Call Center Scheduling Featured Article
When Call Center Agents Face Burnout
In the business world, leaders are continually reminded to take care of company assets. Since workers are the most costly business asset a company has, ensuring that they’re engaged, rewarded and not stressed is critical for operations.
A lot of companies don’t seem to be getting the message. A study conducted by HR consulting firm Randstad US in the fall of 2018 found that nearly 40 percent of the 2,000 U.S. adult workers surveyed were thinking of leaving their jobs due to burnout. This should set off warning bells for any company, particularly in a job market with low unemployment. The message is clear: take care of your employees, or they’ll go looking for a better job elsewhere.
In a recent article for Men’s Health, David Ferry wrote that severe burnout can be debilitating and have a catastrophic effect on business operations.
“You may find yourself growing profoundly cynical and feel like you never accomplish anything at work; you may hate your clients and colleagues and struggle to find the courage to get out of bed; you might feel detached from your life, almost as if you’re operating on autopilot,” he wrote. “Burnout syndrome, at its worst, can ravage workers and even entire companies.”
While all businesses experience some level of turnover, contact centers have always been plagued by it. If managers can learn to spot the signs of burnout, they can take steps to prevent it, which should drive costly turnover down. You may be facing a burnout crisis in the contact center if:
Your employees are at each other’s throats. One of the biggest factors that lead to burnout is an unpleasant office culture. People may argue, resent one another and even resort to bullying. If you’ve been observing (or moderating) more than the occasional dispute, it’s a sign your workers are burned out.
Agents jobs are boring. Workers who are disconnected from their jobs, perhaps because they’re too monotonous or the work is unpleasant (cold calling, for example) are more likely to burn out. Ensure you’re varying agents’ duties to keep them from feeling trapped in a monotonous nightmare. You might, for example, have agents do calls in the morning and web chat in the afternoon, or switch them to supporting different products or services. Your call center scheduling solution can help make workers jobs more flexible while still ensuring full coverage.
Agents don’t feel appreciated. This is one of the top reasons for burnout. Workers turn in good performances, but they advance no further and receive no more recognition than agents who don’t try very hard. When agents are performing well, acknowledge them and reward them. Ask them what their career goals are with your organization and help them craft a plan of action that will achieve them.
A positive, appreciative work culture can go a long way toward preventing burnout and lowering turnover. While you may need to spend a bit of money, in the long run, these efforts and expenses will pay off.
Edited by Maurice Nagle