). This implies that qualitative research is not anew tradition. Therefore, it has been tried and tested through the years. The efficiency of this method proved to be invaluable for many research.

In addition, this method of data was implemented in the researcher for a couple of other reasons. One of the main objectives of the research is to be able to gain knowledge on the perception of the employees regarding the future of employment opportunities in the call centre industry based on their experiences at the moment. This suggests that the researcher must be able to interact with the participants of the research in order to fully understand the circumstances that surround the topic.

Related literature may be able to provide details of how the call centre industry operates. It will be able to describe the conditions in which call centre agents work. Articles will discuss problems. It will also be able to pinpoint the source of the problems as well as provide recommendations on how to effectively resolve them. Reviewing related articles can give various insights about the topic. However, fully understanding the underlying conditions that brought about the problem, in the first place, can only be achieved if it is observed or experienced first hand.

This signifies that the researcher will be able to effectively attack the problem is he is familiar with how the employees operate under a specific conditions. It is possible that the researcher will get an answer from the participants that are not exactly the being done in practice. In other words, the participants may way one thing and actually do another.

The statement is not implying that the participants will most likely lie about their perception on their work. It is just the case that people tend to think about the possible effects of their answers to survey or interview question on their jobs. As such, they might not be able to provide their true feeling about the topic. Immersion allowed the researcher to get the feel of the environment that is believed to be stressful.

Natural actions and reactions can be observed and documented. Interactions between the employees and their supervisor and any other superior that have also been identified as contributors to the stress level of the employees can also be observed first hand. With this method, no information can be omitted. Unlike in interviews or surveys that the participants can consciously omitted details that can affect the outcome of the research.

It is evident that the researcher used another research method aside from the participative observation. Surveys and interviews have been mentioned a couple of this. This means that the researcher also used the

As stated in the previous section of this chapter, the research gathered data by using survey and interviews. Two survey forms were distributed to the participants with the instructions of answering one before work and the other one after work.

In addition to this, an occupational stress indicator questionnaire will also be distributed to measure the stress levels of the employees. In contrary to the survey questionnaire, was only completed once. To better capture the effects of stress on the employees, the survey forms were distributed on the day that heavy call volumes are expect (inbound) or the day that the shift is expected to hit a certain figure (outbound).

The two forms have basically the same set of questions. However, since the participants were asked to complete them at a preset interval, it was expected that the events that transpired during that day would somehow affect their perception and thus affecting their answers.

The participants were asked to stay in a single room while answering the survey. They were also instructed not to talk with one another while completing the survey. This will ensure that their answers will not be influenced by the answers of their peers. Upon finishing the survey, each participant was asked to immediately pass the survey form and walk out of the room. This process was repeated after the shift of the participants.

After the completion of the survey forms, the researcher formulated the questionnaire for the interview. The questions were based on the results of the survey. The interviews were done to reinforce the findings of the survey. In addition, these meetings will allow the researcher to observe if there were any changes in the perception of the employees after the completion of the survey.

There was only one interview per participant. These were done a few days after the survey was conducted. The interview also served as the validation of the answers of each participant to the survey. It is recognized that there are some questions that needed to be expounded on in other to provide the best possible answer.

The supervisors were also for gaining knowledge on the technical aspect of a call centre work. The supervisors also served as the bridge between the participants and the researcher. The researcher directly coordinated with the supervisor to let the participants know about the schedule of surveying and interviews. In addition, the supervisors were also interviewed to determine if the interpersonal skill of the employees affect the way they handle stress or how the agents are stressed.

Chapter 4

Analysis

4.1 Overview

This study was conducted in order to investigate the different working conditions that affect inbound and outbound agents in UK. Their perceptions towards their job as call center agents are also identified. In this research, 8 call center companies within UK had been selected for the participant selection. A total of 500 inbound and 500 outbound agents were randomly selected for the data-gathering. A survey questionnaire structured in Likert format was distributed to the selected respondents. The questionnaire was divided into two main parts: the profile of the respondents and the survey proper. The responses of the participants were then totaled for the weighted mean computation. Results were then interpreted using the Likert scale. Interviews using some of the selected respondents were also conducted in the process to obtain useful data that would elaborate or explain the responses in the questionnaire. The answers of the participants in the interview were integrated in relevant survey results.

4.2 Demographic Profile

For the profile of the respondents, the questionnaire asked for the participants’ age, gender and their duration of service in the company. The following information had been provided in order to stress that the actual participants and research gathering process has been carried out. Although the demographic data holds no direct value to the analysis, it is essential that the following details are provided as it is part of the distributed questionnaire. Moreover, these data will provide readers of the basic characterization of the research sample. Below are the graphs summarizing the gathered values for each profile category:

Fig. 4: Age Distribution of the Respondents

In Figure 4, it is clear that majority of the selected participants belong to the 20-25 year age group. None of the participants however were older than 36 years.

Fig. 5: Gender Distribution of the Respondents

Figure 5 shows the number of surveyed inbound and outbound agents based on gender. The bar graph indicates that there were more male outbound and female inbounds agents gathered during the process.

Fig. 6: Duration of Service of the Respondents to their respective companies

The figure above indicates that most of the selected agents had been working in their companies for a year or less.

4.3 Discussion

In this section, the results of the survey are discussed in relation to the research questions and objectives of the study. Specifically, the differences of the perception of inbound and outbound call center agents towards the nature of their jobs are described in this section. In addition, factors or working conditions that affect the job satisfaction of the selected call center employees are also identified. Interview responses that would explain relevant factors are integrated in the discussion. Related literatures were used to support points raised.

Job Perception

Perception on Current Job

Weighted Mean

Interpretation

1. I am presently receiving a high level of job

107

201

113

3.64

Agree

satisfaction.

126

215

105

2.26

Disagree

2. Considerable pressure in my current work are

112

209

164

3.82

Agree

affecting my personal and professional

246

215

4.35

Agree

well-being

3. I feel much stress with my current job.

153

226

3.92

Agree

324

157

4.57

Strongly Agree

4. I intend to stay in this job for a long time.

106

176

201

3.73

Agree

182

184

2.67

Uncertain

Table 1: Summary of Results for Job Perception among IB and OB agents

Legend: 5 (Strongly Agree), 4 (Agree), 3 (Uncertain), 2 (Disagree), 1 (Strongly Disagree)

Based from the gathered results in the survey, inbound and outbound agents tend to have differences and similarities as to how they generally perceive the nature of their work. For instance, the computation showed that while inbound agents are generally satisfied with their job, outbound agents disagree. An interviewed participant noted that dissatisfaction in their job is attributed to several negative factors and working conditions. Although both set of agents agree that work stress and pressures are experienced in their duties, the outbound agents appear to have a higher level of job dissatisfaction. The computed values also showed that while inbound agents have plans of staying in their current jobs for a longer period of time, outbound agents are not as certain.

From these findings, it is clear that the outbound agents have a more negative perception towards their job as compared to the inbound agents. This result is significantly related to the differences of both employees in terms of the nature of their work. The inbound agents are the ones that directly respond to the concern of the customers for the company. Typical services provided by inbound call center agents include answering queries or complaints as well as providing technical support. Services of inbound agents are typically concentrated on the company’s customers and the specific products it manufactures. Although the stress level may be lower than those experienced by outbound employees, irate customers are often the source of stress for inbound agents. It is then important that inbound agents have a strong sense of self-control and patience for handling these problems.

On the other hand, outbound call center agents are commonly concentrated on the sales factor. Their duties normally involve marketing and promoting different products that their respective companies over the phone. In some instance, call center companies are hired by manufacturers in order to do the marketing process rather than establish their own call center department. While the process is similar, outbound agents encounter a greater amount of stress that the inbound employees since they are the ones who are making the call in order to make a sale. Naturally, outbound agents would have to call different people, making communication a challenge. As there are customers who are not open to this kind of system, outbound employees often gain little respect from the public. Moreover, as outbound call can take at anytime, customer often find this marketing practice interruptive and annoying ( 1999).

An interviewed respondent also noted compared to inbound agents, outbound employees normally have a certain level of sales or quota which they have to meet everyday. Their persistence to make a sale often lead them to unpleasant interaction with the customers, which increases the work pressure involved. Having the skills that will make an effective outbound agent is also more difficult as compared to inbound agents. Inbound agents would have to know the product or service being offered, including how to address various problems and solutions related to it. Outbound agents on the other hand need not only the knowledge about the product, but also the marketing expertise that will make the item appealing to the customer. They must also have the ability to convince the consumers. In general, the presence of work conditions and pressures in the duties of inbound and outbound agents affect their perception about their job; as the level of work stress is higher among outbound agents, most of the selected participants had a negative perception towards their work.

Work Conditions

Factors that affect IB and OB agents at the same level

Similar to the respondents’ perceptions towards their job, inbound and outbound agents gave different and similar views on the working conditions that affect their job.

Work Conditions

Weighted Mean

Interpretation

The work hours or schedule my job requires

101

277

3.72

Agree

affect me.

120

313

3.98

Agree

Interacting with multiple and different

151

216

3.67

Agree

customers stresses me out.

173

286

4.23

Agree

Table 2: Summary of Results for Work Hours and Customer Interaction

Legend: 5 (Strongly Agree), 4 (Agree), 3 (Uncertain), 2 (Disagree), 1 (Strongly Disagree)

Based form the results of the survey, inbound and outbound agents are affected by several similar working conditions. For instance, both sets of respondents agree that the irregularities of their work schedules as well as the need to interact with different people are among the major problems that affect their work. With work schedules, both inbound and outbound employees would have to report to work outside regular office hours. This is in consideration of their target or clients’ time zones. Due to different time zones of the customers, call center agents would have to report to work late at night or early morning.

Both agents also agree that their duty to interact with different people, nationalities and personalities make them more prone to communication issues and conflicts. One participant noted in the interview that differences in accents are often a hindrance to effective communication. In most instances, clients who are not able to understand the agent’s pronunciation or accent would simply hung up the phone. At times, communication problems also make irate customers even more irritated. In turn, this leads to verbal insults and other abuse that inbound and outbound agents would have to take everyday. Conflicts typically arise due to apparent differences; as agents interact with multiple clients from different parts of the world, the likelihood for conflicts is thus, very high. When customers are already irate, relaying a message becomes even more difficult.

(1998) noted that conflict arise due to the perception of personal differences among individuals. Other meanings of conflict defined the term as the process of social interaction between struggling parties over beliefs, status, power, resources and other desires or preferences. There are several types of conflicts related to the work of call center agents, which become a major source of stress. Conflicts are often categorized based on their origin. Affective conflict for instance is a type of conflict that arises when two contradicting parties have incompatible emotions or feelings. This is why this type of conflict is also termed as relationship, emotional or psychological conflict. According to (1997), affective conflict happens when interpersonal clashes are observed between the contradicting parties. Oftentimes, this type of conflict is characterized by frustration and anger. Diversity is also another source of conflict in call center companies as agents interact with clients with different cultures, backgrounds, standards and preferences. Diversity does not only pertain to people’s gender, age and race; differences in role expectation. Goals, thoughts and values are also part of this concept ( 2003). The concept of diversity is a notion of individual differences. While others may consider this as a way of expanding one’s perspectives, experience or ideas, diversity may be taken negatively and be seen as a factor that hinders goal achievement.

Work Conditions

Weighted Mean

Interpretation

The monotonous nature of the job is

175

236

4.13

Agree

frustrating.

194

206

4.3

Agree

The demands and pressures of my current

153

218

124

3.78

Agree

work affect my health and well-being.

161

254

3.91

Agree

Table 3: Summary of Results for Monotony and Health Effects

Legend: 5 (Strongly Agree), 4 (Agree), 3 (Uncertain), 2 (Disagree), 1 (Strongly Disagree)

Both inbound and outbound agents also agree on other working conditions that affect their jobs and performance. These include the monotonous nature of their jobs as well as its ability to affect their health. Among inbound agents, the monotonous feature of their job is more evident. In particular, as this job requires the management of similar customer concerns, agents would eventually come across almost every possible issue over time. This then lessens the challenge involved in the job. A job that no longer involves challenge can greatly reduce an employee’s drive to persevere and opportunities to improve. Eventually, the possibility of employees losing interest in their job would look for better opportunities, increasing the rate of employee turnover. The problem on turnover on the other hand can lead to other severe problems for the company.

Continuous speaking with customers over the phone can be has also been considered by the respondents as a major stress factor. In UK, several call center agents had reportedly been suffering from sore throat and voice loss. This in turn become another major problem due to increased healthcare costs. At present, several professionals such as the call center agents rely on their voices to perform their job ( 2000). Call centers are among the growing work sectors in UK; the problem on repetitive voice injury due to weather, office temperature and infection however affect the employees. In the US report, a quarter of its total workers experience voice problems ( 2001); if this will be applied in the UK setting, about 5 million workers are affected by this health issue, resulting to a cost of about £200 million every year.

Work Conditions

Weighted Mean

Interpretation

The company provides due recognition to

156

116

204

Disagree

the effort and contribution of the agents.

157

222

2.06

Disagree

Management empowers employees to

134

106

111

3.06

Agree

overcome work pressures through effective

147

122

104

3.09

Agree

programs.

Table 4: Summary of Results for Recognition and Empowerment

Legend: 5 (Strongly Agree), 4 (Agree), 3 (Uncertain), 2 (Disagree), 1 (Strongly Disagree)

Inbound and outbound agents also agree that their respective companies’ lack of effort to recognize their contribution to the company is another negative working condition factor. It has been noted in literature that opportunities to grow professionally in call center companies is very minimal. Considering that call center agents do not have other duties other than answer inquiries or market certain products through phone, skill development is clearly limited. Having little chances of promotion also affects the motivation of the employees to contribute and develop themselves more. From this perspective, the importance of motivating inbound and outbound agents is emphasized.

Motivation is typically defined by psychologists as a stimulation that causes the creation of aroused, sustained and directed behavior. This behavior in turn leads individuals to work and perform towards goal achievement. Motivation is also defined as the tendency to behave in an appropriate manner to attain certain needs. It has also been defined as the internal drive to satisfy individual needs. In general, employees need to be motivated not only for them to overcome work pressures but also for them to be loyal to their respective companies. This concept has been explained by several motivation theories. But perhaps the most related to the call center environment is Vroom’s expectancy theory ( 2001). This theory stresses that the employees’ effort leads to performance and that this performance should be given due reward and recognition.

Valence, instrumentality and expectancy are the key elements of Vroom’s expectancy theory. The cited elements represent the employees’ beliefs regarding their performance. The expectancy element pertains to the person’s level of belief if a particular task can be done or not; thus, if the employee strongly believes that a job can be done, he or she is more motivated to perform and accomplish the task. This element can be influenced by several factors such as skill confidence, material or equipment quality, availability of the needed information and the support provided by superiors or subordinates.

The element of instrumentality on the other hand, pertains to the employees’ belief on the gains or rewards they will get out of their performance. Thus, a high level of job performance is observed when the reward involved in the task is gratifying or important to the employee. This element of the theory then suggests that managers should connect high level of performance with the expected outcomes of the employees. Valence is a related element to instrumentality; in valence, the emotional orientations of the employee on the rewards given are considered. If the employees are satisfied with the expected outcome, high levels of performance are observed. In general, these three elements are related as they all serve as motivational factors for the employees.

From this theory, call center companies can then employ various means of employee motivation to help their agents overcome negative work conditions; motivation for inbound and outbound agents will also lead to higher employee retention. One way of doing so is to grant promotion opportunities for qualified and deserving employees. (2001) stated that promotion is also synonymous to career success where employees are given higher responsibilities or place on higher authority levels. Promotion is considered an important element of human resource management as it encourages employees to perform with quality. The organizational members’ affective reactions towards their job and to the company are also influenced significantly based on their promotional opportunities. Most importantly, the turnover process is reduced through promotion (2001).

Aside from the fact that rapid employee turnover result to significant financial losses, this also works against employee efficiency and productivity. As the morale of the employees is reduced considerably due to turnover, profits and quality are eventually affected. A high rate of employee turnover influences the productivity of the employees as well as disrupts social relations, which could also cause a negative impact on the company’s performance (2003). With promotion, employees are likely to be more loyal to the company, thus, preventing employee turnover.

Promoting employees will naturally lead to their development. As employees are trained and educated, promoted individuals learn new knowledge and skills. Furthermore, they become more familiar with their company’s operations. Promotion does not only develop a person’s work abilities, but it also develops his or her behavior and values. For instance, promotion can make the employee more responsible, dependable and mature. From this view, employing motivation theories and offering promotion opportunities is not only beneficial for the calls center agents but for the companies also as these enable them to develop a highly-skilled and efficient workforce.

In relation to motivation, the selected respondents also agree that their respective companies are unable to provide them with sufficient levels of empowerment. This is in line with the monotonous nature of call center jobs; due to the limited duties and opportunities for call center agents, empowerment appears to be a least priority. Empowerment is an important factor as it promotes learning for the employer and the employees. The employer is able to benefit from this aspect as employees provide various ideas that will benefit the company and help in resolving its problems. The employees on the other hand, learn from empowerment as their decision-making skills are enhanced. Moreover, they learn more about the company and how it can be operated more efficiently. Empowerment then allows organizational learning for the company and its members (2000). Empowerment can also serve as a way for motivating the employees. The absence of this factor within the selected companies is then considered as a stress factor both inbound and outbound agents.

Factors that affect IB and OB agents at a different level

Work Conditions

Weighted Mean

Interpretation

Adherence to work standards is a source of

118

241

2.04

Disagree

stress.

239

190

4.18

Agree

Table 5: Summary of Results for Work Standards

Legend: 5 (Strongly Agree), 4 (Agree), 3 (Uncertain), 2 (Disagree), 1 (Strongly Disagree)

Although the participating agents agree on several major working conditions that affect their jobs, the respondents also have different views towards other factors. For example, in terms of adherence to work standards, inbound agents do not see this as a source of stress nor a negative working condition. Interviewed inbound agents stated that by means of work standards, they are able to give uniform responses to their customers. Moreover, these standards help in making their work easier. By means of work standards, agents become more confident in handling different issues as well as customers. On the contrary, outbound agents see works standards as a source of work pressure. Some literatures had discussed this work condition in detail. Typically, call center offices operate under strict regulations. Agents must comply with various work controls and must work under close surveillance. Work times, including meal times and breaks, are precisely managed and carefully scheduled. In most cases, job pace is extremely fast that there is little time in between calls. Work standards also limit outbound agents’ flexibility in answering customers based on their discretion is very limited (1998). Call center agents are commonly those individuals that value creativity, commitment and independence. They also appreciate the freedom to make decisions as well as exercise their judgment. Thus, working on unfavorable schedules, rigid rules and various restraints greatly increase stress levels (2004).

Work Conditions

Weighted Mean

Interpretation

Products offered or problems received from

164

119

131

3.45

Uncertain

clients constantly increase in complexity,

173

187

3.82

Agree

resulting to higher stress levels.

Table 6: Summary of Results for Product/Service Complexity

Legend: 5 (Strongly Agree), 4 (Agree), 3 (Uncertain), 2 (Disagree), 1 (Strongly Disagree)

The views of the respondents towards work conditions also vary in terms of the complexity of the services they provide or products that they offer. Inbound agents for example are not certain whether this can really be considered as an affective factor to their current job. In particular, inbound agents noted that the monotony of their jobs do not seem to affect the way they deliver their services. The routine nature of their job reduces the complexity of service delivery, thus, it is not really considered as a source of stress. On the other hand, outbound agents consider product complexity as a source of work pressure. Although their jobs are also monotonous, outbound agents offer highly diverse products with different features. As they have to sell these items, agents would have to constantly adjust their knowledge of the product as well as their strategy in marketing them effectively. From this perspective, the differences of the work nature of inbound and outbound agents appear to be the major aspect that caused these different points of view.

Positive Factors

Work Conditions

Weighted Mean

Interpretation

13. The company provides work benefits for the

173

327

4.35

Agree

employees.

184

316

4.37

Agree

11. I am receiving a high compensation in my

216

123

141

2.25

Disagree

current job.

101

264

118

2.06

Disagree

14. Facilities like pantries and sleeping rooms

136

214

125

3.62

Agree

are provided by the company.

146

178

115

3.36

Agree

Table 7: Summary of Results for Work Benefits, Compensation and Facilities

Legend: 5 (Strongly Agree), 4 (Agree), 3 (Uncertain), 2 (Disagree), 1 (Strongly Disagree)

Although there are several negative working conditions that affect the work of both inbound and outbound agents, the respondents also agreed on positive factors that somehow alleviates the noted sources of stress. One of which is the provision of various employees benefits by their respective companies. Both set of respondents also agree that call center jobs offer high compensation. Literatures note that this is actually one way how call center companies contribute in alleviating the work stress experienced by the agents. The call center companies are aware that various stress factors are provoking call center agents to leave their jobs; thus, in order to retain their staff, employers are providing commission or bonus schemes to motivate employees to contribute continuously for the company. The provision of these incentives is based on the principle that motivated and satisfied employees result to the better service delivery to the customers (1999). Inbound interviewees however, noted that compared to outbound agents, incentives are not as high as employees do not have much control over inbound calls received. Thus, outbound agents can control how they can make more than their quota, resulting to higher bonus.

To help them cope with the pressures of work, facilities like sleeping rooms and pantries are provided in most offices. Nonetheless, the interviewed inbound and outbound agents stated that there are more negative working conditions in their jobs as compare to the benefits and high pay. Considering that high compensation and good facilities can also be obtained from other job opportunities, call center companies must employ effective strategies that would assist their agents, especially in overcoming the stress factors of their job.

Future of Call Centers

In a research carried out by Cincom Systems using call center agents in UK, the study concluded that only 1 in every five call center agents find their work atmosphere favorable. A total of six percent noted that they like nothing about performing call center work; 25% stated that they dislike the job due to abusive callers or customers. Stress was considered a major negative factor of call center work by 12% while 6% of the agents do not like its monotonous nature. In addition, about 36% of the agents claimed that they receive abuse from callers at least for several times every week; 17% claimed that they are abused at least on a daily basis. Cincom Systems marketing manager stressed that with these evidences, there is indeed a need to improve the working conditions for both inbound and outbound agents ( 1999).

The results of the survey showed that the stress factors experienced by inbound and outbound agents are not as different from each other. In most cases, the differences in the perception of their jobs are brought about by the nature of their work and their specific duties. However, the work conditions and stress factors experiences by both types of agents are basically similar. Among these stress factors include their work schedules, inadequate promotion opportunities, several work constraints, monotony, health problems, communication issues and conflicts with clients. Although the companies provide certain benefits to help the employees overcome these pressures, the future of the call center industry must be assured more than through work benefits and facilities. As high employee turnover is the main problem of the industry, call center companies must employ strategies that would improve the work conditions of its employees.

Specifically, companies should learn ways on how to recognize the contributions of their employees. Other than the provision of incentives, call center agents must have a clear career path; this would enable them to become more motivated towards their job. Moreover, the provision of clear opportunities for growth will allow not only company growth but employee development as well. In terms of work constraints, companies must implement regulations that would promote development and discipline among employees rather than stress. For instance, employees must be given enough time for breaks. Programs that would empower the employees to perform other tasks, use different skills and participate in decision-making activities should also be part of the human resource programs for inbound and outbound agents.

Through empowerment, the monotonous nature of call center jobs will also be addressed. Regulations that would control or address customer abuse should also be developed and applied. Most importantly, regular activities or effective programs that would help inbound and outbound agents overcome different stress factors. For example, call center companies can design training activities that would increase commitment and innovations among the employees. With better skills and efficiency, call center agents in general will be more likely to be committed to the objectives of the company. They will also become more interested in developing themselves more through innovation. Sufficient training programs for inbound and outbound agents can also help retaining the employees; employees who had been subjected to training and feel that they are contributing well to the company are less likely to resign prematurely ( 2004).

In general, inbound and outbound agents encounter a number of different stress factors at work, which affect their performance as well as their satisfaction towards their jobs. In UK, the call center industry is among the fastest growing fields in the service business. The presence of several negative working conditions in call center offices can then greatly affect how the business will progress in the future. It is then imperative for the companies to employ methods and techniques that would enhance the working conditions of both inbound and outbound agents not only for the purpose of enhancing the skills and retaining the employees but also to ensure the continuous progress of the industry.

Chapter 5

Summary, Conclusion and Recommendations

5.1 Summary

This study was conducted in order to investigate the different working conditions and stress factors that affect inbound and outbound agents in UK. Their perceptions towards their job as call center agents are also identified. In this research, a total of 8 call center companies within UK had been randomly selected for the participant selection. A total of 500 inbound and 500 outbound agents were randomly selected for the collection of data. Two research instruments were used for this study. One is a survey questionnaire structured in Likert format was distributed to the selected respondents. The questionnaire was divided into two main parts: the profile of the respondents and the survey proper. The responses of the participants were then totaled for the weighted mean computation. Results were then interpreted using the Likert scale.

Unstructured interview was the second research instrument for this study. Here, unstructured interviews using some of the selected respondents were conducted after the survey process to obtain useful data that would elaborate or explain the responses in the questionnaire. The answers of the participants in the interview were integrated in relevant survey results. Along with this information, relevant literatures that explain or support the claims given by the respondents are also integrated. In order to analyze the gathered data from the Likert questionnaire, the weighted mean of each survey item was computed. The result is then compared to the developed scale to interpret the obtained value.

5. 2 Conclusion

The study highlighted two main aspects of call centers. One is the perception of the call center agents towards the nature of their jobs; the other is on the stress factors experienced by inbound and outbound agents and how they are different based on these factors. In terms of perception, inbound and outbound agents offered different views. The findings showed that inbound agents in general are more satisfied with the nature of their work that outbound agents. The degree of the stress factors experienced by outbound agents appear to be greater that their inbound counterparts, thus, resulting to a higher level of dissatisfaction. Furthermore, while inbound call center agents have plans of staying in their current job position for a longer duration, outbound agents are not as certain.

The findings then led the researcher to conclude that outbound agents have a more negative perception towards their job than the inbound agents. As revealed by the interviews done with some of the selected agents, the differences of both employees in terms of the nature of their work affected their job perception. The job of outbound agents involves a higher deal of pressure than the inbound agents. The process of calling clients, making a sales and meeting daily quotas are some of the factors that the interviewees pointed out, which make outbound call center jobs stressful and difficult.

Based from the gathered result of the survey and the interview, several stress factors and working condition affect inbound and outbound agents. In most cases, both set of agents encounter similar stress issues. One of which is the work hours or schedule required from the agents. Inbound and outbound respondents agree that due to the erratic nature of their job schedules, most of them experience moderate to severe levels of stress. The main focus of the agents’ job is to interact with multiple and different clients from several countries. The respondents claimed that while the customer diversity itself causes communication conflicts, stress also arise due to verbal abuse of some clients. Interviewed outbound agents greatly emphasized this factor as more of them are affected by this abuse as compared to their inbound counterparts. As the outbound agents themselves are the ones calling the client, irate clients are more likely encountered.

Aside from the problems on time and interaction, the monotonous nature of the job is also frustrating and stressful for both sets of agents. Specifically, this factor becomes a source of stress as agents work within a limited job framework. This problem is more evident among inbound agents as they would repeatedly address the same product issues everyday. Overtime, they would encounter almost every customer issue or concern possible, that the job loses its challenge factor.

The absence of challenge in the job also significantly reduces the drive of the employees to persevere and develop themselves into better employees. The disinterest of the agents towards their job branches out to other company problems including poor productivity and high employee turnover rate. With the presence of these pressures all in one workplace, agents also agree that these factors are making them more vulnerable to health problems, such as voice loss and sore throats.

The lack of drive or source of motivation within call center sites appear to be a major working condition issue as claimed by the selected agents. The respondents noted that most call center companies do not give due recognition to the efforts or contribution of their employees. In particular, there is an apparent lack of promotion opportunities for call center agents in general. This has been emphasized further by the lack of empowerment company management provide for their agents. The job of both inbound and outbound agents basically revolve on making calls and answering queries, offering little room for skill development, improvement and professional progress. These working conditions further stress the monotonous nature of call center jobs. Furthermore, as these conditions reduces the interest of the employees towards their jobs, problems like poor performance and high turnover become even more likely.

Although the selected agents agree on several working conditions that they encounter in their respective companies, they also differ in other aspects. For instance, in terms of complying with work standards, outbound agents consider this factor as a major stress factor while inbound agents do not find this stressful at all. As explained by the response of the inbound interviewees, following work standards such as the procedure for greeting the client and answering their queries help in making their duties easier. The implementation of work standards also enables them to give uniform information to the clients. On the contrary, work standards restrain the abilities of outbound agents, particularly in making successful deals with customers. In addition, the constraining schedules, work monitors and quotas all add up to the stress experienced by outbound agents.

Another point of difference in working condition experienced by inbound and outbound agents is the complexity of products offered or problems received from clients. Generally, the inbound agents do not really consider this as a stress factor mainly because the problems that they received from clients normally have a single and predetermined answer. Thus, they do not have to adjust as to what details should be provided to the client. On the contrary, the complexity of the products offered by outbound agents is considered a stress factor among the respondents. In order for them to successfully sell the products offered, they must have a good background of the item. Constant changes of products can then be stressful as product knowledge would have to be changed constantly as well.

While the respondents had identified several working conditions that affect their job, they also cited some positive conditions that help in alleviating the pressures they are experiencing. One of which is the provision of good compensation and work benefits. The respondents noted that gaining high compensation in a call center company is very possible as companies provide incentive and bonus schemes so as to retain their staff. For outbound agents, the compensation is even higher as they work under quota; with good selling abilities, meeting the quota regularly is very likely, greatly increasing the agents’ salaries.

Aside from these, companies also provide various facilities like pantries and sleeping rooms in order to help agents’ relieve a little of the stress they encounter while on duty. However, the respondents stated that although there may be benefits in working as a call center agent, high compensation and good facilities can be achieved in other job opportunities. This response then indicates the great need for call center companies to reconsider their operations and protocols, particularly in addressing negative working conditions that their agents encounter daily.

In conclusion, both inbound and outbound agents encounter similar stress factors at work; however, outbound agents appear to encounter greater pressures resulting to a more negative job perception. The perception of the agents’ towards their jobs appears to be related to the degree of pressures that they encounter at work. Both inbound and outbound agents agree that time, customer interaction, monotony, health problems and lack of motivation are some of the major negative working conditions that they encounter. Outbound agents however, also consider product complexity and adherence to work standards as major stress factors. There are also some beneficial factors while working as a call center agent; nonetheless, respondent noted that call center companies must address the cited work pressures, considering that the benefits they offer can be achieved in other job opportunities. Call center companies in general must then do some changes in their priorities, particularly those that would focus on meeting the needs of their agents.

5.3 Recommendations

The results of the survey emphasized that both inbound and outbound agents experience various stress factors at work, which affect their perception toward their job. This then suggest the need for call center companies to develop and apply new means that would address these factors. In this section, recommendations will focus on citing ways on how call center companies can enhance the work environment of their agents.

Develop clear career path for inbound and outbound call center agents as well as effective reward system.

This recommendation is directed towards the integration of employee motivation within call center companies. Through the development of a clear career path, employees will be able to understand their direction with their jobs in the future; in other words, they would have something to look forward to. A clear career direction is likely to make employees more determined to stay in the company. Moreover, this will also make them more interested in learning more about their job. Overcoming work hurdles and various pressures will also be easier for the employees as they are aware of the fruits of their effort. This concept is based on the principle behind several motivation theories. Aside from offering opportunities for promotion, call center companies should also provide effective reward systems. Other than giving out monetary incentives, companies can give out other forms of reward such as official recognition, trips and others. For this recommendation, it is essential that the company is aware of the employees’ individual needs; in this way the effect of the reward will be more meaningful for each agent.

Provide sufficient and continuous training for the employees.

This recommendation is in support of the one above. In order for employees to qualify for the promotion opportunities of the company, the human resource department of the call center companies must allow skill development through effective training programs. The training of the employees will also increase their flexibility and confidence in handling the different demands of their jobs. Most importantly, the provision of sufficient training will also help the call center agents in overcoming the stress and work pressures that they encounter. In turn, this will eventually lead to better job satisfaction among the employees.

Allow agents to be exposed to both inbound and outbound duties.

One of the problems noted by both inbound and outbound agents is the monotonous nature of their jobs. Due to monotony, the interest of the employees to do their job effectively is significantly lessened. The lack of challenge in the job can then affect the performance of the employees as well as the services they provide for the customers. For this reason, it is then essential for call center companies to ensure that changes in the agents’ duties are done to promote job interest. One way of doing so is through job rotation. For instance, call center companies that cater to both inbound and outbound services should let their agents perform both duties. In this way, both types of employees will be able to encounter regular work challenges, which will drive them to perform better. Exposing the call center agents to different job responsibilities can also help in developing a well-rounded workforce; this could benefit the company, particularly in hiring employees. If the agents can perform both duties, companies no longer need to employ more workers, thus, reducing costs.

Balance work standards.

Work standards, particularly among outbound agents, can be constraining. It is then important that the call center companies balance its work standards in such a way that the employees will be able to attend to their needs and perform through their own capabilities. For instance, in terms of time schedules, employees must be given enough time to have their meals or breaks properly; time to stretch out or rest should also be considered. If possible, companies may employ the flexible time system where employees can design their own schedules based on their availability; this is possible considering that most call center companies operate round the clock. In answering the queries of the customers or selling products, agents should be given the freedom as to how they could respond; guidelines on proper communication and relevant matters however, should still be provided. The work standards observed in call center companies should not only focus on satisfying the needs of the clients but of the employees. In particular, the work standards should allow the use of the agents’ independence, commitment and creativity.

Implement policies and programs that would protect agents from customer abuse.

Verbal abuse from customers is a typical stress factor encountered by inbound and outbound agents alike. It is then essential for call center companies to implement regulations that would control this abuse. For example, clients that had been reported as abusive should be noted. Moreover, customer complaints should also undergo proper and just investigation. Aside from these, the employees must undergo the right training for polite and proper communication; companies must ensure that the employees possess the skills for the right language and accent for speaking with the clients.

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Examining the Future of the Call Center Industry Employment: Comparing the Nature of Work between Inbound and Outbound Call Center through Employee Perception

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