Stress: BPO Industry Stress Factors

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Stress: Long Working Hours

Long working hours is the greatest cause of stress for Indian call center

agents, just ahead of work timing. 39.4% of the respondents surveyed endorsed

the fact. Along with salary, both these factors, no doubt, account for the high

rate of attrition in the industry. Long hours, in itself, is a combination of

work load, call volume and travel time.

Since most BPO players are still

primarily voice-based, the workload is tremendous; add to it the increasing call

volume, as more and more outsourcing continues to happen despite threats of

backlash, plus the time involved in traveling between home and office.

Any

average agent works for 11-12 hours per day-the number goes up to 14 in case

of companies that encourage overtime.

Stress: BPO Industry Stress Factors

Percentage employees who named these as the most important reasons for workplace stress. Multi-coded responses so total will be greater than 100%

The plight of the operational heads is

worse-they regularly clock 17-18 hours per day working their shift besides

staying back for customer conference calls.

Stress: Work Timing



The second biggest cause of stress for BPO employees is unique to the Indian

industry. Many in the industry, in fact, feel that this is the root cause for

most of the malaises afflicting Indian call centers. It is indeed an irony that

the raison d'être for the success of the industry is also turning out to be

its Achilles Heel. But, since, no doubt, the geographical time difference with

the US and the UK gives Indian industry one of its biggest advantages, a

possible solution to the problem is unlikely to be found in the near future.

Even the endorsement from 38.6% of the respondents seems to be somewhat tempered

by the fact that many of the respondents were either senior non-call floor

people, or those in the day shift. While pure-play call centers like Transworks

and EXL Services were most severely afflicted, barring eFunds and iSeva to some

extent, no one in the survey seems to have tackled the issue with any measure of

success.

Stress: Workload



Some would argue that even IT services employees are burdened with

tremendous workload, so why are BPO employees complaining? The real story lies

elsewhere. True, even IT services employees work for long and odd hours, but

these are interspersed with smoke breaks, coffee breaks or plain chatting with

colleagues. Unfortunately, this is not the case in call centers, where sometimes

agents do not even get toilet breaks. Sounds draconian? But that is the business

driven reality for the Indian call center industry. Absolute freshers get a

little respite, since the first few months on the job involves a lot of training

time. Like on several other factors, eFunds is in the least affected category,

either they are close to devising a mechanism to take care of the most common

stresses, or the attrition rate is so high that most of these factors are not

accounted for.

Stress: Repetitive Nature of Work



No surprises here-it is a commonly accepted fact that the monotony of the

same kind of work in call centers can indeed be very stressful. 37.1% of the

respondents re-iterate the same in the survey. The male freshers seem to the

group particularly affected. Again, solutions are not readily available, though

measures like hiring retired personnel or housewives might be of some succor,

since these groups with more experience tend to get frustrated the least. Some

others have also devised innovative measures, like periodic job rotation, though

not much can be expected out of these in a pure call center environment. That

explains why, even in eFunds, the company least affected with this affliction,

more than 14% complained about the stress caused by the repetitive nature of the

job. It is a bit surprising to see Motif'son the most affected list,

especially given that it is located in a smaller town like Ahmedabad. Received

wisdom, that small town employees in places with limited scope do not easily get

tired even of repetitive jobs, stands questioned.

Stress: Insufficient Holidays



While this was not amongst the top 10 causes of stress in last year's

survey, this year more than 36% of the respondents complained about it. Not too

surprising, considering that most of these employees have to work on all Indian

calendar holidays. True, they enjoy holidays like July 4th and Thanksgiving, but

that is scant solace for working 12-14 hour shifts even during the festive

seasons. Of all the companies surveyed, only eFunds seems to have escaped the

brunt of this problem. To add to the woes, many companies dangle the bait of

additional incentives for working on holidays-it is initially attractive to

the freshers, but as the attraction weans, more heartburn happens.

Stress: Pressure to Perform on Metrics



This is particularly galling for the first timers-working in an

environment where every single action needs to conform to a performance

measuring metrics. This looks unlikely to go away soon, since most call centers

are keen on different standards certifications. It's no fad, but, instead, an

absolute business necessity for most companies to follow these quantifiable

business metrics to attract customers. However, not many are keen to look at the

effect this has on their employees. More than 36% point to it as one of their

major grouses-the only silver lining here is that, with experience, the stress

level goes down, and more importantly, working on such quantifiable performance

parameters helps these people later in their careers. Companies like Sykes and

Transworks, which have been going for a number of certifications this year, seem

to be the most affected.

Stress: Health Issues



Last year, when 23% pointed to health hazards as a cause of stress, we

compared the call center industry with coal miners. This time the number has

gone up to 34.5%-maybe it's time to classify call centers as an extremely

hazardous job. We have also detailed the call center related ailments

separately. Not surprisingly, people in senior managerial positions with five

plus years of experience are less affected with these illnesses. That's

perhaps because they maintain a more regular work schedule and timing. Companies

like 24/7 and ICICI OneSource, which have grown spectacularly in a short frame

of time last year, seem to be most seriously affected.

Stress: Travel Time



Most call centers are located on the outskirts of cities, and therefore most

employees spend a long time traveling to and from their offices. Again, this is

unique to the Indian industry and cannot be easily wished away. Most Indian call

centers require large manpower influxes in order to scale up and grow, and to

support such huge workforces, they need lots of real estate. And exorbitant land

prices inside cities necessitate their movement to the outskirts. Therefore, it

is not surprising that companies like Motif, located in a smaller city like

Ahmedabad, are least affected by this factor.

Stress: Call Volume/Number of Calls



While the overall workload is quite high, call volume in itself is proving

to be a major cause for stress, afflicting 26.8% of our respondents. In most

call centers, there is hardly any respite between two calls-not only is this

disconcerting, but in the case of one abusive call immediately following

another, it can be psychologically disturbing too. In addition, most agents

accept these calls under an assumed identity: constantly maintaining a false

image amidst an influx of calls afflicts all agents — both experienced ones as

well as first timers.

Stress: Overtime



Though most companies encourage overtime with incentives, for most of the

respondents (25%), this is one stress they inflict upon themselves. Especially

the first timers, who, with the goal of making more money, willingly do

overtimes, but once they are into it, the stress factor starts showing up.

Overtime, in concert with long working hours and travel time, is turning out to

be a potent combination, causing call center-related stresses. Not surprisingly,

companies like eFunds, which have high capacity utilization, seem to be not at

all affected by the overtime issue, according to our survey.

Work-related Ailments Industry Data on Call Center Ailments

Percentage employees who named these as the most important reasons for work-related ailments they suffered from. Multi-coded responses so total will be greater than 100%

Sleeping Disorders



No prizes for guessing the most severe ailment afflicting people working in

Indian call centers. Since this is a unique Indian problem, again, no solution

appears in sight. Obviously this affects first timers more severely, as they

take time to acclimatize their biological clocks, but even experienced people or

managers are not able to completely escape from it. Some call centers are

looking at devising innovative mechanisms like flexible shifts with sleeping

arrangements in the office premises as possible solutions.

Digestive System Related Disorders



Working long and odd hours without any sleep, and eating food supplied by

external caterers everyday, has led to 41.9% of the respondents suffering from

digestive problems. Especially for the large number of girls working in the

industry, the problem is even more severe. sMany call centers are now taking

additional care to ensure their caterers supply hygienic food, besides

stipulating strict conditions to maintain the quality of the food they serve.

Depression



In last year's survey, this was not among the top disorders, but this year

it has climbed up the chart, affecting nearly one-fourth of the respondents. Not

surprising, since, as the industry matures, the initial glitz and glamour wears

away and the real problems come to the fore. Not only are there several health

related issues, but, on top of that, the gradual realization that there is

limited scope in developing a career owing to fewer growth opportunities is

increasing the frustration levels. Coupled with growing mental fatigue and

increasingly punishing physical environments, depression is the obvious end

result. Some call centers have now devised different stress management programs

mainly to counter depression.

Severe Stomach Related Problems



Continuing digestive problems lead to severe stomach disorders like

gastroenteritis, as endorsed by more than 24% of the respondents. Even doctors

in major cities agree-in recent times many of the patients with various

stomach ailments are from call centers.

Eyesight Problems



Globally call center industry employees are considered a high-risk group for

eye-related problems. While the quality of monitors might impact these

disorders, sitting continually without adequate breaks seems to be the truer

reason. The number of people affected seems to be on the rise-last year only

19% complained; this year it has gone up to 23%. At some point of time, this

problem might also afflict the IT services industry, but for the call center

industry, no remedy seems to be in sight.

Ear Problems



More than 16% of the respondents inform that they have hearing problems.

Again, no surprises here, since a call center job involves taking calls

throughout the shift, sitting with headphones. While quality of headphones does

make a difference, it would not be correct to completely wish the problem away

by thinking that changing headphones will solve it.

Rajneesh De