CALL CENTERS Social Issues in Call Centers

Betty Diggs

University of Phoenix

Social Issues in Call Centers

Brief Background

Attrition is a major problem in some of the sectors. The employees get better opportunities or get bored from their job and start seeking a better job in which they get more benefits and facilities. Some jobs are so stressful that the employees decide to leave due to the deteriorating of their health (Raychaudhuri, 2010). The attrition rate is high in those companies or sectors in which there is no job satisfaction, less career growth, stressful work, poor facilities and benefits, long working hours etc.

The most important factor for the increase in productivity for any organization is proper performance measurement system. This also holds true for the call centers and can help in decreasing the high rate of attrition. The call center's performance measurement system or quality assurance program evaluates and assesses the performance of the employees through screening their calls, evaluating their productivity level. It also suggests ways of improvement for managers and agents. Majority of the clients want these quality assurance programs or performance measurement systems to be implemented (Vidal & McConnell, 2011).

Significance of the study

Increase in staff attrition in call centers is caused by many different reasons. The aim of this research is to explore the social issues and factors involved in increasing the attrition rate. This research will also determine the health-related issues that employees in call centers are facing. Following are the revised qualitative and quantitative problem statements of the research and the purpose of both the qualitative and quantitative statements. The research design, research methods, variables, geographical locations and the limitations of the research will be discussed

Problem Statement

According to Cleveland (2006), attrition in call centers nationwide is increasing daily. Research has shown that attrition in call centers is increasing at an unprecedented rate, from 14% in 2005 to 24% in 2006 as compared to 8% in 2000 (Global Sourcing, 2007). This empirical research focuses on the problems which are the causes of the increase the percentage of attrition rate in the call centers.

Research Questions

The research questions that framed this study were as follows:

What are the factors that contribute to staff attrition in call centers?

What are the effects of staff attrition on call centers?

Why the performance measurement in the call centers affect performance?

How the performance measurement system can also be the cause of attrition?

Purpose Statement

The main purpose of this qualitative purpose statement is to identify the performance measurements used in call centers worldwide. The increase in call centers, and the performance management has changed drastically in the past decade because of the global economy. Call center sector has emerged at about the same time in many countries around the globe - roughly in the last five to 10 years. Call centers serve a broad range of customers in various industry sectors and offers a wide range of services from very simple to complex. Call center agents are an important source of employment and new job creation everywhere and need for tradition has swept the world around ...