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Sensory Intelligence

Call centres: a scary work place?

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 09:27

By Annemarie Lombard, CEO of Sensory Intelligence

I was looking for the craziest, wildest, busiest, most sensory overloaded and insane work environment … I clearly found it in the call centre, OK, contact centre industry.

The first time I walked into a call centre I was blown away. Although absolutely electrifying for me, and certainly switching on an extra few brain wires, I immediately knew with certainty that this environment would be a recipe for disaster for about 20% of the population.

Local and international research shows that 20% of the population are highly sensory sensitive to information derived from the environment. This means that their DNA and brain circuits have an over-intake of sensory (see, hear, touch, smell, taste, move) information.

Sensory overload is of utmost relevance to them as they experience the world as too loud, too bright, too fast, too tight … plainly just too much.

Needless to say the call centre environment is completely overwhelming for them and results in stress, absenteeism, performance issues and ultimately attrition.

Even though they often manage to put effort into tolerating this environment, it often works for only a short period of time. Ever thought why the critical period for losing agents is usually within the first 90 days of being employed?

Although our sensory processing takes place in the unconscious parts of our brain functioning, it is critical for species survival.

Intuitively we learn what works for us and what not, but mostly - and too often - through trial and error. Your sensory-sensitive call centre agents would only realise this when they have been recruited, trained and positioned on the call centre seat.

And, suffice to say, thousands of rands later the realisation hits: I hate this job. Research also clearly corroborates the prevalence of high levels of stress within the industry.

However, when placed in data capturing, e-mail support, or quality assurance, these same individuals would most often perform at very high levels.

Traditionally, these processes, are usually performed in more contained, less sensory overloaded sections and require awareness, attention to detail and rigid processing. Your 20% unsuitable front office callers are well suited for these roles.

My quest as an occupational therapist has been to prove that sensory profiles do correlate with work performance, absenteeism and attrition of call centre agents.

Correlation results through my doctoral research clearly indicate that your 20% highly sensitive agents spend longer time on after-call work, have longer holding times and lower quality assurance ratings. The quest continues…

The four main pillars in the call centre industry are people, premises, processes and technology. They are obviously all crucial for sustainability and efficiency, but with the human resource allocation being the biggest hurdle.

Your call centre agent is the key to delivering service, sales or collections, utilising your business process and operations to capture the essence of your client audience.

Occupational science is a body of knowledge about how we analyse work environments and the people functioning within them. Goodness-of-fit is the vital key to support the fact that matching your talent and workforce to the job description and work environment will ensure productive, less stressed, and sustainable employees.

Sensory intelligence has two main objectives for the call centre industry: Firstly, to ensure return on investments for companies. If you are spending R17264.00 (average industry figure South Africa 2007) on training an agent, shouldn’t you ensure up-front that they are suited for the position?

Secondly, a mismatch in the industry impacts on wellness for the agents. Unsuitable agents end up with a high degree of stress and anxiety which have detrimental effects on health and wellness, and results in inflated health care costs.

As many agents are young and often find themselves in call centres as an entry level job, the degree of failure and difficulty to manage have far-reaching impacts on their personal self esteem and confidence.

Therefore, ensure you select agents with more care, and consider their sensory profiles to ensure sustainability in the environment.

Other considerations to ensure workforce optimisation are also to ensure you have a well set up call centre with good equipment, enough space, air, ventilation, chill rooms (not glorified tea rooms), leadership that thinks and acts laterally, and ongoing coaching and development.

The call centre business model works, locally and abroad, with unprecedented growth and has huge job creation opportunities for South Africa.

How sensory intelligent is your call centre?

Annemarie Lombard is a registered occupational therapist and founder/CEO of Sensory Intelligence. Contact her on 084 661 1010 or visit Sensory Intelligence for sensory intelligent solutions for your contact centre.

References:
Emotional dissonance, emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction in call centre workers
K. A. Lewig; M. F. Dollard , European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 2003,
Volume 12, Issue 4, Pages 366 – 392
Managing to manage? Stories from the call centre floor
Maeve Houlihan, Journal of European Industrial Training, 2001, Volume 25, Issue 2/3/4, Pages 208 – 220
A Unique Working Environment: Health, Sickness and Absence Management in UK Call Centres
Phil Taylor, Chris Baldry, Peter Bain, Vaughan Ellis, Work, Employment & Society,
2003, Volume 17, No. 3, Pages 435-458
The experience of work-related stress across occupations
Sheena Johnson, Cary Cooper, Sue Cartwright, Ian Donald, Paul Taylor, Clare Millet, Journal of Managerial Psychology, 2005, Volume 20 , Issue 2 , Pages 178 – 187
Work Relationships in Telephone Call Centres: Understanding Emotional Exhaustion and Employee Withdrawal
Stephen Deery, Rick Iverson, Simon Fraser, Janet Walsh, Journal of Management studies, 2002, Vol. 39, pages 471-496
What Is the Best Environment for Me? A Sensory Processing Perspective. Recovery and Wellness. Brown, C., (2001). The Haworth Press, 115-125.