The 'bad' call centre reports, one way or another, indicate the 'big brother' syndrome developing in call centres.  High stress levels then result from poor man-management.  Some of the root causes of call centre stress can be found under the following headings:

• Inadequate resourcing
• High occupancy levels
• Handling complaints and problems all day
• Verbal abuse
• Lack of training and support
• Monitoring
• Call Recording 

Inadequate Resourcing

It is well known and understood that call centre resourcing methodology differs significantly from that required in other areas of production.  Workload in call centres is measured in Erlangs, Erlang C formula calculates predicted wait times for queues using given variables. 

To forecast staffing requirements in a call centre with the complexities of randomness, call queues and the desire to answer calls within a certain time threshold (service level), it is necessary to apply a teletraffic engineering technique (generally done through software or simulations).  The software applies the appropriate engineering techniques, to calculate the full time equivalent staffing requirements.  These applications, not used in all call centres, rely on input of:

• Historical call volumes
• Projected call volumes
• Call handling times
• Staff absence shrinkage (can easily amount to 30%+)
  • Training & coaching
  • Holiday
  • Meetings
  • Sickness
  • Breaks
• Desired service levels 

If we don't let our staff have breaks, then we certainly wouldn't allow them any off-phone time, never mind attending to their training and development needs (sounds like someone has not done the shrinkage calculation!).  If shrinkage is not applied then clearly staff will not have cover for off-phone activities.

If we look at the proximate cause of some of the stressful issues and let us say, for arguments sake, inadequate resourcing is a leading contender.  We can see how this exacerbates an already stressful existence for the call centre agent, which it is, talking to customers' day in day out.

Inadequate resourcing could mean one of two things:

1. Not enough lines for callers to get through on
2. Not enough call centre agents to answer the calls

With (1), all the lines are taken up with callers, the number of lines maybe inadequate; callers who can't get through receive busy tone treatment, the 'engaged' tone.  Callers may attempt a number of subsequent times and still be unsuccessful.  We, therefore, start turning the customer into an unhappy customer.

Turning to (2), if there are sufficient lines but insufficient staff, callers get through but could experience significant hold times until a call centre agent becomes free. 

We certainly have an irate customer now and it is not uncommon for callers to go through (1) and (2) any number of times.  Hold times of up to 45 minutes are not uncommon.

When the caller gets through it is not senior managers or supervisory staff they get through to, but the call centre agent, who has to bear the brunt of the caller's anger.  In this situation, it is likely the call centre agent has just finished their previous call and does not enjoy the luxury of wait times between calls due to the number of calls queuing.

It is not a viable reason to cite, as some companies do, high customer demand as a reason for poor customer service and large wait times.  The corollary of large wait times is insufficient resources and having to over occupy available staff to compensate.

This all leads to high levels of stress for call centre agents inevitably leading to the high levels of absenteeism and attrition.

High Occupancy Levels

Fundamental to many of the issues is agent occupancy - the results of the callers queuing and inadequate resourcing, means we need to occupy our staff more to meet demand.

Occupancy Definition

Occupancy reflects how busy we are and in call centres, we are busy when we are:

• Talking to callers and
• When completing after call work when the caller has gone
• The busier a call centre agent is per hour, the higher their occupancy and lower the available time between calls.

This in itself leads to the behaviours prevalent in some call centres, where we have to chain our staff to their desk, question where they have been, what they have been doing, to the ludicrous extent that some staff need permission to visit the toilet. 

The pressure comes from senior management due to the levels of abandoned calls, which supervisory staff, translate as the 'ok' to manage, how they see fit.

If we have to over occupy our staff, we don't give them a breather, some call centres don't have breaks - indeed this was the case when I joined a leading public utility call centre, as manager.

It is not common for call centres to measure how busy they are, other than in customer wait times, however, I believe there to be a significantly important metric that can ease and reduce the burden of call centre stress.  When occupancy reaches a certain level, it becomes particularly stressful and unhealthy.

The measure of occupancy at call centre, team and agent level, will, basically, identify how busy the agent is during the day.  By setting maximum occupancy levels we can begin to drive senior management in the right direction as far as resourcing levels are concerned.

Refreshment Breaks

Whilst comfort breaks will be allowed, in some cases with permission - fixed scheduled breaks, ideally one each in the morning and afternoon, are surprisingly not a 'given'.

We all enjoy the easy item from our 'in-tray' but we are starting to take more of those items away from call centre agents.  The simple calls, the ones they can do on automatic pilot, and hence, have a little breather are being absorbed in FAQs or being routed away from agents by IVR/skills based routing to less experienced agents.  This means the agents can be left with the more complicated calls.

In some call centres, no consideration is given to job design, which means occupancy is maintained at high levels, with limited breaks from both call handling and screen work.

Call Centre Wall Boards

It is common for call centres to have wallboards for the display of historic and live activity, they can display:

• Calls Answered
• Calls Abandoned
• Calls Queuing
• Current wait time of oldest call in the queue
• Average Response Time to answer calls
• Service Level 

This is to improve awareness of performance, current activity and for staff to remain alert to queuing calls.

However, these can be very demoralising for staff as they can see there will be no rest bite ahead when there are considerable calls in the queue.

Some call centres have alert buzzers when calls have waited a certain length of time, to 'shimmy' agents to answer calls when undertaking other activities.  These would have to be disengaged in call centres with continuous queuing calls.

Symptoms of High Occupancy

The signs for high occupancy levels are there for all to see, whether you are a customer, call centre agent, supervisor or director.

• Customers being unable to get through on a line - engaged tone
• Get through but considerable hold time - even times as low as 2-3 minutes result in high occupancy rates for call centre agents
• Continuous playing of delay message and apology
• Calls abandoned due to hold times
• Call centre agent 'promise' remains unfulfilled
• Repeat calls are necessary until fulfilment achieved
• Fulfilment and quality are erroneous

Unrealistic Targets

As a result of inadequate resourcing and the requirement of over occupancy, we have to impose unrealistic targets on call centre agents to help meet caller demand.

If resourcing is realistic, then we need not impose unrealistic targets as the call centre agents will answer the calls offered.

To meet the targets, sometimes requires extraordinary effort and concentration on the part of the call centre agent propelling high stress levels.

We then start talking about call centre agent 'burnout', which leads to low levels of tenure in a call centre or attrition to other call centres to see if the grass is greener.

Handling Complaints

Handling complaints and problems all day long is very stressful.  We know ourselves as managers, when we receive a complaint; we want to do as much as we can to resolve it because we don't necessarily want to face the complainant again.  Yet the call centre agent may receive continuous complaint after complaint, but quite often, is powerless to do anything about it. 

Lack of breaks and wait times between calls exacerbates the position and if the agent is not found taking the next call, they may well face supervisory rebuke, at a time, when they just need to take a minute or contemplate 'punching the wall'!

If you add, handling of complaints to inadequate resourcing, and high occupancy levels, which itself can be the result of the latter two, and then add unrealistic targets, we start getting a really unhealthy situation developing.  Throw in a bit of  'big brother' and mismanagement and well….

Verbal Abuse

Not uncommon, is facing verbal abuse from the customer involving offensive language. In many cases this can be the cherry on top of a most unwanted cake for the call centre agent.

Call centre agents also indicate, difficulty in handling callers for adult channels (satellite/cable etc), who may have ulterior motives for calling!

Lack of Training and Support

One of the biggest problems created by the high attrition rates, is the urgent need to recruit and get staff on the phones as quickly as possible.  This means we cannot afford the luxury of appropriate induction, product and service training.  Quite often this will be diluted with the call centre agent being asked to 'get on with it'.  There is nothing worse than facing irate customers and not having the appropriate knowledge.

It is not always possible to receive 'live' support as the supervisor may be tied up with another agent.  Quite often in the poorer managed call centres, quality monitoring, feedback and coaching does not take place.

Refresher training can be non-existent, as this means we have to take agents away from already congested lines.  Obviously, adequate resourcing and good practice should bring to the equation the inclusion of staff 'shrinkage'. 

Monitoring

It is probably fair to say that you would probably need to be in an intensive care ward to be monitored anymore than in some UK call centres.  As ACDs become more sophisticated, they are now able to provide a plethora of agent information, such as:

• How many calls were answered
• Average number of calls taken per hour
• Average duration (length of talk time) of each call
• Average duration of after call work (wrap)
• Average handle time (talk time + after call time)
• Average time available (waiting for a call)
• Number of outbound (external) calls made
• Average duration of outbound calls
• Percentage of time talking, in after call, in idle in outbound or available

The tracing of agent activity by time, as they move from one different mode of work to another, e.g:

9.00am  Inbound Call

            9.03am  After Call Work

            9.04am  Inbound Call   

            9.06am  Idle (break)

            9.09am  Inbound Call

            9.11am  After Call Work

            9.17am  Idle (break)

As you can see the trace report literally traces activity all day - the purpose may well be to challenge the number of times in Idle or why After Call Work took 6 minutes, against the average of 1 minute prescribed, when there are a number of calls in the queue.  You now start to understand why the 'big brother' terminology is used.

The supervisor will be observing all the ACD statistics live from their screen and, where there are calls queuing, will challenge staff who are not taking a call and pressurise them to move from After Call Work mode, where they maybe genuinely wrapping up the previous call, to take another call.  Agents then start piling up their after call work, adding more pressure.

Despite the fact the ACD produces so many statistics, doesn't mean supervisors should use them all.

Sometimes it is also the way the statistics are used and disseminated which causes anguish and stress to the call centre agent.  These may be pinned on the notice board or circulated within the team - poor agent statistics can be highlighted by name or league table-wise.  This being a rather poor attempt to motivate the poorer performers to improve performance. 

In addition, where team/group performance is incentivised, the group easily identifies who the poorer performers are.

More often than not, good performing agents are identified as those with the shortest call handling times and/or the highest call volumes.  Their performance statistics are circulated and identified as benchmarks; however, scrutiny of some of their calls, quality and fulfilment may tell a completely different storey.

This pure statistical analysis does lead some agents to cut callers off or short in an endeavour to reduce their averages and increase their volumes. 

The poorer performers are not always supported by their supervisors to improve performance, the assumption being, that if the targets can be reached, all staff should be able to reach them.

Regular and unreasonable criticism of work performance and the publication of performance results may be perceived by call centre agents as bullying and intimidation.

It is this kind of action and lack of support which inevitably leads to absenteeism and attrition.

Quite often, supervisors do not perform quality monitoring, as it is the first thing that drops off the table when they are managing a dynamic live environment or do not have the skill set to cope with all requirements.  Difficulties then arise when staff, defend their statistics by playing the Quality .v. Quantity card, asking quite rightly, 'do you want an happy customer outcome or quick, abrupt calls'.

The pressure from senior management is often translated by supervisors to improve the 'numbers', the response times and abandoned call rates.  Which is why there is such a heavy focus on monitoring (back to the chicken and egg - the resourcing/occupancy issues).

Call Recording

Some call centres record all calls, are we over doing it? Do we need to record all calls?  This is when call centre agents have the feeling of being 'spied on', when all their calls are recorded coupled with the extensive ACD statistical monitoring.

From zero monitoring, we can go to automatic call recording of every call, every minute of the day.  If you can imagine, from above, some of the pressures faced by call centre agents, for them to know every word they speak is recorded, can be the final straw.

So a call centre agent taking continuous call after call knows they are required to dot every 'i' and cross every 't' in every call, as any erroneous calls can be played back to them. 

Some call centres will adopt high rates of accuracy, 90% and higher for call quality.

Other Areas of Focus

Other areas that can make a call centre agents lot, not a happy one;

• Odd work hours shifts
• Short notice of work schedules
• Unable always to respond to shifts due to child care arrangements
• Daily physical confinement
• Fellow absenteeism
• No regular meetings / communication
• Poor ergonomics
• Poor job design - not allowing screen breaks
• No career progression
• Hot-desking

These are not discussed any further, at this stage, but this does not mean they are any less important to staff.  Childcare arrangements due to shifts being allocated anywhere in the working window can be a very contentious subject.  Their perception of the causes and issues is reality for a call centre agent.